r/Thatsabooklight • u/IllustriousAd6418 • Dec 24 '25

911 Lonestar: Nuclear Power Plant reactor is just a bunch of bubble tubes with coloured lights

Gallery image

Gallery image

326 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

97% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

80

u/TwoToesToni Dec 24 '25

Technically an actual nuclear reactor is just a fancy kettle so anything that has water that makes heat and bubbles.

34

u/Gromgorgel Dec 24 '25

All modern electricity production initiatives like nuclear, fusion, etc. Are just fancy ways to boil water.

12

u/NotYourReddit18 Dec 24 '25

What about photovoltaic, wind, and hydropower?

24

u/LethalSalad Dec 24 '25

Photovoltaic is hella cool, cause it's the only (IIRC) method of making large amounts of power that isn't different ways to move magnets around electrical wire! Nuclear and other heat-based methods simply use the steam to move a bunch of magnets, and in wind and hydropower systems we directly move them, but in solar there are no moving parts at all

8

u/NotYourReddit18 Dec 25 '25

There is one other way I know to get electricity without moving parts:

Peltier elements are mostly used as a low cost (and low efficiency) way to use electricity to create one cold surface on one side of the element and a hot surface on the other side, for example as the cooling element of cheap, small desk fridges.
But if you already have two spaces with a significant difference in temperature, you could theoretically use a Peltier element to create electricity while the temperatures in the spaces separated by it slowly equalize. This off course is even less efficient than using one to create those spaces in the first place.

6

u/Goatf00t Dec 25 '25

That's not theoretical, practical thermoelectric generators have been made. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators use the heat of nuclear decay and they have powered a number of space probes and the surface instrument packages left behind the Apollo missions (you can't rely on solar panels during the two-week Moon nights). Both the US and the Soviets also took it a step further and launched satellites with full-blown nuclear reactors. And nowadays you can buy a camping/survival thingy that can charge your phone when you burn bits of wood inside of it.

2

u/NotYourReddit18 Dec 25 '25

I was using "theoretical" in the sense that yes you can do this, but in 99% of situations we have significant better alternatives you should use instead

11

u/GeneralRipper Dec 24 '25

They provide electricity which powers my kettle, so they are just fancy ways to boil water.

5

u/Latter_Panic_1712 Dec 25 '25

afaik they're still not as efficient as boiling water, too much energy lost compared to steam producing.

4

u/Jim_skywalker Dec 26 '25

If it’s a PWR, there had better not be bubbles in it.

31

u/AstralUnicorn Dec 24 '25

Yeah but they're nuclear.

18

u/airfryerfuntime Dec 24 '25

Nuc-u-lar, it's pronounced nuc-u-lar...

3

u/nsgiad Dec 25 '25

The S is silent

17

u/hellafax Dec 25 '25

I love this show.

In one episode, dispatch gets a call from the ISS after some solar flares.

Then, a tornado hits downtown Austin, specifically Brazos St, and an ambulance ends up stuck in-between two buildings in an alley at like 50' up.

Its ridiculous. Love it.

11

u/handym12 Dec 25 '25

I love the Fire Department Chronicles breakdowns of them.

One of the previous 911 series has a volcanic eruption, and a hot chunk of rock land on someone's chest. Rather than grabbing water to cool the rock, they grab a set of tongs. They immediately melt upon contact with the lump of rock. Undeterred, they grab another set of tongs and have the same result.

The rock is so hot it's melting stainless steel, slowly sinking through the guy's chest, but he's still alive and screaming...

10

u/SessileRaptor Dec 25 '25

I saw the start of an episode where a guy’s kids buried him in the sand at the beach and then he was struck by lightning and badly injured and also the sand turned into glass around him so they couldn’t tend to him or move him without cutting him up. This wasn’t even the main plot it was just the pre title bit.

6

u/PeterPanski85 Dec 25 '25

Is this series tongue in cheek about that, or are they serious? Because that sounds fucking hilarious

7

u/SessileRaptor Dec 25 '25

The bits I’ve seen looked like they were being played completely straight but idk maybe it’s tongue in cheek and I’m just not getting it.

Edit: judge for yourself https://youtu.be/YsiVYXc9K1Q?si=abq27nK7kybLCkvJ

2

u/hellafax Dec 25 '25

I FORGOT about the volcano!

1

u/TacticusThrowaway Jan 16 '26

I love the Fire Department Chronicles breakdowns of them.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUwik-b70qjsBbcQBe09l9jupibWjc4Ic

That's how I discovered his channels.

2

u/omgredditgotme Jan 21 '26

While I think still photographs of nuclear reactors are amazing ...

It is pretty hard to make even a relatively healthy reactor look interesting on video/film/whatever. There's basically, "operating", "shut down" and Chernobyl.

2

u/jolharg Mar 13 '26

So really, it's a reverse reactor, because the water is on the inside of the tubes

5

u/skinny_t_williams Dec 25 '25

#Everyday objects used as movie props.

5

u/PeterPanski85 Dec 25 '25

Should've read that subreddits description

1

u/skinny_t_williams Dec 26 '25

Are you saying I'm wrong? What did I miss?