Posted on 04/15/2018 3:07:46 AM PDT by naturalman1975
Prayers being sent, NM.
Because it is always a great idea to store military grade explosives near a nuclear reactor.
Prayers up for all involved.
L
Absolutely the scenario as it played out. On site generators and back-up batteries were inundated with sea water rendering them useless. A shipment of batteries from off-site was diverted in a bureaucratic SNAFU and never reached the plant. Heroic and desperate operators devised a plan to operate vital valves by literally going inside the stricken plants with a portable compressor to operate pneumatic valves manually to provide emergency gravity cooling and as a last resort dump the contents of the Toroid.
Those efforts ultimately were unsuccessful of course resulting in run-away reactors, splitting of water molecules, production of Hydrogen gas, activation of pressure relief valves releasing Hydrogen, and the resulting Hydrogen explosions that destroyed the reactor buildings. The reactors then melted down, breached the reactor vessels and containments and deposited corium in the bedrock strata below.
That’s where things stand today with hot reactor cores emitting fission products into the ground water. The Japanese and world communities have constructed a boundary wall around the plants by drilling bore holes and and injecting Nitrogen to freeze the area. They the pump out a good portion of the contaminated ground water for storage and treatment.
Cutting edge technologies are being developed on site by the biggest players worldwide to treat contaminated water and are showing a lot of good results. I’m no scientist but that is my understanding.
i see. Thank you. “For want of a nail . . .”
Except of course it isn't. The OPAL (Open Pool Australian Light-water) Reactor is a 20 Megawatt (thermal) research reactor used primarily for isotope production not electricity production (no steam generators). In the event that the fire threatens the power grid, the reactor will be safely shut down (if not already shut down) and Diesel generators will start and provide backup power. Even if that fails, the open pool design should be capable of providing adequate decay heat removal via evaporation for several days. By that time decay heat will be significantly reduced, and other methods can be put in place to ensure cooling.
Thank you. I was going to try and research this today. I knew that the reactor isn’t a power plant so that wasn’t a concern, but I was unsure as to exactly what risks still did exist.
“In most of these plants there is a single steam pipe, a couple of feet in diameter, that carries roughly a HUNDRED MILLION horsepower of steam power. “
Amazing statistic. I want to work out the HP equivalent for our (my state’s although it is federal) Grand Coulee Dam.
“HUNDRED MILLION horsepower of steam power”
Second reply: They should harness that to do some real work! /s
prayers for Sydney area, I have visited.
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