Posted on 09/01/2005 1:14:18 PM PDT by cowboyway
What did you do there? I was an I&C Technician there from 1982 to 1990, and an Auxiliary Operator from 1990 to 2004.
It'll likely be a Westinghouse AP1000.
It's a long process. The NRC will take at least a year to review the license application.
The design will take another 2 to 4 years before construction begins. And if we can keep the unions out of NC, a five year construction period is realistic and actually, kinda ambitious.
Very good! My dad worked in one for over twenty years, and I worked in one for a short time.
There are two types of reactors in commercial operation in the US; Pressurized Water Reactors and Boiling Water Reactors. It is probable that an advanced version of one of these two types will be selected.
The link below is a good discussion on new reactor designs.
Who ever said the beam had to be transmitted through the atmosphere? A buried light pipe that could be laid around serious obstacles or even suspended from one point to another (like to cross rivers, or mountain ranges). We are not done with developing fiber optics, as just one small example.
And what about room-temperature superconductors? Theoretically, they could serve as capacitors to hold electricity in a continuously traversing loop, until drawn off to provide useful energy at some point. Think of the application of this characteristic to devices in which we now use batteries or portable generators to provide power.
A hundred years ago, television would have been considered wizardry. And probably supernatural to boot.
50 Nuclear Power Plants?
There are about a 100 nukes generating power across the states. Most of them were built in the 70's and early 80's. We'll need a few more than 50 in the near future just to maintain their current MW capability.
Problem is that all the current personnel are getting long in the tooth and there hasn't been a lot of thought in getting new engineers, operators, techs, and (ugh) managers trained. Its a snakepit of an industry where everything you do is governed by 10CFR50, the federal code for nuclear related industries, and the myriad of other codes required. The NRC regulates overtime hours, program reqirements, and the roughness of toilet paper in the control room loo. We wouldn't want the operators to have a sore butt when they leave the lunch room.
Nukes are great producers of electricity once they go online, though. They make a great baseload for voltage support for large metropoli (Is that a word?). I wouldn't want one on every block because of the large parking lots needed for all the nuclear beaurocraps and support personnel.
Spent fuel is some bad stuff and all of it should be in Yucca Mountain or, preferably, the Marianas Trench.
Its nice to know that someone wants to build one. Maybe I can make some money by coming out of retirement.
Design engineering. Since then I've been to Surry, Brunswick, McGuire, Catawba, Fermi, Oconee, DC Cook and am currently working in FPL's Juno Beach office doing design work for both St. Lucie and Turkey Point.
Are you still at Harris?
ping
They have always had it and it has always been privately insured. The Price-Anderson Act establishes the framework for the liability insurance to be paid for by plant owners through a privately-funded liability pool provided by private insurance. Taxpayers don’t pay one lousy dime for it.
This subject keeps coming up and up and up again on these threads and it is getting very wearying having to answer this (implied) bogus “not privately insurable” claim. Once again, here is the link:
Buy your privately-funded nuclear plant liability insurance here.
The nukes that are insured by NML are getting a bonus now. There is so much money in the fund and it has been invested over the years pretty well so the insured get a big fat check in dividends. It pays to be safe and not have meltdowns.
No. I got fired. Personal problems. I don't miss it much.
I have a job with MUCH LESS pressure now. But I'm working with much more up-to-date technology (PLCs, variable speed drives, etc.) now. People are surprised when I tell them about the old stuff in a modern nuclear plant.
When you were at DC Cook, did you run across an STA named Leroy? He was a buddy of mine at Harris.
Speaking of nuclear:
Hawaii has a state constitutional amendment prohibiting nuclear power, yet 78% of their power is from oil burning plants. Think about how many barrels of Saudi oil it takes to power Honolulu and the rest of the state!
"Hawaii uses oil to generate a whopping 78 percent of the state's electricity, compared with just 3 percent nationwide. So everything the Bush plan says about diversifying from fossil fuels goes for us in spades.
Hawaii has no nuclear power plants. Nationwide, nuclear power supplies 20 percent of electricity generation, and the Bush plan calls for more. But the large size of nuclear power generators does not fit Hawaii's needs. Also, the state Constitution prohibits nuclear power."
Source: Honolulu Star Bulletin June 10, 2001
Excellent
As a Progress Energy customer, I say WOO-HOO TOO!
Wasn't Fort St. Vrain a dramatic failure?
"Wasn't Fort St. Vrain a dramatic failure?"
I had to google that one, looks like it was. I gather that it was not the GT-MHR plant but MHR only. The new design uses a gas turbine, it looks like this was driven by the failure at the Fort St. Vrain plant. Below is an extract from General Atomics:
"The combination of the MHR and the gas turbine represents the ultimate in simplicity, safety and economy. The reactor coolant directly drives the turbine which turns the generator. This allows costly and failure prone steam generating equipment to be eliminated.
• No corrosion-caused leaks
• No corrosion-caused reduction in operating life
• No stress corrosion-caused structural failures"
http://gt-mhr.ga.com/6over40.html
http://gt-mhr.ga.com/1simpl.html
Do you know more about this?
Not much. I was at Harris for most of my years in the industry, including the last years of Fort St. Vrain.
I figured the failure of Fort St. Vrain to be on account of some of the contractors that left Harris to go there (not exactly the best and brightest).
I'm not in the nuclear industry so you would no more than I would, I just gleaned stuff from the Internet. By the way, your tagline inspired a new one for me! Remember when Burger King had the "Try a Whopper Herb" commercials twenty years ago, bombed sales? I think Snoop Dog might do the same.
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