Breaking news: Nuclear event in the US, Palisades Nuclear Generating Station is venting radioactive

reply to post by 8ILlBILl8

Southern Ontario and Michigan are caught in a weather vortex (the jet stram is looped under that pattern) that the weatherman says is going nowhere. It's just going to go round and round in a giant circle. Guess it's time to really shut the windows!

reply to post by Calex1987


Oh man, I watched a guy drop a Craftsman 1" socket onto a live -48V bus bar once. The bus bar had 6 rectifiers each capable of supplying 300 amps.

The socket completely vaporized, and the systems never even noticed it... What a flash THAT created!!

Oh, and sears wouldn't replace the socket, they told me that they needed at least SOME proof that it ever existed!!

reply to post by LilFox


Van Buren was total rubbish I'm so glad it was thrown out

I'm in Windsor, Ontario, should I be worried? I don't know too much about this topic but I'm trying to learn.

Chandrithal said that the current shutdown happened because an object slipped during work on a circuit breaker and caused an arc that took out power for one of two DC electrical systems that power safety valves and other devices.

I'm not an electrical engineer, but part of my job (as an architect) is coordinating closely with them and having a thorough understanding of the systems. What is described above sounds like an "arc flash" incident. These have become more and more common and it's gotten to the point where some of our clients are now demanding arc flash studies. This entails designating areas around electrical equipment as danger zones where the zone is actually physically striped off and specific instructions are given for working within the zone. I have a feeling they have not done an arc flash study at this facility, but I bet they will soon. Someone was doing something in the arc flash zone that they shouldn't have been. If I'm reading the article correctly, they have an "N+N" setup which is basically dual redundancy. In other words, there are two separate DC power plants that provide power to the equipment in question. One leg in an N+N setup can go down and everything will still function fine on the 2nd leg, but they would of course go into emergency mode to restore the downed leg as soon as possible because while that leg is down they have no redundancy in the system. I've never worked in a nuke facility, but I have worked in web hosting facilities and N+N redundancy is something I'm quite familiar with. I would expect a nuclear facility would have at least the same level of protection as a web hosting facility.

Originally posted by whatsinaname
turn the damned things off, make solar fields. nuff said.

if they can't do that much they don't deserve to be the ones in charge of our power.

ed: and don't give me "you wouldn't get enough power that way" because there are -many- alternatives.

edit on 27/9/2011 by whatsinaname because: (no reason given)

THAT MY FRIEND WOULD BE TOOOOO SMART

reply to post by LilFox




You can't hide a Nuclear meltdown. Their is no way you could keep it a secret and no reason. You need multiple resources to bring it under control.

reply to post by ignant


The first paragraph of the OP's post has the electrical issue stated.

unplanned shutdown triggered by an electrical accident.

OP thanks for sharing with us.

reply to post by LilFox


Really? my home state? The one state with enough water to sustain our whole country....

c'mon PTB...you guys suck.

Originally posted by aboutface
reply to post by 8ILlBILl8

 

Southern Ontario and Michigan are caught in a weather vortex (the jet stram is looped under that pattern) that the weatherman says is going nowhere. It's just going to go round and round in a giant circle. Guess it's time to really shut the windows!

Not cool...That is literally over my head.........F ing A ! not cool

Hopefully it doesn't get out of hand.

Wow. Is it just me, or is the world as a whole being WAY too careless with nuclear materials? wasn't there a story a few days ago about some 30k lbs of weapon grade uranium that just came up unaccounted for? Keep a look out for 3 eyed fish people. Won't be long after that before were in the middle Of a manmade zombie apocalypse.

There's been a whole lot of, "Whoops, I broke the Nuclear Reactor!. My bad." moments here lately. It's like Homer Simpsons are suddenly working at all these places! I mean how is it that a NUCLEAR REACTOR can be disabled by one guy dropping a wrench or leaning on a switch, etc.? lol

...or could it be that the sun is having a little fun with us via CME, and the media just doesn't want to admit it?

Yeah but....it's tritium, right? That's the same stuff that's in your emergency exit signs, your glow in the dark iron sights on firearms, things like that. Things that are thoroughly unprotected and widely available, but no one cares because it would take a massive amount in concentration to do any harm. The article says small amounts. Are we making an issue out of a non-issue again?

I find it unbelievable that we need to rely on some of the most dangerous friggin forces of nature to be able to live our pointless, comfortable lives. WE are all to blame because WE allowed them to go on with this dangerous crap, but WE can fix this. Start using solar power, invent a car that runs on water, find a way to pull energy out of the atmosphere like Tesla did, anything to show these power-hungry idiots that we don't need them. Without us TPTB are powerless.

This is crazy, so if they keep this power plant online, what is the third mishap going to be in 2011? or 2012 or 2013...

Looking into Palisades Nuclear Plant a little, I discovered this from Wikipedia

Spent fuel rods are stored outdoors in 21 16-foot-tall (4.9 m) storage casks, each containing 30 tons and resting on a concrete pad. This was intended to be a temporary solution until the spent fuel repository at Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository opened. However, the NRC is no longer considering the Yucca Mountain site an option for storing reactor waste.

Oh, so they just keep making waste, with no proper place to store it?
Another interesting thing from Wikipedia was this:

Like all U.S. Nuclear Power plants since September 11, 2001, public access to Palisades is prohibited. However, a good view of Palisades can be glimpsed from the neighboring Van Buren State Park.

but Palisades website still has an active link to arrange tours www.palisadespowerplant.com...

Thanks for your interest in learning more about nuclear power at Palisades.Tours are offered from 10AM-2PM EST Monday through Thursday. Tours take approximately 1-2 hours from start to finish.

Please plan to book your tour at least TWO WEEKS in advance by contacting Mark Savage, Communications Manager at (269) 764-2333 or [email protected].

You are required to wear thick soled boots or tennis shoes when touring the facility.

Huh, I assume that public access was denied to nuclear plants due to 9-11 incident, but somebody forgot to tell Palisades that. Or else Wikipedia is wrong on this point.

Not everyone is happy with the place "Palisades the monster on the beach"

Palisades nuclear power plant and radioactive waste storage...near South Haven, on the shores of Lake Michigan, the source of some bottled drinking waters...What you don't see in this pretty postcard--
The man who worked at Palisades, and died from internal bleeding after being ill for ten days with a mysterious illness
The people dying of cancer in the area. It is a cancer pocket!!
The scummy water quality of Lake Michigan at the South Haven Beach near Palisades
The huge plume of steam that often envelopes the plant when it is operating.
The leaks, the radioactive releases, the contamination....tritium in the groundwater........
The huge amount of high level radioactive waste accumulating along the shore
Future generations--their burden
What will it be like if this blows?
There will be no future generations!!

Ugh, check out their links where NRC issued notices of violations, and other safety failures. Ugh. Ugh.

Originally posted by RedGod
Yeah but....it's tritium, right? That's the same stuff that's in your emergency exit signs, your glow in the dark iron sights on firearms, things like that. Things that are thoroughly unprotected and widely available, but no one cares because it would take a massive amount in concentration to do any harm. The article says small amounts. Are we making an issue out of a non-issue again?

Yes those things do contain tritium(H3) But when was the last time you ingested glow in the dark substances, or better yet vaporized them and then inhaled them. H3 is a beta emitter so the glass covers on these devices is sufficient to block the electrons from doing harm to yours cell while using them. But when when it is absorbed by your body it does intensive damage to the surrounding biological material. Also H3 has a half life of around 12 years so the emissions from this plant are going to be radio-toxic for around the next 120 years or so.

reply to post by LilFox


I don't claim to be a master scientist but, I'd say the most important section of that article is... TRITIUM. And the best part is, is because its an isotope of hydrogen it can bond with oxygen atoms to make.. you got it.. water, not to mention all of the other lovely things that consist of hydrogen, carboHYDRATEs, amongst them. Not good my friends, not good.

reply to post by Destinyone


a coolant leak is not a coolant failure, nor anything near fukishima.

reply to post by PapaEmeritus


Yeah, by that time Interplay was in severe trouble, probably beyond the point of no return.

As for the plant, it could simply be the aforementioned electrical failure, or we aren't getting the whole story, and if we are.. We are in a lot more danger than we otherwise anticipated. Failing machinery gives off telltale signs, either they were ignored, covered up, or were not present. If it is the latter, then who knows which reactors will be next.

Or, as mentioned, it could be stuxnet, or another variant. However, that should have caused an overdrive in the turbines, more of a critical failure, unless someone has come up with a more insidious virus.