What if a U-bend causes the superhot gases to deposit the heat at that point and starts melting the shaft?Elheru Aran wrote:What about a U-bend though? Or even a *series* of them. Frankly, that one exhaust port that just happens to lead directly to the reactor is fucking stupid and highly contrived.
It's an exhaust port from the most gigantic power system to ever exist. This thing is moon sized and the port is only 2 meters. Stuff that affects the flow of exhaust may be an issue. Complex plumbing is plumbing more likely to break, as a plumber or electrician can tell you.
It may be like the old, "Villains in underground lair decide to put covers on the airvents to prevent heroes from climbing through. Hero arrives to discover everyone dead from lack of oxygen."
Again, it's really convenient to just assume that there's no engineering complications when talking about a system that's got to have great needs and is there for a vital practical purpose.