Posted on 04/04/2013 3:12:05 PM PDT by higgmeister
An explosion has been reported at Georgia Power Plant Bowen. Injuries have been reported via scanner traffic, number and extent are unknown. The source of the explosion is believed to be a turbine within the powerhouse.
Read more: The Daily Tribune News - Explosion reported at Plant Bowen
The rotors come in larger sizes and can present problems if someone is not careful handling them. Here’s what happened this week just to the South of me.
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/21894074
I based the “flammable gas in the cooling tower” idea on the reports of a very large report and house-shaking pressure wave out to a distance of miles from the site.
I don’t see how a turbine explosion could release that kind of pressure wave.
Even a flat-out boiler explosion would dissipate much of it’s energy against the walls of the plant.
But flammable gas inside the volume of one of those cooling towers could really release a hell of a pressure wave.
Be a cool thing to try, anyway. I mean, if anyone’s got a spare hyperbolic cooling tower laying around.
Looks like they dropped a stator from a crane. One fatality. Nasty.
GA Pwr reported they were in the process of shutting down for maintenance when the event occurred.
I'm obviously wrong about that one. I forgot that in the big plants the boiler is basically outside the plant, at least parts of it are (the steam drum at the top). The rest of it is inside the furnace; I think those are designed to handle a burned-through tube without blowing up.
Wow!
One H.ll of a “stain” on that cooling tower...
What in the ... ??
My sentiments exactly...
Blast from ground level up,
or from inside the tower
No obvious structures external to tower effected
No adjacent building!
Maybe someone tried to deep-fry a frozen cow right next to the tower?
***Well, the alternator housing is not a pressure vessel that’s true,****
Actually it is. There is approximately 50 lb of pure hydrogen in the generator to cool it. If it went there would have been a massive explosion followed by the sealing oil fire. Very nasty!
This does not sound like a hydrogen gas explosion but more like the relief diaphrams on the LP turbines went, signifying a loss of condenser cooling water.
If it did, it would trip the unit and the main steam valves would slam shut, the reheat relief valve would open and dump reheat steam through the Intermediate turbine into the condenser.
The main Pop valves also went due to the sudden buildup of pressure when the main steam valves closed.
The “smoke” mentioned in the article looks more like water vapor leaking out of the various openings caused by the trip off and diaphram openings.
Other than that, I don’t know much about it. ;-)
Well, yeah, I didn't know they used that much, but I knew they kept positive pressure to keep air out.
But compared to the turbine housing... inlet steam at ~3000 psi (at least for fossil fuel plants) it's almost negligible.
Cow nothing, maybe a mature Sperm Whale!
Think that makes three Nuclear Plant accidents since Easetr Sunday. First they dropped the million pound turbine down in Arkansas, then supposedly a Switch Unit arced at another Plant and now this ? That makes three this week. Any Koreans working at these plants ?
There you go!
This one's fossil-fueled. See the big pile of coal in the background in the picture at the top of the thread?
This is a coal power plant, right?
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