Posted on 03/13/2022 10:57:32 AM PDT by McGruff
Ukraine says it has restored a broken power line to the Chernobyl power plant, the scene of a nuclear meltdown in 1986, which is held by Russian troops.
Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that “heroes” from the national power grid company managed to restore the connection. The power is used to run pumps which keep spent nuclear fuel cool to prevent radiation leaks.
Ukraine said Wednesday that power had been cut to the site and that there was enough diesel fuel to run on-site generators for 48 hours. The International Atomic Energy Agency played down concerns, saying it saw little risk of the pools containing the spent fuel overheating even without electricity.
Belarus said Thursday it had set up an emergency power line to Chernobyl from its nearby border.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
I have never understood why nuclear plants had to be on the grid. It seems like they should be able to self power at least as an emergency measure. That was a problem at Fukushima and it is an ongoing problem at Chernobyl.
An interesting point.
Not sure how much juice they would need, but obviously critical functions like hospitals have gen sets.
Of course you need big fuel tanks or a nat gas supply too if you plan any extended running.
Sounds like Chernobyl didn’t melt down after all, as the media virtually PROMISED it would several days ago.
Goes into the 80% category of Fake News. And again, the story never passed the smell test - since Russia would have been clobbered by the fallout.
I’m sure they have gas powered generators for a few dats. I’m thinking of running the reactor to power the turbines and produce electricity for itself. It should be a hundred years of emergency power. For some reason they need to be on the grid for that to work. Maybe they don’t have a low power settings and it’s either gigawatts or nothing.
“heroes” from the national power grid company...
At least until they refuse the jab.
It is difficult for a power plant to go isochronous. When the plant is cut off from the grid the sudden loss of load on the turbine generators tends to trip them on overspeed. If there is no grid to sync back on to you are kind of screwed. Better hope your turning gear has an alternate source of power.
“It seems like they should be able to self power at least as an emergency measure.”
I thought operation at low power levels was the problem at Chernobyl. The reactors are unstable at low power.
Ironically, your idea is what helped cause reactor 4 to explode under pressure. It was a test to see if they can use power from the turbine to run the pumps in a run down test, in case the plant loses grid power. The pumps would be powered from the turbine until the generators were kicked on and running at full power. This test was screwed royally and rest is history.
Fear sells, the media knows this and says whatever to keep people in fear.
Nuclear experts said it wasn’t an issue and even made statements that the plant could lose power for months and nothing bad would happen. They only stated that they couldn’t monitor the radiation levels on the site without power.
But that was pretty much ignored and “chernobyl is going to blow up again” became the “news” of the week.
It is true that the RBMK reactor is more unstable at low power, a trained staff could handle the reactor and follow proper shut down procedures. However more events then just being at low powered caused it to blow up.
Safety and procedure certainly wasn’t a priority the night it exploded.
Would it be feasible to operate it for long periods of time at just enough power to keep the systems around the plant running?
I want to know how the Russian military knows exactly where to go when invading such an area as Chernobyl. To me, it would seem like it would be too easy to be in areas that are, still, way too high in radiation levels and not, even, know it. You telling me that not a single person is going to, accidentally, get radiation poisoning, from it being invaded, quickly, by the Russians?
Right now the plant has been decommissioned
The pumps now are just circulating the water in the spent fuel pools
None of these reactors have been running for over 20 years. They do not produce power. They simply sit there requiring power to run cooling systems to keep them from overheating, exploding, and blowing radioactive materials all over the planet. All Apoplectic movies leave out the part where the nuclear reactors in the world blow up shortly after the “Big Event”. Even ones like this that have been shut down for decades. They just take a bit longer to blow.
Just one of the reasons nuclear power is the most insane thing ever done by man.
IAEA engineering study from a decade ago said total loss of power at Chernobyl would never allow spent fuel pool water to rise above 70 deg C.
For dumbassery like the above, that’s 158 deg F.
A little too warm to bathe in; much too cool to make grits.
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