Quick and dirty fix for a leaking plant

[Li18nxBoy]

I had a lot more detail typed up but windows decided to eat it


So here is my idea:

(link to some epoxy resin deleted)

crazy strong stuff, think of JBweld concentrate mixed with silica.

Throw some steel fiber in the mix for good measure.


Now if this stuff gets to hot it will burn off, however heat help epoxy cure faster (try it out with JBweld and a lighter)


So we need to cool it, liquid-nitrogen gets stuff cold in a hurry.

now to get the stuff on the leak


I think a self guided bomb filled with the before mentioned mix with a liquid-nitrogen core might be able to seal the reactor.

so there it is, 100+ tons of high strength epoxy dropped from high altitude

what do you think?

 

[Borek]

what do you think?

Day dreaming is a nice thing to do, but solutions have to be based on knowledge. Your idea is off on many levels.

Amount of energy present in the reactor is high enough to burn all the epoxy you throw on the reactor, put it on fire, and make things much worse than they are now.

If cooling with liquid nitrogen was an option it would be done without throwing epoxy on top of the pile.

 

[joema]

...here is my idea:...JBweld concentrate mixed with silica...So we need to cool it, liquid-nitrogen gets stuff cold in a hurry...guided bomb filled with the before mentioned mix with a liquid-nitrogen core might be able to seal the reactor...

The containment is reinforced concrete 3 feet thick. It is immensely strong. If it is ruptured, splattering something on the outside will not seal it securely.

Regarding cooling it, reactors #2 and #3 have thermal outputs of 2.4 billion watts each. After they were automatically scrammed (shut down) during the earthquake, thermal output was still 5% of the full power figure:

2.4 billion watts * .05 = 120 million thermal watts.

Think about what is necessary to cool 120 megawatts.

A hand-held blow dryer is 1500 electric watts, with similar thermal output (electric heat is nearly 100% efficient). A recently-scrammed reactor will still be producing thermal energy equivalent to 80,000 blow dryers.

 

[Li18nxBoy]

Day dreaming is a nice thing to do, but solutions have to be based on knowledge. Your idea is off on many levels.

Theirs no harm in tossing the old peanut around, you never know where the sulution can come from.

Could explain why you don't believe this would work?

Amount of energy present in the reactor is high enough to burn all the epoxy you throw on the reactor, put it on fire, and make things much worse than they are now.

I don't know how the grout would handle it, but when JBweld is burned it makes a hard porous crust that does not have as much strength as it would be if it cured but it is still fairly strong.

If cooling with liquid nitrogen was an option it would be done without throwing epoxy on top of the pile.

The liquid nitrogen isn't meant to cool the reactor, it's to stabilize the epoxies chemical reaction, keep it from getting to hot.

 

[Li18nxBoy]

The containment is reinforced concrete 3 feet thick. It is immensely strong. If it is ruptured, splattering something on the outside will not seal it securely.

I worked as a labor at a coal power-plant in Gillette WY, this it what they used to secure the turbine, main pumps and burner. I don't know what they used on these walls but I wouldn't be surprised if was this stuff.

Regarding cooling it, reactors #2 and #3 have thermal outputs of 2.4 billion watts each. After they were automatically scrammed (shut down) during the earthquake, thermal output was still 5% of the full power figure:

2.4 billion watts * .05 = 120 million thermal watts.

Think about what is necessary to cool 120 megawatts.

A hand-held blow dryer is 1500 electric watts, with similar thermal output (electric heat is nearly 100% efficient). A recently-scrammed reactor will still be producing thermal energy equivalent to 80,000 blow dryers.

I understand its hot, but this isn't about cooling it. I am trying to seal it, the only thing that needs cooled is the epoxy.

 

[Li18nxBoy]

I have thought about the pressure as well...

the mix has steel fiber mixed into to it so its going to want to stick together. At first there will be a lot of gas escaping through it. Venting veins will spider through the mix and hopefully the gas flow will carry the mud further down the vein slowly shrinking the diameter until it closes

 

[Borek]

You will be not able to seal something that produces such large amount of energy, it will melt its way to the outside.

 

[Li18nxBoy]

You will be not able to seal something that produces such large amount of energy, it will melt its way to the outside.

Do yourself a little experiment, go to your local auto-parts store and get some JBweld, heat it to the boiling point then flash cool it with icewater and it will cure in seconds.

With the right formula and cooling... you never know, its worth considering at least.

 

[Li18nxBoy]

JBweld, heat it to the boiling point then flash cool it with icewater and it will cure in seconds.

keep in mind it will lose a lot of strength with this as well

 

[joema]

Do yourself a little experiment, go to your local auto-parts store and get some JBweld, heat it to the boiling point then flash cool it with icewater and it will cure in seconds...

You can't patch a complete failure in a major structural member by dropping stuff on it, whether it's a reactor containment or suspension bridge.

You're not adhesively gluing two mating surfaces, but filling a probable gaping hole in a wall that's three feet thick.

If you could get inside the containment, erect an interior form, go outside, erect an exterior form, you *might* be able to pour in something that would fill the suspected breach. It still wouldn't be nearly as strong as the original, which is reinforced concrete three feet thick.

JBWeld has a max temperature limit of 500 deg. F. Likewise epoxy resins are typically in the hundreds of deg. F. Whatever you hypothetically repair the containment breech with would have to endure an adjacent heat source of 120 megawatts. That is equivalent to 60,000 electric ovens on high.