Question

A book edited by Jörg (“yerg”) Starflinger and Thomas Schulenberg discusses how a “high performance” design named for this substance may be destabilized by density waves. This substance partly lends its name to the VVER (“V-V-E-R”) design, which uses assemblies made of a zirconium alloy and exploits a negative void coefficient. Once-through cycles can be used in a class of Generation IV (“four”) designs in which this (-5[1])substance is kept supercritical. (-5[1])This substance moves through a primary loop after being raised to about 150 bars in a popular design (10[1])named for it being “pressurized.” Ahead of graphite, (10[1])this is the most popular substance (10[1]-5[1])used to slow down neutrons (10[1]-5[1])in (10[1])fission reactors. (-5[5])For 10 points, (10[1])what liquid (10[1]-5[1])is both (10[2]-5[1])the most common (10[1])nuclear moderator (10[1])and the most common (-5[1])nuclear coolant, being more popular than its deuterated (10[1])“heavy” (0[1])variant? (10[2])■END■ (10[9])

ANSWER: water [or H2O, light water, water vapor, or steam; accept pressurized water reactors, light water reactors, supercritical water reactors, water–water power reactors, vodo–vodyanoi energetichesky reaktor; prompt on coolants until “coolant” is read; prompt on moderators until “moderator” is read; reject “heavy water”]
<Physics>
= Average correct buzz position

Summary

2024 ACF Nationals2024-04-21Y2496%0%50%120.65

Buzzes

PlayerTeamOpponentBuzz PositionValue
Michael DuWaterlooChicago A63-5
Jeremy CummingsWUSTL BToronto B67-5
John MarvinChicago BIndiana8510
Charles HangWUSTL ACornell A9310
Shardul RaoMinnesota ATexas99-5
Dennis ReppenChicago CSouth Carolina9910
Rasheeq AzadNorth Carolina BHarvard10410
Shahar SchwartzBerkeley AJohns Hopkins104-5
John John GrogerColumbia BRutgers10510
Fred GarveyTruman StateMcGill107-5
Mason YuBrownGeorgia Tech107-5
Ben DahlPurdueColumbia A107-5
Vincent DuNorth Carolina AStanford107-5
Akshay SeetharamClaremont CollegesYale B107-5
Yared TadesseCornell BChicago D11010
Jacob Hardin-BernhardtNYUToronto A112-5
Aditya SharmaDukeVirginia11210
Danny HanPennFlorida114-5
Andrew SalijNorthwesternIowa State11410
Andrew WangIllinoisMaryland11410
Yashwanth BajjiMichiganYale A11710
Bryan UgazArizona StateOttawa11910
Rohan ShelkeBerkeley BMinnesota B123-5
Aidan FeinVanderbiltKentucky13110
Urbas EkkaMinnesota BBerkeley B1320
Lydia TarekegnYale BClaremont Colleges13310
Sam BakerMcGillTruman State13310
Sinecio MoralesJohns HopkinsBerkeley A13410
Sanjay SrihariGeorgia TechBrown13410
Chinmay MurthyTexasMinnesota A13410
Kunaal ChandrashekarToronto ANYU13410
Michal GerasimiukStanfordNorth Carolina A13410
Graham CopeFloridaPenn13410
Cooper RohColumbia APurdue13410
Adam FineChicago AWaterloo13410
Marcus Forbes-GreenToronto BWUSTL B13410