> If the cooling pool leaks into the ground and you can't refill, as might happen in an earthquake, you could have a meltdown.
The article claims that these reactors don’t not have that problem. They didn’t describe why or how, but they say the heat would simply dissipate into the atmosphere even if the cooling pool dries out.
The article may claim that, but NuScale itself does not.[1]
NuScale says they do not need additional water during cool-down. Not that they can shut down dry.
NuScale is interesting, but it's really just a medium-sized (60MW) pressurized-water reactor. Same size as Shippingport (1957), interestingly.
The article claims that these reactors don’t not have that problem. They didn’t describe why or how, but they say the heat would simply dissipate into the atmosphere even if the cooling pool dries out.