Posted on 12/22/2003 4:35:57 PM PST by sam_paine
I need help in the wake of the earthquake today. My libby buddies in California are dizzy over the proximity of the quake to the reactor at Diablo Canyon.
I was wondering if Freepers had some good suggested book resources on Reactor Design or that plant in particular about its safety elements. More importantly, I'd love to find an expose about how the anti-nuke nuts have prevented safer/stronger/more efficient reactors from being built. I haven't read much on this subject for about 10 years and could use a leg up!
There might be some potential converts here!
I just hoped for someone that could point me to some written resources, etc, for me to bone up on. I'm not interested in arguing the merits of nuclear power here.
I don't know of any books to point you to. I went to college in SLO and I took one class that covered Diablo Canyon. We compared the construction of Diablo with Chernobyl's construction. It was built to withstand a 747 crashing into it. It was specifically built to withstand just about anything crashing into it. Hijacked planes were anticipated when they planned and built it. The rebar is supposed to be so thick that you can't get a finger into any space. In the event of any kind of problem with the reactor, it's designed to drop into a deep, concrete walled hole, and then more concrete goes on top of it. It's pretty safe.
Diablo Canyon would have a few more reactors if it hadn't been for special interest groups saying it was built on Native American land, or something like that. I don't remember that part specifically. It's been years and years since I took that class.
So the design basis earthquake for Diablo Canyon is one more than twice as powerful as the 1906 earthquake that wiped out San Francisco. In essence, you're talking about a plant that will survive a seismic event that would probably result in a good bit of California falling into the ocean. IOW, you're going to have other problems to worry about in that event, of much more consequence than anything that could happen to Diablo Canyon, which is the least of your worries at that point.
It's got to make them absolutely scream...
"...I hope that it is not too late for the world to emulate France and make nuclear power our principal source of energy. There is at present no other safe, practical and economic substitute for the dangerous practice of burning carbon fuels."
I worked there during the construction phase (it was ready for operation in 1976), and the "reconstruction" phase, where the plant had to be strengthened due to the discovery of an ancient fault line 3 miles offshore.
They had to go back and analyize every single pipe hangar in the plant - must have been millions of them. They added "whip restraints" to the main steam lines, in case one of them broke off (yeah, right...).
They beefed up the structure of the turbine building, and drilled 8" dia. holes through 100' of reinforced concrete to post-tension the turbine pedestal.
They welded studs onto the cooling water makeup tanks, then covered them with 8" of concrete.
BTW, I was there when they were still pouring the Unit 2 containment structure. Those big domes consist of 36" of reinforced concrete with a 3/16" welded steel liner. The reinforcing consists of six layers of 2 1/4" high-strength rebar, at 0, 45, 90, and 135 degrees. The sand in the concrete mix was quartz, not regular sand. Each batch was tested in the lab to make sure it reached proper ultimate strength.
As a final test, they pumped up the pressure in the massive buildings to 55PSIG and inspected every square inch to look for cracks.
Nothing short of an atomic bomb would so much as scratch that building.
But thanks to the Mothers for Peace (a bunch of burned out hippies left with no war to protest after Viet Nam ended), the operation of the plant was delayed for ten years at a cost to the ratepayers of billions.
IMO, no significant public safety was added by all these changes.
That was the allegation, and by law, the NRC is obliged to investigate every single allegation made by anyone, and determine it's merit. They may or may not require work to be halted as a result. In the case of Diablo Canyon, the allegations were false, but, again, by law, it is up to the licensee to establish that. You're basically assumed to be guilty until proven innocent.
Intervenors are nothing if not creative in abusing the system. They know that for any capital-intensive project, be it a nuclear plant, oil refinery, airport, chemical plant, highway, or skyscraper, if you delay it long enough, if you stretch out the construction time far enough, you can kill it, because carrying charges (interest) eat you alive. Diablo Canyon sat completed for ten years before it was ever allowed to generate a single watt of electricity, because the intervenors kept filing frivolous motions in court to delay startup, and each had to be dealt with, one at a time, with two or three month delays and lead times for each one. The same gambit is being played out with Yucca Mountain now.
Nevertheless I don't think that would be a factor as to whether or not it could handle the impact of a 747. Earthquake, might be a problem though.
Earthquakes are not a problem. See the previous posts by myself and others. You're going to have the entire coast of California falling into the Pacific first from an earthquake strong enough to cause a problem at Diablo Canyon. Right now, I'd say it's probably the strongest man-made, free standing structure of its size on Earth.
"Not all of the allegations were false." (said snopercod)
It's pretty hard and expensive to "drain the swamp," when your up to you ass in allegators and their attorneys that get their legal fees paid for filing said allegations... win or lose!!!
We not only DON'T have "loser pays," we have loser earns illgotten gains, just for filing bizarre allegations in this country!!! It's insane!!!
Another fractured fairytale put to rest!!!
Have you seen this Grampa Dave? Good stuff here on this very thread!!!
It needs some pinging attention Ernest and farmfriend.
FReepers need to be truly aware to stop all the "conclusion jumping!"
That's the thing about these limousine liberal hypocrites. They'll oppose the most environmentally benign source of large-scale baseload electricity generation, yet are not all that shy about using their share of it. I wonder how many kwhrs Streisand's oceanfront mansion uses on average? I don't see her putting up any boondoggle windmills on her property to run it. Can't do it, it would "spoil the view".
I have no problem with qualified people raising legitimate issues. I've done it myself on occasion, and gotten results that were both reasonable and constructive. But I know for a fact that many of the snubbers I looked at for Diablo Canyon were ridiculously overdesigned. I mean, you're talking about surviving seismic stresses that will literally shake the planet apart, and they're worried about a steam line pipe-whipping into some feedwater circuit.
Diablo Canyon has come with many recent temblors with nary a scratch. The Northridge quake in '94, the Loma Pietra event in 1989 that wiped out all those people on the Nimitz Freeway, now this one. The one in '89 with the freeway collapse caused more fatalities than anything Diablo Canyon is likely to cause. Streisand and the others should be out there protesting freeways. But, then again, she'd have to drive her limo over country roads, then. Can't have that...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
