When our plant was on line our power bill was about 75 bucks. since they shut it down the bill is between 350 and 500. and going up every year. so much for green energy, my foot.
Georgia Nuclear Power Milestone
- Thread starter bigwheelzip
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Hair Trigger
US Veteran
Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti nuke. I'm much for it, my only concern is disposing the spent fuel. I live less than 25 miles from McGuire and have never been worried. My brother-in-law spent his entire career (40 years) with Duke at Oconee.
You know they made a nuclear powered pacemaker back in the 1970's. It had a 3 curie Plutonium 238 power source.
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The tell me three times on the critical sensors and redundancy on safety systems is simply very prudent practice. You do, however, have a very valid point on the CYA paperwork. An engineer once told me that when the weight of the paperwork equaled the weight of the plant, it could go online. He's not far wrong. There's also the drones in all the regulatory agencies that have to "do something" to justify their positions.
Two things:
Spent fuel can be reprocessed. Just not in the U.S.
Thanks, Jimmy Carter!
Oconee . . . visiting my girlfriend at Clemson one Friday, ~1971, I arrived early so I could go up to Oconee to ask about work. After conversation with receptionist, she had some guy come out to talk with me. He took me to the control room (!), and I sat and talked with him and the operators for perhaps a half hour. Very interesting operation.
No BS. I drove up, and got into the control room.
No job offer came of it. Would have been a great place to work.
Security has been tightened since then. I know. I talked with a nuker security manager a few years ago, and she knew her stuff.
Lest you think this insane, 50 years ago, we didn't lock our houses, either.
That was a great series.
I read a book by Mark Stephens titled Three Mile Island that was most good too.
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I am not against nuclear power per say, but before building anymore nuclear reactors I want them to invent containers to store the depleted rods and waste and a way to transport them all safely until they are no longer a threat to life and environment. From what I understand, that period lasts 500,000 years!
DWalt
Member
Much of that already exists. Spent fuel could be processed in a breeder reactor, but it may be some time before that is common in the US. There is considerable information on the internet about handling and use/disposal of spent fuel rods if you want to research it. It is not a problem that is being ignored.
I am old enough to remember the early days of nuclear power generation. At that time, many gurus were making predictions to the effect that nuclear-generated electricity would be so cheap it wouldn't be necessary to bother metering it. That didn't happen, at least not yet.
The University of Washington has a research reactor in the middle of Seattle. Most have no idea.
Friends' parents did the welding on Satsup and Hanford over the years. And the son of one of the nuclear welders on the Satsop plants was the plasma cutter operator on one of the teams taking out his dad's work. Happened at Hanford too.
My dad worked for Battelle Memorial Institute a research organization. He was a Nuclear Engineer, and I grew up around a reactor and Plutonium lab. I used to go there all the time with him as a kid. Funny thing was when I was really young there was very little security, and the entire location was in a small town called West Jefferson Ohio. By the time I was in middle school they had guard towers, motion sensors and on and on for security. I can remember walking through frame that was a Gieger counter, and my dad always had these little sensors on his lab coat that would tell if they were exposed to radioactive material. He explained the whole process to me and showed me the pool that the fuel rods were in as well as the cooling tower. I loved to watch them work with those long arms in the hot lab.
The main facility was near the OSU campus, and they did a lot of work with the university.
All in all I think Nuclear power should be utilized more than it is. He spent time at Oak Ridge in Tennessee as we as at 3 MI after the accident.
His specialty at the end of his career overseeing the decommissioning of hot sites and nuclear waste disposal. The lead casks they move that stuff in were pretty impressive. He has been retired for many years and I have to assume the safety has improved as well.
The main facility was near the OSU campus, and they did a lot of work with the university.
All in all I think Nuclear power should be utilized more than it is. He spent time at Oak Ridge in Tennessee as we as at 3 MI after the accident.
His specialty at the end of his career overseeing the decommissioning of hot sites and nuclear waste disposal. The lead casks they move that stuff in were pretty impressive. He has been retired for many years and I have to assume the safety has improved as well.
very interesting thread we have here. As for disposal, we just have to be more careful who we hire to manage that. Oh, and keep a close watch on your wife's luggage at the airport.
My older brother is a fire protection engineer in the nuclear industry... he has been at it since the 1980's... I even joined him at seminars when they happened in my University town during college (not much good to an Architecturalstudent, but the meals were top notchandfree)... the nuclear waste storage "problem" has been solved since well before then and the largest volume of "nuclear waste" is gowns masks, gloves and those little cardboard thingies you bite on for dental X-rays... mostly medical waste.. my brother said once, he would store those barrels in his back yard if he could keep all the money they spend on such stuff... the safety record is amazing... and we need to just design a singular plant system that can be replicated across the country to save money and control any minor faults that may occur during construction.. a mass production model with incredible quality control.
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While in the dawn of nuclear power generation darn near each US plant was custom made, and maintenance needs weren't fully considered, that changed. Westinghouse developed the Standardized Nuclear Utility Power Plant pressurized water reactor design and speedy routine maintenance was a priority. Unfortunately, only about 5 units were built using it. Replacement of certain wear parts went from 5-7 days and involving much movement of heavy loads to about 8 hours for the changeout, no heavy lifts, maybe 1 day total (a shrink fit of a drive flange was involved).
Unfortunately, we still have the boiler vs pressurized reactor waffling still going on.
The French were rather more organized. They built 3 different plant designs, ran them for a number of years, picked a winner and built those all over. Their only issue was disposing of a lot of cubic meters of rad waste building material when they decommissioned the losers due to poor choices during design.
There was at one time an idea to incinerate most all low specific activity rad waste and encapsulate the ash (massively smaller volume) in molten glass. I saw the proof of concept incinerator. That's another good idea Peanuts Carter killed.
Unfortunately, we still have the boiler vs pressurized reactor waffling still going on.
The French were rather more organized. They built 3 different plant designs, ran them for a number of years, picked a winner and built those all over. Their only issue was disposing of a lot of cubic meters of rad waste building material when they decommissioned the losers due to poor choices during design.
There was at one time an idea to incinerate most all low specific activity rad waste and encapsulate the ash (massively smaller volume) in molten glass. I saw the proof of concept incinerator. That's another good idea Peanuts Carter killed.
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CAJUNLAWYER
Member
Wouldn't work. My wife could **** that up in a heartbeat
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
I look at it this way...if you are within the :zone of death" and that thing explodes-you ain't got nuttin to worry about no mo.
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
Yea that worked well
Marine Shale was in Morgan City just 30 miles away. We used to pass the plant on old Hwy 90. I remember that "dirt" show well.U.S. V. Marine Shale Processors, Inc.
OP
bigwheelzip
Absent Comrade
And then, on the other side of the coin, is another executive being convicted in the debacle surrounding South Carolina's failed expansion of the V.C Summer nuclear power station.
Executive gets 15 months in prison in doomed nuclear project
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Executive gets 15 months in prison in doomed nuclear project
Sent from my motorola one 5G using Tapatalk
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Yea that worked well
U.S. V. Marine Shale Processors, Inc.
Must be another concept. Or at least another method and definitely MSP wasn't (or damn well shouldn't have been) crisping LSA nuke waste if the picture in the linked article is accurate.
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YeshuaIsa53
Member
We must be sober and diligent with this world we live in.
What we need are self-sustaining, protected from war, nuclear power plants:
Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition | Department of Energy
...and railways that have been properly maintained for transport. Do not trust the RR arms and lights on highways, as I was almost ran over early one morning going duck hunting when the arm went up and the lights stopped flashing near a RR curve. They told me they could not possibly keep all working properly at all times. It is my guess I would have been blamed for trying to outrun a fast train I did not see until crossing the tracks. Nobody would have called it suicide going duck hunting.
If we cannot protect them, self-sustain them, and provide adequate funds for maintenance, we should not build more. JMO
What we need are self-sustaining, protected from war, nuclear power plants:
Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition | Department of Energy
...and railways that have been properly maintained for transport. Do not trust the RR arms and lights on highways, as I was almost ran over early one morning going duck hunting when the arm went up and the lights stopped flashing near a RR curve. They told me they could not possibly keep all working properly at all times. It is my guess I would have been blamed for trying to outrun a fast train I did not see until crossing the tracks. Nobody would have called it suicide going duck hunting.
If we cannot protect them, self-sustain them, and provide adequate funds for maintenance, we should not build more. JMO
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