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Subject: Re: OT: N-Reactor

Author: Roy Eassa

Date: 11:28:36 03/25/02

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On March 25, 2002 at 13:36:32, Slater Wold wrote:

>On March 25, 2002 at 13:29:04, Roy Eassa wrote:
>
>>On March 25, 2002 at 13:21:04, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>
>>>On March 25, 2002 at 13:00:11, Sune Fischer wrote:
>>>[snip]
>>>>My personal favorite is Beowulf, it is much more readable than Gerbil IMO.
>>>
>>>The main idea of Beowulf is a chess learning platform.  Special effort was made
>>>to help in readability, etc.  I think it can be improved yet more in that
>>>aspect.  Gerbil has some very good ideas in it that are not found in Beowulf or
>>>in most other chess engines.  The basic framework is very good and the idea of
>>>callbacks makes the chess engine part very easily replaceable.  For that reason,
>>>Bruce's framework could very easily be used for a generic engine to winboard
>>>interface (which is often the trickiest part to get right).
>>>
>>>>Crafty is also not bad once you get the hang of it, I get ideas everytime I look
>>>>at it :)
>>>
>>>It's the "N-reactor"[1] of chess engines.  If there is a chess technique you
>>>would like to study, it's probably in there.
>>>
>>>[1] The N-reactor was the most complicated machine in the world.  There was not
>>>any single human on earth that could even tell you how it worked.  It had gangs
>>>of 24-way valves connected to gangs of 24-way valves.
>>
>>
>>Dann, as usual I get a laugh or an education (or both) from your posts.  I tried
>>doing a quick search on N-reactor but couldn't find anything useful.  You say it
>>"was" the most complicated machine in the world.  OK, you've piqued my
>>curiosity.  Why past tense?  And WHAT WAS ITS PURPOSE??
>
>http://www.em.doe.gov/circle/nreactor.html
>
>From the site:
>
>"The face of the N Reactor core is made of graphite and measures 39 by 33 by 33
>feet. Channels cut horizontally into the graphite held nuclear fuel and uranium
>"target" slugs. When the slugs were bombarded with neutrons, some of the uranium
>was transformed into plutonium. During the Cold War the United States operated a
>total of 14 plutonium-production reactors, creating approximately 100 metric
>tons of plutonium for its tens of thousands of nuclear warheads. Hanford Site,
>Washington. December 16, 1993."


Slater,

That's the main page I _did_ read, but I still don't understand.  That unit
seems to be a nuclear reactor.  What makes it special as compared to other
nuclear reactors?  Why is it referred to in the past tense?



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