Cracks in Nuclear reactor

[Tashyboy]

I see one of the Hunterston B nuclear reactors has a few cracks in it. Well about 370 at the last count. Surely slipping Doon frae Troon £20 and a pot of polyfilla could sort it. Thank god one of them is not on me door step. How can they be the future, when it goes tits up with one of them. It tends to be on the serious side.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I see one of the Hunterston B nuclear reactors has a few cracks in it. Well about 370 at the last count. Surely slipping Doon from Toon £20 and a pot of polyfilla could sort it. Thank god one of them is not on me door step. How can they be the future, when it goes tits up with one of them. It tends to be on the serious side.

Back in the 80's I did some temping work one summer at the site where the nuclear power stations for the country were being designed. Thousands of engineers worked there, armies of admin people and because it was before email they went through tonnes of paper per day, quite literally. I remember having a conversation one day about the power stations that were being designed. One woman was trying to justify them and turned to me for back up. I pointed out that every day we were moving reams of paper around the building passing upgrades, amendments, improvements etc between engineers. 'That tends to suggest the design is not finished, is not perfect and with nuclear not having perfect is not good news. The margin for error on nuclear is incredibly small, if there even is one'. She didn't take that well. I've seen nothing since then to change my mind on this.

When nuclear goes wrong it is catastrophic, they still don't really know how to deal with spent rods. The sooner we are rid of them the better.

 

[Foxholer]

The obvious way to get rid of Nuclear waste is to launch it into the Sun!

How that can be done safely and economically is a different issue!

It would seem that those engineers LT mentioned failed to design any way to replace the graphite bricks that have cracked, either by ommission or deliberately - as the definition of need to decommission that particular reactor.

 

[Kellfire]

They expect to find these cracks, it was part of a routine check, they followed protocol and it's really a non-story driven by a lack of knowledge in nuclear technology.

 

[Foxholer]

They expect to find these cracks, it was part of a routine check, they followed protocol and it's really a non-story driven by a lack of knowledge in nuclear technology.

I believe they were surprised - shocked even - at the number they found though! And that's why the reactor was shut down - a 'precaution plus' approach - when the rate of discovery exceeded expectations.

Definitely NOT a non-story. But nothing to be overly concerned about - except by those who might lose their jobs there earlier than expected.

 

[Kellfire]

I believe they were surprised - shocked even - at the number they found though! And that's why the reactor was shut down - a 'precaution plus' approach - when the rate of discovery exceeded expectations.

Definitely NOT a non-story. But nothing to be overly concerned about - except by those who might lose their jobs there earlier than expected.

Ok, maybe not a "non-story" per se, but one the media should be more careful with as the general public will be sat there thinking of Chernobyl, Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

 

[Tashyboy]

Ok, maybe not a "non-story" per se, but one the media should be more careful with as the general public will be sat there thinking of Chernobyl, Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

A quick google search on the top ten Nuclear accidents may well confirm the general publics fears. Eg Chernobyl will not be occupied for 20,000 years. You would be bogged off if you had a time share there.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

A quick google search on the top ten Nuclear accidents may well confirm the general publics fears. Eg Chernobyl will not be occupied for 20,000 years. You would be bogged off if you had a time share there.

I can't see anyone beating that for 'post of the day'

 

[Foxholer]

...one the media should be more careful with ...

That's never going to happen!

There's always likely to be thoughtd of Chernobyl with this sort of article, but the operators certainly stated that "It has got a huge safety margin before we are anywhere near a cliff edge."

 

[Doon frae Troon]

I always thought that placing nuclear stuff on the west coast of the UK when the prevailing wind is westerly was not a clever idea.

 

[SocketRocket]

I always thought that placing nuclear stuff on the west coast of the UK when the prevailing wind is westerly was not a clever idea.

So better to let your bezzies in Europe get the fallout 😂

 

[srixon 1]

A quick google search on the top ten Nuclear accidents may well confirm the general publics fears. Eg Chernobyl will not be occupied for 20,000 years. You would be bogged off if you had a time share there.

At least your towel will be safe on the swimming pool sun lounger