It was the largest cooling tower in the nation.
Seems like a waste. What were the 'safety reasons' that closed it in '93?
Posted on 05/21/2006 12:51:39 PM PDT by skeptoid
RAINIER, Ore. -- Demolition crews on Sunday destroyed the 499-foot cooling tower at a defunct commercial nuclear power plant.
With a rumble, the tower leaned to the side and collapsed upon itself - leaving a cloud of dust and multi-ton pile of rubble. It took less than 10 seconds and roughly 2,800 pounds of explosives to complete.
Portland General Electric ordered the implosion at Trojan Nuclear Power Plant, about 40 miles north of Portland, as part of its decommissioning.
Trojan closed in 1993 for financial and safety reasons, and the facility has been decommissioned in stages since then. It was Oregon's first and only nuclear power plant.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattlepi.nwsource.com ...
It was the largest cooling tower in the nation.
Seems like a waste. What were the 'safety reasons' that closed it in '93?
How will they feel when they are freezing in the dark?
And the flags of islam are flying outside the city walls?
As I recall, the true "safety reasons" were the general anti-nuke hysteria. There were some structural issues, but nothing that couldn't be put right easily enough. The financial issues were only the usual issues about construction and maintenance expenses.
The only thing that really killed this plant was anti-nuke eco-hysteria. After the plant was shut down, the utilities involved made major investments in wind farms in Idaho, which have been a total disastor.
I think that is what they were going to do with this tower. No cost to build at all. However, the eco-freaks called it an eyesore, and complained that it ruined the view.
Well, if you've ever been by that stretch of the Columbia River, you would know that there is no view to ruin. I think you've got it, that the tower was a monstrous symbol of the hated nukes.
Uh. "40 miles north of Portland" is 39 miles inside Washington State, making it a Washington Nuclear Plant that Oregon was using.
I'll miss that tower. It was freaking huge.
Well, that explains everything!
The water is sprayed farther down, nearer to the bottom. This is a standard design in natural draft, modern cooling towers. Any time you see at tower at a power plant with this design:
That is exactly what is happening inside. It is a tried and true design, decades old. It is used at nuclear, coal and other fuel fired boiler plants
Enjoy!
There were leaks in the steam generators of radioactive water. It would have cost many hundreds of millions of dollars to repair. The consortium of utilities owning Trojan just couldn't justify it.
The design of the steam generators used stainless tubing for the primary loop, not the best material for resisting corrosion in this particular application.
The "spent" fuel is still on-site, however. It will have to be dealt with sooner or later.
Wikipedia says it had problems, but lists lots of political strife, too. That was a huge, expensive structure to demolish. They've got another demolition pic (expandable at the site). 
Thanks
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