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 substance is kept supercritical. This substance moves through a primary loop after being raised to about 150 bars in a popular design named for it being “pressurized.” Ahead of graphite, this is the most popular substance used to slow down neutrons in fission reactors. For 10 points, what liquid is both the most common nuclear moderator and the most common nuclear coolant, being more popular than its deuterated “heavy” variant? ■END■
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”]
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= Average correct buzz position