BXProject

[Father Ted]

see, I've watched the footage of it going pop several times now, and it definitley looks like a proper nuke type bang initially, before the smoke starts.!

But a hydrogen explosion would do.

Strontium Dog

[Vanny]

I suspect there might be some people in suits visiting Mr Hodd, of Wigan, in the near future, given his incredibly high level of terrorist understanding, coupled with happy divulging the information on a public forum!

[mickey taker]

Im telling you its all just a plot by the british motor industry to stem the influx of grey imports.
Oh hang on there is no British motor industry !!!

[Philhod]

coupled with happy divulging the information on a public forum!

All information is in the public domain (if you know where to look)
You may have forgotten that I worked on maintenance on 1st, 2nd and actually built most of the third generation units, both in UK and abroad.
Dounrea, Wylfa, Dungeness, Torness, Heysham, Drax, etc. Ringhals Sweden.
Lake view, USA, Genesee Canada, San Onofre, California, Kipevu SA. Castle Peak HK.
Guangdong China, Yue Yang China, Ko Ri. s***h Korea.
Gained quite a little knowledge talking to a lot of very good nuclear engineers.

[Philhod]

I have now had a look at the video's of the explosion that occurred.
It looks like I have been talking out of my arse. The problem lies not with the cooling system as they stated (used rods, cooling ponds etc). But with the main steam production process.
PWR's work by pumping water, they describe this as coolant, round a sealed system, at high pressure. The fuel rods, giving off their radiation under control, heat this medium to around 600º, thus heating the water in the heat exchanger, which is bolted to but separate from the pressure vessel,to superheated steam, to drive the turbines.
If flow of the heating medium is lost, of course the rods will overheat, but only if they are not withdrawn soon enough and they state they have an automatic shutdown system in place for this eventuality.
So. That leaves me with a few questions. Did the system malfunction, or were the technicians too slow to react and remove the rods manually, I mean we are talking hours here not minutes.????? or worse, the system lost water and pressure rapidly, exposing the rods and hydrogenising the system which has then blown.
The rods would have to be enriched to over 80% for a nuclear explosion to occur. As they melt, they then form a critical mass, below this enrichment that mass will not go supercritical, (chain reaction) That's why a bomb needs super enriched plutonium and a trigger. The resulting mass hits temperatures far higher than any of the surrounding material though and thats why it's fire needs to be extinguished as soon as poss and when radioactivity would be released, which is why they are using seawater and Boron now.
The explosion I saw looks nothing like a nuclear bang Doc, the only damage (worryingly) appeared to be the containment structure of the end reactor building.
A nuclear bang would flatten the whole site and a 5 mile radius round it, with severe damage as far again.
If you have a look at pics of the Jap bombs dropped in WW2, You will get a better idea and they were small by comparison.

[docchevron132]

they were probably too busy having that last shag!

Dad worked on Hinkley point C, dont think that ever blew up.

I dunno Phil, ok a littl nuke type pop maybe? but the initial "pop" certainly looked pretty fucking epic to me!

[Philhod]

No, Doc the blast scenario I described would be a minimal nuc blast. The explosion would have been Hydrogen based as they insist.

However I just read, since my last post, that officials have now admitted they moved too slowly (no kidding), What does worry me is, they are now admitting also that the rods in reactor 3, which is also compromised, is fucking Plutonium!!! There is no excuse for that.
The fucking stuff should be no where near domestic producing plants. Unless I'm mistaken, the I.A.E.C, banned this after Chernobyl, because they were fast breeding there when it happened. UK has only one fast breeder (working), It is isolated, secured by the military and produces highly enriched weapons grade Plutonium....And, no I can't say where it is.
There are other inconsistencies in the report. It says that the problem in reactor 3 was caused by the failiure of A pump. It takes that long to change/service one of these (they weigh over a ton) that there are 3. One in service, one on standby and one in repair/test.
When the one is taken out it's place is taken by the diesel auxilliary, so really you have 2 standby's, with one being independant of power. It's a full time service job this with designated staff on call 24/7/365/6. It's done in a special building with full suits on, as all parts are hot. (irradiated)

[docchevron132]

the whole thing is odd. Very limited and contradictory reports, and now they say a cooling valve has failed?
But yes, plutonium, thats some cool shit! Well, hot really.. but yeah, I suspect the Iranians are on their way over now!

They still say that the Tsunami took out the diesel back ups though, which is weird, since the station wasn't hit by the Tsunami!
All very odd shit.

[Philhod]

Yeah, that's a load of bollocks. The units are not fixed, but are mobile, again for maintenance reasons and how they have to be handled.

It sounds to me like reports are coming in from people with little intrinsic knowledge being interpreted by reporters who know absolutely fuck all.
Either that, or as I suspect, misinformation being given out by officials who know they are in the shit for things they have or haven't done and are trying to plant smoke screens to mitigate their mistakes or downright mismanagement.
It happened in spades after Chernobyl. Sadly most of the technicians put themselves very much in harms way, to minimise their catastrophe and all died.

[docchevron132]

there was of course a slight nuclear incident in Japan before, that they lied about and hushed up......

[Philhod]

There have been 3 at Dounreay, never advertised.
And the one at Calder Hall was massive and shut one reactor for ever. That too, was downgraded to a small fire. Yeah right! They even changed the name to Cellafield, to try to
confuse memory.
Nuclear power will always be controversial. Having been involved in the industry for many years (including being de contaminated once)I know it is extremely safe provided ALL the protocols are adhered to at all times. To build these stations costs three times as much as a conventional one, but the running costs are less than a 10th. Christ knows what they will cost to de commission, but they do represent fantastic value for money in comparison.


Just thought about what you said. Iranians on the way. You can see the headlines now... Irradiated Iranians Irritate Nips

[docchevron132]

decontaminated? I thought you had a certain glow about you!

[Philhod]

Yeah. It was at Wylfa which has a 100% safety record. We had been servicing charge floor flasks (they rise out of the floor from the reactor space through air locks) We wear suits for protection and a couple were found to be faulty and in fact should have been scrapped, according to their schedule. Anyway when we emerged in our white paper suits we were checked at twice over the reactor room limit and 10 times the allowance for the control room.
Although this sounds alarming it is a very low dose and we were put through the decon shed
which js basically 2 porta cabins end on. you stay in cabin one continually drenched in a soapy solution for 10 minutes, followed by the same treatment under warm clear water for 20 mins.
After 1/2 an hour you are checked again and if you read OK you are free to go, if not it's back in for another do. all the water is collected in tanks, but I don't know what the fuck they do with it!

[docchevron132]

suspect it goes into little bottles marked "Evian"..

[Philhod]

Well, yes it would brighten your day

[docchevron132]

"filtered through millions of years of volcanic* rock"

"* or a nuclear reactor"

[Philhod]

Well, yes. It wold be about as pure as you could get it. it would kill any bug known to man
And yourself of course, should you get to drink it

[Philhod]

Just watched a video of the threatened explosion on reactor 3, taking place a couple of hours ago.
That is definitely a gas explosion. They are saying that both containment shells are not breached, but both roofs have completely gone, so unless they have another shell inside the concrete block, that they released the gas from, I find that hard to swallow.
Monitoring stations will soon tell if there is any measurable fall out anyway.
Not good, as it means that 2 reactors have gone into meltdown and although they are pumping in seawater in and will eventually put out the fire, there is bound to be major contamination of the area eventually.

[docchevron132]

maybe it'll speed evolution and get shot of those slitty eyes?

[Father Ted]

Perhaps Im sick, but it is oddly compelling viewing.