Reply #16: It's not a "rhetorical device" - it's called IGNORANCE

[PamW]

One would think that with all the hundreds of images he's spammed of the reactor head...
...he would know the difference.
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Beyond all the pictures of the reactor head, there's another hallmark of kristopher's
manifest ignorance of nuclear power technology:

There's no boric acid in the coolant of a BWR. Only PWRs use the boron in boric acid as
a "reactivity shim". It was boric acid that caused the erosion of the Davis Besse reactor
head. The primary coolant in a PWR is always in the liquid state and dissolved boric acid
can be used for long term reactivity control in lieu of control rods.

In a BWR, the reactor coolant is also the working fluid of the Rankine steam cycle and you
don't want other materials in coolant water that is transitioning from liquid state to gaseous
state, and then condensed back to a liquid again.

To anyone familiar with the technology, the use of boric acid immediately means PWR.

PamW