Posted on 05/20/2019 5:07:27 PM PDT by BenLurkin
In the second episode of "Chernobyl," ...A large fire rages in the ruins of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. ... Deadly radioactive dust has drifted all the way out of the Soviet Union and into Sweden. The air above the reactor literally glows where the uranium core has become exposed. And the people leading the disaster response decide to dump thousands of tons of sand and boron on the core.
But why did first responders use sand and boron? And if a similar nuclear disaster were to occur in 2019, is this what firefighters would still do?
Modern reactors are outfitted with chemical sprays that can flood a reactor building, knocking radioactive isotopes out of the air before they can escape. And unlike Chernobyl, nuclear facilities in the U.S. are entirely contained in sealed structures of cement and rebar ...You could crash a small jet into the side of one of these buildings, and it wouldn't expose the core. In fact, as part of a test, the U.S. government did just that to an empty containment vessel in 1988. The NRC states that studies regarding large jet impacts are still ongoing.
...U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has, for every one of the 98 nuclear power reactors operating in the country, drafted emergency handbooks hundreds of pages long.
Those handbooks are available in plain English on the NRC's website. ...You can find instructions for when to shove lots of boron into the core...It saw what to do if hostile forces attack the plant (among other things, start preparing a regional evacuation the moment it becomes clear that the forces might cause a significant radiation leak). And, in the event of significant amounts of radioactive material escaping into the atmosphere, it says who declares an evacuation...
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Here’s the Real Deal:
https://engelscoachshop.com/1880s-style-wagon-building-borax-wagons/
It’s a pretty amazing exercise.
Here’s a better link to get started on the process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq41lsw_GLY&list=PL3Qu3GIvx73EgVa8dYcN_e9ps2BDMO9j3
Gen I, Gen II, Gen III or Gen IV?
I thought it was a steam explosion.
I hope your post was in jest. Otherwise it shows a very limited knowledge of physics.
People don't understand what's going on with nuclear power.
The Greenies think they killed off nuclear with scare movies like The China Syndrome and the closely associated Three Mile Island incident.
Most people don't realize that the Generation I reactors [Chernobyl in its hanger building] and most if not all of the Generation II reactors [Fukushima Daiichi is one, commissioned in 1971] were designed BEFORE computers were in common use for plant design.
There has apparently never been a Generation III reactor accident, and the industry is working on Generation IV, which is safer yet.
I can't believe it took 30 posts to get to this fact.
Hey!
My wife’s Aunt and Uncle lived near Joliet!
My mother in law grew up there.
She’s as stubborn as a mule.
And only the Russians would have that much laying around. You know, in case the core explodes and we have to bury it.
I’m now going to drive through there [again] one of these days and stop this time and see if I can check the shop out for a few minutes...
Where’s my Gen Mr. Fusion?
“What should I do when my Mr. Fusion goes kaput?”
assuming a run-away fusion reaction hadn’t already turned the Earth into a sun, then probably the best thing to do is to simply throw it in the trash ...
“Really a pretty neat system that could use plentiful thorium and uranium (and possibly plutonium if I remember correctly). What was good about it was that there was not a lot of radioactive water after years of operation. It was also pretty easy to increase or decrease output to meet changes in load demand.”
except they never could get it up to full power until about a year before they decommissioned it because the various fuel and control rods kept sagging and bending, resulting in dangerous hot spots ...
interestingly, Public Service Company of Colorado had an iron clad contract with General Atomics such that if the plant didn’t meet full specs, G.A. would have to provide Public Service with a free NG plant of the same capacity ... Public Service got the NG plant, and with almost no fuss from G.A. ...
Well, the intelligent answer would be to have meltdown-proof reactors.
But OH NO: We gotta pay for free medicare and free education.
The US WILL have a nuclear disaster of an epic scale to eclipse Three Mile Island. It’s inevitable at this point. The question is whether it will be an accident or terrorism...
Stuck in 1955...
That’s about when “they” promised that electricity would be so cheap it wouldn’t have to be metered.
True.
But "they" didn't factor in the Lucy van Pelt Greenies who are trying to kill ALL forms of power generation.
Patiently, one at a time.
Amazon Prime, same day delivery: Order your 200,000 boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax in the next 46 minutes and get free same-day delivery before 8pm!
I highly recommend the HOB series Chernobyl currently running. Riveting. Greta isight to the soviet need to self protect. Enough heroes to go around.
catnipman,
Thanks for the additional post. Of course, you are correct. If a similar plant would have been built subsequently, it would have incorporated a lot of changes. St Vrain had quality control issues before it ever opened, including destructive testing of its containment vessel. Plus, there were a myriad of operational issues.
Nonetheless, compared to the light water reactor designs in the remainder of US plants, this system had some important theoretical advantages, not limited to the wider range of potential fuels. It just didn’t work out so well in practice at this first plant. I think it’s interesting that the site is now a gas-fired generating facility that actually uses some of the original equipment.
Thanks again for your additional posts, especially the info about the PSC contract.
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.