cthia wrote:Theemile wrote:
I think the robustness and stability of Grav pinched fusion devices can be found in the knowledge that virtually all freighters only carry 1 reactor. How far they need to travel is not in the calculations, nor is their size - it's usually just 1 reactor per ship.
In OTL, countries and airlines required that 4 engine jet make an ocean crossing for commercial passenger trips. In the 90s that changed to 2 engines. Why? The Mean times per failure and the power output per engine were to the point that powerful enough engines could power a large plane by themselves, and (more importantly) the chances of 2 engines failing due to mechanical failures is extremely small.
One can imagine the same is for Honorverse Freighters - the chances of reactor failure is so low, cruising for decades on 1 reactor light years from anybody else can be a common occurrence with little fear. If it was not a safe technology, a 2nd reactor would be carried by every freighter in event the likelihood of failure occurred.
Understood, though I was imagining the cause of a failure due to the MTBP - mean time between pirates. A pirate attack meant to incapacitate a ship can cause a failure instead.
If you have pirates, you have bigger problems than the reactor.