Although this discussion thread is really a moot point after it was pointed out that there are 5 PLCs which are controlling the power to the resistive heaters, there's one thing I'd like to point out... Stephen said: "Jed, it's a container, with all the walls at several hundred degrees C or higher; the bottom is in contact with the burner and is probably at about 1000 C."
You're assuming that the 'burner' is on full... what if I were to turn the burner to 'simmer'! Then the 'excess' heat would only be slightly higher than what it would take to boil the water... The reactor is very likely engineered so only a small portion of the Ni powder is exposed to whatever conditions are needed to sustain a modest reaction... so using the teakettle/burner jargon, the reactor's 'burner' is on simmer. -Mark
