Thirty Years Ago...

University of Vanhoover

Picture, if you can, a Lecture Hall. Think similar in size to the one at Maretime Technical College, only much, much bigger. This one has space for several thousand students to listen, and furthermore this particular one was built exclusively for the use of science students.

That should give you a picture of what the science Lecture Hall at the University of Vanhoover was like. A vast cavernous space that seemed to stretch for miles from end to end. At least it felt that way to me, when I prepared to give my first presentation to the crowd.

I was fresh faced, new, and more or less straight out of university on a physics degree. It was nervous, yes, but who isn't when doing something for the first time? Weren't you nervous when you did school plays and had to speak in front of all of your peers?

I think I'm getting rather off topic. I saw that most of the people had assembled, but decided to hold a few minutes as there were still ponies trickling in through the doors. They'd gain a red light above them if the lecture was in progress, which it wasn't right now.

When it seemed the crowd had finished assembling, I decided to start by clearing my throat. "Good afternoon, everypony," I said, addressing the assembled ponies looking at me. "I am Dr Argyle Starshine, and I am here to speak to you today about a new, cutting edge innovation in the field of power production in our country."

Faced with the prospect of hearing about exciting new developments, the entire crowd leaned forward like a reverse Mareican wave, which was mildly disconcerting.

I tapped a new slide onto the screen. "About twenty years ago, archeologists digging about in the site where Cloudsdale is believed to have crashed centuries ago found a series of plans for a number of different machines which appeared to have been used for the purposes of power generation. All of them had something in common- none of them used fossil fuels like coal or oil. Instead, they harnessed the power of the very thing that makes up our very lifeblood, the most common substance that exists in the world and helps to bind it together. Spectra."

There was an 'oooooooh' from the crowd, causing me to suspect that not all of them were students, and that some were other people who had paid to attend. I decided to continue onwards.

"These devices can produce almost limitless amounts of power from their fuel, and better yet produce no pollution whilst in operation. I will say that they are the future of power generation for our world, as each of the pony races, isolated as we are, have developed our own models of these devices, which we have dubbed HARMONY reactors."

I updated it to another slide and a schematic of one design, particularly propular with the unicorns, appeared on screen. "So," I asked rhetorically. "How does a HARMONY reactor work?"

As it was a rhetorical question, I continued onwards without waiting for an answer. The crowd cottoned onto this and were silent and still. "HARMONY reactors run off SPECTRA-135, which releases energy by splitting into smaller bits. Most models use a fuel enrichment level of around 10% as that way, weapons-grade SPECTRA is not needed for a reactor as there is a moderator."

I indicated back to the display. "The model currently on the screen is a CGMR-1000 reactor, derived from a design used in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. This design is unusual in that the substance used as a moderator is graphite. This is rare, as most other models use either hydrogen or sodium. An example of this is the ZHHCR, which should be coming up on the display now."

The display briefly switched to show the different reactor model, before I switched it back. "The purpose of a moderator is to speed up or slow down the reaction based on how much power you need to be generated. As you've probably guessed, this process generates a lot of heat, so of course something will be needed to cool the reactor core."

I updated the display to include a close depiction of the cooling system. "This design uses water to cool the core down by transferring the heat from the core to the water. This is also how the water is heated for transfer to the turbine, making it very economical to build and operate."

I looked around the room and decided to conclude this section. "There are several of these devices in use across Equestria, and it is my firm belief that they are the answer to solving our world's energy crisis. Now then, do any of you have any questions about HARMONY reactors?"

I glanced about, to see one solitary hoof in the air. "Yes?" I asked.

The mare, an Earth pony, sitting in the chair spoke up. "I don't know if this is true or not, but I heard a story from somewhere or other about a Unicorn reactor being unsafe and suffering some sort of stability problem whilst in operation, resulting in a radiation leak. If this is the case, how safe are these devices?"

I furrowed my brow. The scientific community was supposed to stay connected with issues like this. How come I hadn't been told of this? "I'm afraid I am not familiar with the incident you are referring to," I replied, "but I can assure you that HARMONY reactors, when built and maintained properly, are one of the safest and cleanest forms of energy production we have available."

There were, it seemed, no further questions. "Well, thank you for your time, and if you do have any further questions please write them down on the cards as you leave the lecture hall. Thank you."

As they turned to leave, I went to the back of the room. The question had unnerved me somewhat. I needed to find out more information on that incident, and whether it really did happen. And fast.

Office of Crimson Moon, Manager of BSPS

It was early into the morning that the telephone rang, buzzing noisily on a wall. Crimson Moon trotted over to it, annoyed that his morning coffee had been interrupted by something so rude as a phone call. "Do ponies these days have no concept of delays? It's as if they want to work our socks off."

He reached for the handset (his horn was hardly useful for lifting things off their sockets considering their tendancy to spear things), and he answered it. "Good morning. Crimson Moon speaking."

"It's the UKSEA here," a voice replied. "We have a special duty for you."

Crimson Moon indicated to his secretary, and switched the call to speaker. "Go ahead."

"As you're probably aware, our preferred reactor model, the CGMR, has an unusual quirk. In the event that a plant were to suffer a total power failure, there's a problem."

"I thought that was what the backup generators were for," Crimson Moon said. "To cover the load when the power grid was offline."

"Precisely. There is just one small problem. The generators need time to spin up to full power to operate the coolant system, and that leaves a small gap in the power cycle where there is no coolant running through the reactor core."

"How do we fit into this?"

"Simple," the voice continued. "We want to establish whether the turbine will be spinning fast enough to power the coolant systems for long enough to cover the gap between a loss of power and the generators coming up to full load. In order to do this, we will need a reactor to test and see if it works."

"And you'd like to use one of mine, correct?"

"Precisely. Your station has four reactors, of which Reactor 4 is one of the newest example of the CGMR design. As a result, we want your best team of men to operate the test and establish if there is enough momentum to keep the systems running."

"Other power plants have attempted similar tests and it hasn't worked. There's an old unicorn saying that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing multiple times and expecting a different result each time."

"We expect you to do your best," the voice said sternly. "Your team will conduct the test at 14:15 on the 25th Thaw and report the results to us in the morning. Is this clearly understood?"

"Yes sir," Crimson Moon replied.

"Very good! Let your staff know straight away." The line then clicked shut.

Crimson Moon put the phone back, and glanced over to his secretary, who was busy recording the words of the conversation. "Froggy Bottom always imposes impossible deadlines on us, and then is surprised when things go wrong. Sky Chaser isn't going to like any of this." He stepped over to the intercom and prepared to call the staff into his office.

Author's Note

Technical Terms
Spectra-The key building block of all living things in Equestria.
HARMONY-Acronym for High Actuality Reactor, Moderate Order Nova Yield.
SPECTRA-135-A refined state of Spectra, suitable for weapons or reactor use.
Fuel enrichment-A Chemical process by which the percentage composition of certain substances is increased.
CGMR-Acronym for Cloudsdale Graphite Moderated Reactor, a design derived from a model used in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory of Imperial Equestria.
ZHHCR-Acronym for Zephyr Heights Hydrogen Cooled Reactor.
Moderator-An object used to control the speed of Spectra reactions.
BSPS-Acronym for Bridlewood Spectra Power Station.
UKSEA-Acronym for Unicorn Kingdom Spectra Energy Authority