Every Home should have miniature one!
Posted on 02/23/2021 7:00:53 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Nearly 4 million Texans lost power during a historic ice storm last week, a storm that ravaged a broad swath of the country. As PJ Media’s Bryan Preston noted, two highly-touted forms of green energy, wind and solar, took big hits during the blackout. Natural gas energy production increased to compensate for it. Another energy source proved rather reliable during the blackout, however. This energy source does not involve fossil fuel emissions, but climate activists often ignore it.
This more reliable energy source is none other than nuclear power. While nuclear power did take a hit during the Texas blackout, three-quarters of Texas’ nuclear power plants remained online. Even the dip in nuclear energy production should allay Americans’ fears about the safety of nuclear power.
As The Washington Examiner reported, one of the two reactors at the South Texas Nuclear Power Station shut down during the storm, knocking out about half of the station’s 2,700 megawatts of generating capacity. The second reactor at the plant continued operating as normal, providing more than 1,300 megawatts of electricity.
The Comanche Peak nuclear plant, Texas’ other two-unit nuclear facility, continued running as normal during the blackouts. That means only one of Texas’ four nuclear reactors went offline during the storm.
Nuclear power plants usually weather storms rather well, providing carbon-free power around the clock. Yet as Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian pointed out, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) did not build up Texas’ power plants to face cold weather, despite a federal report warning about this weakness over a decade ago.
“It’s very rare for weather issues to shut down a nuclear plant,” Brett Rampal, director of nuclear innovation at the Clean Air Task Force, told The Examiner.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
A better headline would be this:
COLD SNAP SHUTS DOWN 25% OF TEXAS NUKLEAR POWER
Nuclear power doesn’t depend depend on the weather. like solar and wind, doesn’t require offsite fuel, like gas, and has all the important equipment indoors.
Sounds like a lame performance to me.
As I understand it, it was the rapid increase in demand that caused the shutdown.
Those spikes in demand need a better moderated roll up, and a more realistic set of automated responses to atypical events.
I heard that the coolant lines froze up in that power plant. This is something that better insulation, de-icing, whatever, can solve.
BETTER HEADLINE BYDUMB CLIMATE CHANGE KILLED THOUSANDS OF TEXANS. COMPLETE MAJOR NEWS BLACKOUT, FB, YT, TWATTER PULL DOWN QUICKLY OR WON’T POST AT ALL.
An Emergency Order from the Biden administration’s Department of Energy shows Texas energy grid operator ERCOT was instructed to stay within green energy standards by purchasing energy from outside the state at a higher cost, throttling power output throughout the state ahead of a catastrophic polar vortex. Going into effect Sunday, Feb. 14, Emergency Order 202-21-1 shows the Energy Dept. was aware of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide disaster declaration and that ERCOT was readying gas utilities in preparation for a demand surge. The order shows Acting Energy Secretary David Huizenga did not waive environmental restrictions to allow for maximum energy output, instead ordering ERCOT to utilize all resources in order to stay within acceptable emissions standards – including purchasing energy from outside the state. “ERCOT anticipates that this Order may result in exceedance of emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and carbon monoxide emissions, as well as wastewater release limits,” the order states. “To minimize adverse environmental impacts, this Order limits operation of dispatched units to the times and within the parameters determined by ERCOT for reliability purposes.” Moreover, the order instructed an “incremental amount of restricted capacity” to be sold to ERCOT at “a price no lower than $1,500/MWh,” an increase of over 6,000 percent over February 2020 prices of $18.20. On Wednesday, the Dallas Business Journal reported, “Electricity on the Texas grid has averaged about $1,137.33 per megawatt hour so far in February, up from $18.20 per megawatt hour in February 2020, according to data from the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas. That’s a jump of more than 6,000 percent.” Days later, the Public Utility Commission of Texas set prices at $9,000/MWh. The EO shows the Biden administration basically ordered ERCOT to throttle its energy output by forcing it to comply with environmental green energy standards, while knowing full well Texans could freeze to death in their homes with zero electricity as temperatures plunged into the single digits.”. You can choose if you want to add it to your timeline.
Justin wrote: “An Emergency Order from the Biden administration’s Department of Energy shows Texas energy grid operator ERCOT was instructed to stay within green energy standards by purchasing energy from outside the state at a higher cost, throttling power output throughout the state ahead of a catastrophic polar vortex. Going into effect Sunday, Feb. 14, Emergency Order 202-21-1 shows the Energy Dept. was aware of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide disaster declaration and that ERCOT was readying gas utilities in preparation for a demand surge. The order shows Acting Energy Secretary David Huizenga did not waive environmental restrictions to allow for maximum energy output, instead ordering ERCOT to utilize all resources in order to stay within acceptable emissions standards – including purchasing energy from outside the state. “ERCOT anticipates that this Order may result in exceedance of emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and carbon monoxide emissions, as well as wastewater release limits,” the order states. “To minimize adverse environmental impacts, this Order limits operation of dispatched units to the times and within the parameters determined by ERCOT for reliability purposes.” Moreover, the order instructed an “incremental amount of restricted capacity” to be sold to ERCOT at “a price no lower than $1,500/MWh,” an increase of over 6,000 percent over February 2020 prices of $18.20. On Wednesday, the Dallas Business Journal reported, “Electricity on the Texas grid has averaged about $1,137.33 per megawatt hour so far in February, up from $18.20 per megawatt hour in February 2020, according to data from the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas. That’s a jump of more than 6,000 percent.” Days later, the Public Utility Commission of Texas set prices at $9,000/MWh. The EO shows the Biden administration basically ordered ERCOT to throttle its energy output by forcing it to comply with environmental green energy standards, while knowing full well Texans could freeze to death in their homes with zero electricity as temperatures plunged into the single digits.”
Images: Texans Froze To Death Because Biden Admin Ordered ERCOT To Throttle Energy Output By Forcing It To Comply With Environmental Green Energy Standards - USA SUPREME
https://www.usasupreme.com/images-texans-froze-to-death-because-biden-admin-ordered-ercot-to-throttle-energy-output-by-forcing-it-to-comply-with-environmental-green-energy-standards/
Court Decision Lets Biden Set New Emissions Rules To Meet Paris Agreement Climate Goals
https://www.forbes.com/sites/allanmarks/2021/01/20/court-decision-lets-biden-set-new-emissions-rules-to-meet-paris-agreement-climate-goals/?sh=51b56b337242
USSANews.com | The Tea Party’s Front Page.
https://ussanews.com/News1/2021/02/19/smoking-gun-joe-bidens-dept-of-energy-blocked-texas-from-increasing-power-ahead-of-enduring-storm/
Biden’s Dept. of Energy Blocked Texas from Increasing Power Ahead of Killer Storm
https://dailyinformer.com/2021/02/19/bidens-dept-of-energy-blocked-texas-from-increasing-power-ahead-of-killer-storm/
Texas Deaths May Be Due In Part to Biden’s Garbage Climate Change Executive Order and Related Actions | CauseACTION Clarion
https://clarion.causeaction.com/2021/02/20/texas-deaths-may-be-due-in-part-to-bidens-garbage-climate-change-executive-order-and-related-actions/
Many more on DuckDuckgo, NOT ON GOOGLE! YOU GET BIDEN DIDN’T CAUSE IT https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/feb/22/infowars/biden-administration-did-not-block-texas-increasin/
I couldn't tell from the article whether this was an internal pump or if they had problems getting outside cooling water into the system. There's a reason why all but one US nuclear plants are built next to a river or some other body of water.
I am very pro Thorium liquid salt reactors. I am also very much in favor of segmenting the grid at state lines.
If you live in a place with irregular cold snaps, it’s best to have a rocket stove mass heater. It is much more efficient than an iron stove, uses about 1/10th of the fuel, and produces about 1/100th of the smoke.
It doesn’t heat with inefficient air convection, but with Infrared radiation, so the heat lasts much longer. Heating with IR is a bit counterintuitive, as the air temperature can be quite chill, but you, bathed in IR may feel hot and be sweating.
The design is such that with some creativity, your stove doesn’t even look like a stove, but some interior design.
The whatever is called "heat trace." I work in a non-nuclear power plant in NYC, and our cooling water lines that run to outside equipment are electrically heat traced (under the insulation). Note that our fuel oil lines use steam heat tracing... you don't ordinarily use electric heat trace on lines filled with combustible liquids. Also note that we don't use anti-freeze in our fresh water recirc cooling water systems due to environmental regulations.
Another possibility where water freezing can lead to a unit trip are the small impulse lines going to instrumentation such as pressure transmitters, level transmitters and flow transmitters. These impulse lines are dead ended at the transmitters and are in tubing as small as 1/4" in diameter, so they are quite susceptible to freezing.
Interesting, thanks for the explanation.
Most of what I know about nuclear power plants was information presented in a class on the aftermath of nuclear power plant accidents. Some of those accidents were very impressive! But that taught me little about how power plants operate when everything goes well.
Daumm ! That's better than winning the Lottery !
"6,000 % increase during an economic and weather crisis ! " .
There hasn't been a new nuclear power plant built since Watts Bar went online in 1996.
Most of those older nuclear power plants are having their licenses extended by the Atomic Energy Dept.
on a case-by-case basis, based on safety and frequency of maintenance and repair.
Would that be called a Tesla tube?.
Not a lame performance, but redundant safety process that keep us safe. I live about 30 minutes from the Nuke and used to work for the company. The hard freeze locked up some water pressure sensors and the computer sent system into shut down without positive feedback of pressures within parameters. Once the control operators figured it out, they ramped back.
It was not the nuclear reactor that failed but the wires and sub stations that brought power to your home that did.
Meanwhile the windmills froze! Solar power panels covered in ice and snow.
Remember when the environmentalist hated nuclear power? Can you recall Jane Fonda and the movie she stared in following the Three Mile Island incident? She was a very vocal and visible opponent of nuclear power. Well, time has proven her just as wrong about nuclear power and she was about the Vietnam War. The environmentalist now are timidly embracing nuclear power, but their enthusiasm is tempered by their past opposition. They can’t allow themselves to admit that they were totally wrong. They are still wrong about global warming that they were forced to change to climate change. They must retain their useful idiot following some how so they continue to lie.
After reading a little bit more about the nuke plant that went down, it’s a Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) design. I have experience with PWRs when I was in the navy. The plant I work in now works the same way as a PWR plant, just with a different heat source. (We use natural gas or #6 fuel oil for the heat source).
Also, it appears the unit in Texas tripped due to low steam generator (boiler) water level after two of the feedwater pumps tripped.
I have never worked at a Westinghouse PWR plant, but my plant’s steam turbine cycle is likely very similar. Our feedwater pumps do not use cooling water directly as the only components which require cooling are the bearings and mechanical seals. The bearings on these giant feedwater pumps use forced oil circulation and the mechanical seals use feedwater from a different part of the cycle. The forced oil circulating system would be cooled by a large cooling water system however. I doubt the feedwater pumps would be located in an area susceptible to freeze damage. (They aren’t at my plant as they’re on the turbine deck.)
Another poster mentioned an issue with a pressure transmitter. Again, using my plant as an example and not an actual Westinghouse PWR plant, we do have redundant differential pressure transmitters to measure the level of the tank supplying the feedwater to the feedwater pumps, which is called the deaerator storage tank. It’s mounted high up in the plant to provide suction head to the feedwater pumps. If the DST level drops too low, it is an automatic feedwater pump trip to protect the pumps from cavitating and destroying the impellor. (My guys are actually going to test this trip circuit at my plant tomorrow on an offline unit; just put it on the daily schedule. We have to test trip circuits annually.)
It’s drafty up there in our plant, but since our deaerator storage tank at the higher elevations of our boiler house, it too isn’t susceptible to freezing when a unit is running. I don’t know if the Westinghouse plant uses elevation for suction head or feedwater booster pumps, but if their DST level instrumentation froze, it’s possible that the feedwater pumps would trip, and then their steam generator would be starved for feedwater, creating a reactor scram/unit trip.
Or the feedwater pumps could have tripped for a completely different reason unrelated to weather, like an electrical fault, but at my plant, the only thing that would trip two feed water pumps at the same time is the DST low level trip.
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.