alt Hacker NewsHow much of this process is cleaning up from the previous run and how much is purely for starting up the process again? Does it make sense to clean up the system as soon as you can after shutdown, in preparation for restart, whenever that may be?
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It’s one and the same. The sodium and other atoms from the molten cryolite intercalate into the carbon cathode structure and swell it by a few percent. Once in use, a cathode is held together by the steel shell and thermal equilibrium of the running pot. Once it cools the cracking is inevitable.
You also can’t fully drain a pot. You can siphon most of the aluminum and cryolite off but at those temperatures they behave like a proper liquid with surface tension and the metal wicks into the pot like solder instead of flowing with gravity.
The system is just build for continuous usage and any shutdown does major damage.
To keep it running at reduced capacity will likely be less expensive unless the war goes on for a very long time.