tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post4011547265370902341..comments2023-04-07T05:19:44.951-04:00Comments on Yes Vermont Yankee: Safety of Nuclear vs. Gas: Guest Post by N Nadir Meredith Angwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02737538041807740424noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-63415234637197358132013-10-03T20:53:47.688-04:002013-10-03T20:53:47.688-04:00David
I don't think that calling one type of ...David<br /><br />I don't think that calling one type of reactor "inherently unsafe" is going to do any good for any other type of reactor. You can attack LWRs, I can reply with comments about the graphite moderator at Chernobyl. This does nobody any good.<br /><br />In point of fact, however, natural gas kills people on a routine basis while power reactors have a stellar safety record.Meredith Angwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02737538041807740424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-9253806647148353462013-10-01T18:18:13.601-04:002013-10-01T18:18:13.601-04:00The UK has had PGR reactors using CO2 and Graphite...The UK has had PGR reactors using CO2 and Graphite moderators which were orders of magnitude safer than PWR which is inherently unsafe, The PWR will run into meltdown without intervention by a control room, it relys on active cooling systems and recombiners to stop hydrolysis, it needs a manual shutdown sequence which requires power to function. A system of automatic shutdown without intervention has been left out of each and every design. The Graphite moderator PGR has control rods, which if moved - by hand - if need be, will stop the reactor.<br /><br />"The control rod system is an inherently failsafe design with the control rods suspended<br />at the top of the reactor core by energised control rod motors. A trip of the system by<br />the main guardlines, diverse guardlines or reactor trip button, or a complete loss of<br />electrical supplies, removes power from the control rod motors and the rods fall by<br />gravity into the core at a speed limited by regenerative breaking of the motors but<br />taking less than 10 seconds. " EU Stress Test Report – Wylfa<br />October 2011DKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02063392227763282031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-82946390002305832322013-09-26T19:14:36.347-04:002013-09-26T19:14:36.347-04:00When I speak to students about perceived risk vs. ...When I speak to students about perceived risk vs. real risk, I always ask the audience two questions. First, I ask that anyone who has heard of Three Mile Island please raise their hand. Everyone in the audience raises their hand. Then I ask that anyone who has heard of Elk Grove Village to raise their hand. Nobody raises their hand. I then tell them the story. In March, 1979, a mishap caused damage at the Three Mile Island power station. While some industrial equipment was damaged, no one was killed, no one was injured. In May of 1979, two months after the Three Mile Island incident, a DC-10 took off from O'Hare Airport and less than a minute later crashed into a trailer park in Elk Grove Village, IL. Over 270 people died, including several on the ground. It was the deadliest air accident in US history, but no one remembers it. They all know about Three Mile Island, a zero fatalities event. But no one remembrs almost 300 deaths in an air crash. I ask them why that is. All I get are shrugs, blank looks, and crickets.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-11666899240895189732013-09-26T11:50:26.137-04:002013-09-26T11:50:26.137-04:00Piper Alpha was a North Sea oil production platfor...Piper Alpha was a North Sea oil production platform operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Ltd.[1] The platform began production in 1976,[2] first as an oil platform and then later converted to gas production. An explosion and the resulting oil and gas fires destroyed it on 6 July 1988, killing 167 men,[3] with only 61 survivors. The death toll includes two crewmen of a rescue vessel.[4] Total insured loss was about £1.7 billion (US$3.4 billion). At the time of the disaster, the platform accounted for approximately ten percent of North Sea oil and gas production, and was the worst offshore oil disaster in terms of lives lost and industry impact.[5] --from wikipedia. Note: 1988. TMI: 1979 death toll: 0Paul Wicknoreply@blogger.com