Best bits: Applications of microprocessors: Low-cost nuclear safety

Existing control-room simulators for nuclear reactors can only reproduce a nuclear accident; their internal computers are not powerful enough to predict what happens if the variables change. However, such a predictive simulator might be built of multiple microprocessors, participants at a jointly sponsored IEEE/NRC electrotechnology conference in Washington, D.C., have suggested. The system might work many times faster than even a high-speed scientific computer.