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1 posted on 07/05/2007 6:20:01 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
In fact, the reactor was affected. The fire started when coolant was ignited by a short circuit. Afterwards, investigators found that crucial pumps supplying water to the reactor had failed, while two safety valves had opened unexpectedly, causing pressure to drop fast.

Why does that make me think of Chernobyl?
2 posted on 07/05/2007 7:49:46 PM PDT by kinoxi
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To: blam; xcamel; neverdem; cogitator
The (incompetently-written) article implies that the reactor “coolant” was burning (instead of the transformer coolant - which does burn), and that the loss of the reactor coolant pumps was the same accident as the transformer fire.

Linked, but NOT the same system, not same fluid, and not even in the same building! Transformer fires do happen (several every year, in power plants from hydro, coal, gas turbine, and steam turbine. And, every now and then, in a steam turbine nuclear plant.

Losing two reactor coolant pumps after the transformer fire is possible if (when) the main power circuits are de-energized as the transformer is de-denergized. The plant expects this, which is why different reactor coolant pumps are powered from different main power circuits (each has several backups) in different places. A single power loss doesn’t affect all of the pumps.

3 posted on 07/06/2007 6:18:15 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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