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The nation has 99 operating nuclear reactors and collectively they had more than 110 scrams in the last two years, he said.The leak affected the plant’s main turbine, requiring it to be taken offline so repairs could be made.
The scram ended a string of six scrams starting in August 2008 that caused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to increase oversight in 2010, but the plant was back to normal oversight the next year. The last NRC annual review found the plant operated safely in 2015.http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article68707312.html
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Some interesting facts on US nuclear
U.S. Nuclear Plant Stats
Number of operating reactors: 99, with 34 boiling water reactors (BWRs) and 65 pressurized water reactors (PWRs).- 13 BWR plants have one reactor; nine have two reactors; one has three reactors
- 13 PWR plants have one reactor; 23 have two reactors; two have three reactors
- U.S. Nuclear Operating Plant Basic Information
- Nuclear Plants in Regulated and Deregulated States
Most electricity generated in a year: 11.8 billion kilowatt-hours at South Texas Project 2 in Texas in 2007.
Largest U.S. nuclear plant: Palo Verde (Arizona), three reactors at 1,311; 1,314; and 1,312 megawatts each, for a total of 3,937 megawatts.
Smallest nuclear plant: Fort Calhoun (Nebraska), one reactor at 478 megawatts.
Newest nuclear plant: Watts Bar 2 (Tennessee), operating license issued October 2015.
Oldest operating nuclear plant: Oyster Creek (New Jersey), operating license issued April 1969.
SCRAM is anticipated plant opetation. It's the primary function of control rods- to instantly terminate the self sustained chain reactor and put the reactor on a -80 sec period. A reactor that is designed not to scram need not have control rods if criticality can be maintained by boron concentration. Yet the rapid insertion of rods ensures a quick termination of the self sustained chain reaction.
ReplyDeleteAnd then pretending that inserting the control rods is all you have to do....
DeleteIgnoring that inconvenient truth, that continued cooling is essential to prevent meltdown.
The author of this article is clearly either ignorant of reactor operations or deliberately trying to scare others who are. When you start up a nuclear reactor you withdraw your Safety Rods, which allow the reactor to achieve criticality, a self-sustainable chain reaction. A reactor SCRAM is simply releasing the Safety Rods so the fall back into the core & rapidly stop the chain reaction, thus ending the generation of heat from fission. Yes, cooling must be maintained for a while to remove "decay heat" from radioactive decay of fission products, but operators know this & do so. There are multiple redundant systems to ensure core cooling, and since Fukushima happened plants all over the world have added even more backup systems.
ReplyDeleteHilarious "safety rods", are you related to Rod Adams?
DeleteBWRs pushing "control rods" up from the bottom, one reason they are so dangerous that in a melt, there are 100 easy to melt through passage ways, dropping the corium on the concrete which in turn then releases nearly the whole inventory of strontium....do some research before you peddle your Bullshit here.
"remove decay heat" for a while.....yeah like 5 years before they can even be dry casked. I guess that is "a while"
And most "backup systems" post Fukushima have been primarily eyewash, or never done.