Quote:
Originally Posted by outofbreath
Western reactors use water as a moderator.
Russian reactors use(d) Graphite as moderator.
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That's a slight over-generalisation. Some designs of western reactors use water as a moderator, but by no means all. Most UK nuclear power plants are of the "AGR" (Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor) design, which are also graphite moderated.
However, a "Chernobyl"-type accident could not happen at these plants, because the safety systems cannot be manually disabled, as was done at Chernobyl.