Breaking News: Sirens going off at San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant (San Clemente, CA)

Channel 7 KABC News ^ | January 19, 2010

[buffyt]

I just looked it up, that is less than 30 miles from where our son goes to college!

[bd476]

Elsie wrote: "...which draws billions of gallons of water from the ocean each day. BILLIONS?? One billion gallons is a volume 20' by 20' by 63.3 MILES long!"

Elsie, here is some interesting information I was able to find for you which explains a little about the operations at the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant.

Power Generation - San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) is located next to San Onofre State Beach, which adjoins the Camp Pendelton U.S. Marine Corps Base in northern San Diego County.

The plant contains three nuclear reactors, units 1, 2, and 3. Units 2 and 3 are currently in use and are capable of producing enough power to serve the needs of 2.75 million households (that is, 2,254 megawatts of power).

When both SONGS units are operating, they have the potential of saving the equivalent of 188 billion cubic feet of natural gas each year. Unit 1 was retired in 1992 after 25 years of service and is currently being decommissioned.

Ownership Of SONGS 2 And 3

SCE, operating manager, 78.21%

SDG&E, 20%

City of Riverside, 1.79%

Basic Operation

The operation of a nuclear power plant is in many respects similar to that of a coal, natural gas or oil fired plant. All have a heat source that boils water. The primary difference between these plants is the fuel used. At a nuclear plant the fuel is uranium.



The containment structures for both Units 2 and 3 are made of reinforced concrete 4 ฝ feet thick. Inside the structure is an 8-inch thick steel reactor vessel which houses the reactor.

Inside the reactor, fuel rods and control rods are surrounded by pressurized water.

Control rods are moved out from between the fuel rods starting the nuclear fission process to heat up the pressurized water flowing within the reactor.



This pressurized water is pumped from the reactor into the steam generator where the heat from the pressurized water transfers to a second source of water which then boils into steam.

The pressurized water now returns back to the reactor to heat up once again.

Traveling through the steam line, the high-pressure steam enters the turbine where the propeller-like blades inside spin to generate electricity.

Simultaneously, a loop of ocean water is used as a coolant to condense the steam back into water for recycling to the steam generator.

The electricity travels from the turbine generator to the electrical switchyard, across a series of transmission lines and substation transformers until it is delivered into consumers' homes and businesses.

The control room is the nerve center for all these aspects of electrical generation at SONGS.

Power Generation - San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

[Lando Lincoln]

Indeed. The sirens would be worrisome at any hour.

[bd476]

july4thfreedomfoundation wrote: "Are they under attack by The Amish?"

Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone. That's supposed to be top secret!

[backwoods-engineer]

Reminds me of James Huston's military fiction novel Flashpoint (I think that's right) where terrorists steal F-16's and bomb the fuel cooling pool at San Onofre, creating a radioactive cloud.

[melkor]

we had our fire alarms go off due to a malfunction. There was no fire, but they couldnt get the alams to turn off. I suspect it is along the same thing - A malfunction.

[neodad]

LOL! You know, that can’t be by accident.

[FReepaholic]

...They are working on finding a way to turn the sirens off...

Turn the O-N-O-F-F switch to the O-F-F position.

[Elsie]

... are made of reinforced concrete 4 ฝ feet thick.

 

It's under attack by THAILAND!!!

[Elsie]

(that is, 2,254 megawatts of power).

2.254 watts per gallon??

[John Leland 1789]

“They are working on finding a way to turn the sirens off.”

---

Something wrong here, eh?

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping

[RightField]

The plant uses a pair of heat exchangers, fed by cool ocean water, to keep the hot fuel from getting so hot that it could melt, a problem that could be dangerous to the surrounding environment.

That seems a little like saying, "Houston, we have a problem."

I worked for one of the contractors in the early 1980's during Unit 2's construction. Our contractor wrote the maintenance procedures for various mechanical parts ... snubbers, valves, etc. We typed the procedures. Our little typing pool was so jealous when the SONGS typing pool got a 15 MB hard drive to store their work. It was about the size of a 4-drawer file cabinet. We subs had to keep our work on LP-sized floppy discs.

[FReepaholic]

...to keep the hot fuel from getting so hot that it could melt, a problem that could be dangerous to the surrounding environment...

If that happens they could just tow it outside the environment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXfWfJz59pk

[KTM rider]

I went inside the plant several times with heavy equipment about five years ago and the security was pretty tight, three physical gates to get through and visitors like me had an armed escort assigned to follow me around like a shadow every second with a loaded full auto AR15, which makes me think they are spinning centrifuges in there

[KTM rider]

the last time I was in there , the workers said the reactor was shutting down and wont be reactivated , there was no evidence of steam escaping anywhere, but they were real sensitive about who goes where and even inside the plant, areas had multiple layers of security

[MortMan]

Well, doesn’t Arkansas have Dollywood?

[Cindy]

Thanks for the ping bd476.