|Sample Image | Spin Video | QuickTimeVR Rotation| Liquid sodium
metal is used in certain nuclear reactor designs as a cooling
fluid, because it is very effective at transferring large
amounts of heat from one place to another. Personally I'd rather
have something a bit less violently explosive as the cooling
fluid in my nuclear reactor, but so far as I know there haven't
been any major accidents attributed to its use. This object,
which also uses liquid sodium metal for cooling, is not from a
nuclear reactor. Is is a valve from a high-performance car
engine, and it uses the sodium to transfer heat away from the
valve head (which is in contact with the exploding fuel in the
cylinder). This particular value has been broken in half to
extract the sodium: You can see the hollow stem where the sodium
was. Look at the next sample down to see more clearly how this
channel works. Source: Nick Brandenburg Contributor: Nick
Brandenburg Acquired: 10 August, 2005