Relative dangers of nuclear power

[Bodhi]

The leftist propaganda against nuclear power has brain washed so many.  Nuclear power is a very viable option that is getting a bad wrap just like hydrogen got a bad rap after the Hindenburg.

[TheDudeDVant]

We can't go full nuclear yet as the world's supply of nuclear fuel would only last just under 50 years fueling those plants.

A nuke fuel rod contains 99% of -238 isotope and 1% 239 isotope... the current reactors only use the -239 portion to generate power, leaving behind the -238 as waste. Scientists are trying to design a reactor that will use the -238 waste fuel rods as fuel... if they can pull this off then the world's supply of power could be satisfied by these new, safer reactors.

our fuel is enriched to ~4%-6% u235 the rest u238..  over core life the reactor engineers will setup a rod pattern and take advantage of what is called spectral hardening and produce p239 in the upper portions of the core for the end of core life when most of the u235 has been depleted..

[TheDudeDVant]

absolutely not true, its the opposite today most of the anti-nuclear people i know, know much more about the whole technique & the danger.
How can you compare it to a high temp steam generator??? absolutely wrong, just stop the fire, open all valves and your ok...
This just dont work with a real Nuclear Plant, does it??

b/c it is a high temp steam generator.. lol

and yes.. it pretty much is just like that.. open a valve, put out the fire... ok ok.. maybe a couple valves have to be closed also.. 

[TheDudeDVant]

 And that was not a scram.

oh i bet they did scram.. hehe 

[TheDudeDVant]

warhed quick question, some nuclear physicist just mentioned on TV a meltdown in Fukushima would be 3 times as hard as chernobyl
because of 2 main points.
1st. in Chernobyl there was a fire and big explosion, the radiation particles went up to 15km in the air spread around
whole europe. A meltdown without an explosion in Fukushima would be more intense, you would need an evacuation zone of min. 100km.
and 2nd, the Fuel rods at Fukushima are much older then Chernobyl = much much more radiation.
What do you think about this statements?

no Mk1 containment has ever been breached..  if badstuff can't get to the people places, how could it be worse?

[warhed]

Our plant set records in our refuel outages in 2005 and 2007 for shortest cold shutdowns.  We went from 100% power down to 0% in the matter of an hour.  That used to take days to do.
It really is as simple as boiling water, some plants use steam to turn the turbine, other use pressure, BWR and PWR respectively.  

We are in no shortage of fuel, I've never heard anyone ever talk about running out.  My plant, and most others in the U.S. are burning old soviet weapons, not because we're running out of the fresh stuff, it's just cheaper.  That is the beauty of a nuclear power plant, a few trucks worth of fuel lasts in the reactor for 6 years.  They divide the fuel into 3 sections, the inner sections burn out first, then after 2 years you take the inner our, and move the middle section in, and the outer section to the middle, and put in new fuel on the outside.  It doesn't take much work to keep running, for the guys who man the plant during it's running, it really is a cake job.  Guys like me (outage support) have all the hard work  

[TheDudeDVant]

Our plant set records in our refuel outages in 2005 and 2007 for shortest cold shutdowns.  We went from 100% power down to 0% in the matter of an hour.  That used to take days to do.

i work at a bwr.. if we cooled down that quickly the reactor vessel would be DOA...  from an operating pressure of ~1035psi to atmo press is called an emergency depressurization and is generally frowned upon. lol (a vessel's life will only consist of one of these) we have a defined cool down rate that must be adhered to. the vessel is a large chunk of metal. if it cools too rapidly it becomes brittle therefor not operational.

[warhed]

What station are you at?

[TheDudeDVant]

Browns Ferry.. my plant is kinda famous too but for the wrong reasons.. haha

You're at Cook or Palisades?

[TheDudeDVant]

or for some of the right reasons too.. haha  I think we still have the most MW generated under one roof in the world.. <G>

[warhed]

Browns Ferry.. my plant is kinda famous too but for the wrong reasons.. haha

You're at Cook or Palisades?

Used to work at First Energy, Perry Nuclear Power Plant, now with a new company called New Green, once we get contracts, we'll be doing repair and decon.  When I get hired I'll be running a outage maint. team.  

First Energy if you remember from 6 or 7 years ago, had the fiasco with the reactor vessel at Davis Besse.  That one almost bankrupted First Energy  

[warhed]

Our one reactor put out over 1300
Our other reactor put out nothing, we're one of those half plants haha.
The incomplete reactor provided a strange haunted dark outage support facility.

[TheDudeDVant]

First Energy if you remember from 6 or 7 years ago, had the fiasco with the reactor vessel at Davis Besse.  That one almost bankrupted First Energy  

yea.. that was boron on the carbon steel steam dome? pretty sure folks went to jail for that one..

[warhed]

yea.. that was boron on the carbon steel steam dome? pretty sure folks went to jail for that one..

That's the one.  Those guys were on outage schedules after it came out for almost 2 full years.   Mixed with our plant having our outage go about 4 months over schedule, FE was close to selling the reactors, we had 2/4 reactors running for 6 months, then 3/4 for almost 2 years, plus Beaver Vallery's scheduled outages.  Was the main reason I never got on full time at Perry, even after going through the nuclear engineering program.

[TheDudeDVant]

That's the one.  Those guys were on outage schedules after it came out for almost 2 full years. 

good money there i bet..

iirc it was a 3/8 piece of stainless steel liner inside the vessel was the only thing maintaining the pressure boundary.. just another testament to how well american/GE plants are designed..

Japan's plants seemed to frighten the world but i see it as success. They withstood a mag9 earthquake and the following tsunami and to top it all off were without offsite power for 7days.. the last i read the suffered minor fuel damage.. probably less than 5%.. but bottom line is their primary containments held.