Meaning of Scram | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Alternative letter-case form of scram.
   alt-of, countable, uncountable
2. A gun, firearm.
   Multicultural-London-English, slang
3. A shutdown of a nuclear reactor (or, by extension, some other thing), often done rapidly due to an emergency.
   also, attributive
4. A scratch, especially caused by claws or fingernails.
   Derbyshire, Wales
5. The device used to shut down a nuclear reactor; also, the button or switch used to initiate a shutdown.
6. A mine previously worked on where most of the ore is believed to have been removed, but which is still being mined on a small scale.
   US, archaic

Equivalents

Examples

“Bad be say she don’t usually do this In the trap with a stick, I do this Get ’round there with a scram I don’t give a damn”

“My manager says I'm stupid for still rollin' with a scram I hate explainin' myself and I don't think he'll understand”

“During scram operation, a scram signal de-energizes the inlet and outlet scram valves. The outlet scram valve vents the volume above the drive piston to a scram dump tank. The inlet scram valve supplies scram pressure obtained from an accumulator to the under side of the vented piston.”

“Of the 14 scrams experienced, none was caused by operation exceeding the design parameters. Eight scrams occurred with the control rods withdrawn. [...] Six scrams occurred while the rods were inserted. Five were intentional to prevent accidental rod withdrawal, and one was the unintentional result of an instrument adjustment.”

“By the time scram is completed, coolant temperatures would likely be climbing due to the combination of a large heat capacity within the fuel pins and low coolant flow.”

“Although fission stops almost immediately with a SCRAM, fission products in the fuel continue to release decay heat, initially about 6.5% of full reactor power. [...] Corresponding with the SCRAM, emergency generators were automatically activated to power electronics and cooling systems.”

“Other indicators can be used to measure the performance of an NPP [nuclear power plant] including the number of scrams (emergency shutdowns of a nuclear reactor), the collective dose (a measure of the total amount of effective dose multiplied by the size of the exposed population), the amount of low-level waste generated, and the fuel reliability. The number of scrams dropped from the peak of 30 in 1984 to only one in 2004 and 2–3 in the last two years.”

“Each room housing a radiation source has a red-buttoned "scram" switch on the wall. One touch of the switch and all equipment stops abruptly.”

“She watched as the Marine technical team leader pressed the red SCRAM buttons for each reactor, setting off a chorus of alarms.”

“In particular, measures have been taken to make the scram system more fast-operating and to exclude any possibility of its being deliberately shut off by the personnel.”

“Today it is considered to be true that the accident paradoxically was ultimately caused by the emergency shut down of the reactor. By sending in the practically completely withdrawn scram and control rods, the reactivity of the reactor by the faulty conception of the rods was for a short time not lowered, but augmented.”

“scram [...] Noun. [...] 2. A scratch. [South Wales use]”

“[page 64] Many of these old openings still afford places where ore is mined. A man can start in almost anywhere and fine ore. There is a great deal of this "scramming" done at the Jackson. Quite a proportion of the annual product comes in this way. Not unfrequently one of these "scrams" leads to the finding of a large deposit of ore. [...] [page 67] South from the east part of the Incline pit they have a scram of good ore which furnished a small product.”

“There are numbered workings running to about 20, representing small pits and scrams, sometimes worked by contract by "scrammers."”

“She watched as the Marine technical team leader pressed the red SCRAM buttons for each reactor, setting off a chorus of alarms.”

“Although fission stops almost immediately with a SCRAM, fission products in the fuel continue to release decay heat, initially about 6.5% of full reactor power. [...] Corresponding with the SCRAM, emergency generators were automatically activated to power electronics and cooling systems.”

CEFR level