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Nuclear reactions at Chernobyl are spiking in an inaccessible chamber + Social booze

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Nuclear reactions at Chernobyl are spiking in an inaccessible chamber
https://www.newscientist.com/article/227...e-chamber/

EXCERPTS: Scientists monitoring the ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine have seen a surge in fission reactions in an inaccessible chamber within the complex. They are now investigating whether the problem will stabilise or require a dangerous and difficult intervention to prevent a runaway nuclear reaction.

[...] One chamber, known as subreactor room 305/2, is thought to contain large amounts of this material, but it is inaccessible and hasn’t been seen by human or robotic eyes since the disaster. Now, researchers have seen a spike in neutron emissions from the room, with levels increasing around 40 per cent since the start of 2016. This points to a growing nuclear fission reaction, so researchers are trying to determine if this surge will fizzle out, as previous spikes in other parts of the ruins have done, or whether they will need to find a way to access the room and intervene.

[...] One suggestion for why this is happening is that a new structure placed over the ruined reactor in 2016 is causing the plant to dry out. When uranium or plutonium fuel decay radioactively, they emit neutrons, which can promote a fission reaction if the neutrons are captured by another radioactive nuclei. However, large amounts of water slow these neutrons down, preventing them from being captured... (MORE - details)

RELATED: 'It’s like the embers in a barbecue pit.’ Nuclear reactions are smoldering again at Chernobyl


Booze really does break the ice with strangers, brings people closer together
https://www.studyfinds.org/alcohol-stran...-together/

EXCERPTS: If social distancing is still one of your priorities, then you may want to avoid parties serving alcohol. A new study finds drinking really does bring people, even strangers, physically closer to one another. Talk about a literal ice breaker.

Researchers from the University of Illinois discovered drinking in social settings helps to decrease the physical distance between pairs by at least one centimeter every few minutes. However, if people are not drinking alcohol, study authors find the distance is likely to remain the same over the course of a conversation.

[...] Researchers note that friends tended to draw closer to each other regardless of their drink order. For intoxicated strangers however, alcohol seems to be a key trigger for social mingling. “Participants interacting with a stranger only moved closer to that individual if they were intoxicated. The physical distance between these pairs decreased by about 1 centimeter per three-minute interval,” Professor Catharine Fairbairn reports.

Prof. Fairbairn notes researchers conducted the experiment in a spacious and quiet lab. She adds participants may have moved closer more rapidly if not for the constraints of sitting across from one another at a table. “Folks would likely draw even closer to one another in a crowded bar with loud music when compared with our laboratory environment,” Fairbairn says. “That would have to be the subject of another study.” (MORE - details)
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