I think that makes sense. I'm rough guessing here as I don't have any tech. specs. in front of me, and no calculator, (sorry for any gross errors). Assuming a 10 ft. diameter x 25' tall vessel, the volume is approximately 15,000 gallons. 1.5 gallons/sec = 5,400 gallons/hr. I think I read earlier...
Let's take unit 2 for example. It is rated at 784 MWe (MegaWatt electric). Let's say that it is 30% efficient, that would mean it is rated at just over 2,600 MWt (MegaWatt thermal). 0.5% of 2,600 is 13 MWt, or 13 million Watts of thermal energy. This is still a considerable amount of energy that...
Mineral deposits in water systems take years to accumulate. The systems pumping seawater are stop-gap measures and are not intended for long term operation. I think this is the least of their worries. Also, Nitric acid is nasty stuff and would do much more harm to the pumps, valves and piping...
You are right Astronuc. According to the U.S. EIA http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/st_profiles/us.html estimated losses in the U.S. for 2008 were approximately 6%.
http://nei.cachefly.net/newsandevents/information-on-the-japanese-earthquake-and-reactors-in-that-region/
Latest update from NEI link above:
"Seventy percent of the fuel rods Unit 1 and one-third in Unit 2 have been damaged, TEPCO said. The cooling water level in both units is being...
It's moot at this point since units 1-3 appear to be permanently disabled, and units 4-6 were in outage mode, (not fit for operation), when the earthquake hit. However, even if there was a unit that was fueled and potentially ready to go. There was a 8.9 or 9.0 earthquake that shut the units...
All LWR designs need coolant, both during operation and after shutdown to maintain residual heat removal. To answer your question about what designs can survive without pumps and/or electricity to facilitate cooling, the AP1000 and the ESBWR both are designed with passive cooling features. The...
The problem is there is not enough information on what has happened or what is currently happening at the site to make any useful predictions.
Additionally, there is no video feed into the reactor. Operators determine the state of the reactor through measurements of temperature, pressure...
I wonder how much function they actually lose by abandoning the control room. It seems the site is still in "blackout", with no off-site or on-site electricity available to power any RHR or ECCS pumps or systems. Additionally, from reports it seems that their instrumentation is questionable as...
Do yourself a favor and shut off your TV. NEI has been posting good updates here, http://nei.cachefly.net/newsandevents/information-on-the-japanese-earthquake-and-reactors-in-that-region/ which seem to contain the latest, most accurate information without any of the grossly incorrect, purely...
The paradox is that while we would like to locate nuclear power plants far away from high-population areas, the high-population areas are where the electricity is needed most. Losses from transmission lines are significant and increase with distance. I believe here in the U.S. they account for...
Sorry, I got this information from watching the live broadcast of a press conference on HNK television in Japan. They were giving English translation of what the government spokesman was saying about the situation.