[ RadSafe ] Fwd: Rolling Blackouts

[Jeff Terry]

Message was bounced so I forwarded it to the list. See below. 

Jeff

Jeff Terry
Asst. Professor of Physics
Life Science Bldg Rm 166
Illinois Institute of Technology
3101 S. Dearborn St. 
Chicago IL 60616
630-252-9708
terryj at iit.edu




Begin forwarded message:

> From: Eric.Goldin at sce.com
> Date: February 5, 2011 12:43:58 PM CST
> To: radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu
> Subject: Re: Rolling blackouts
> 
> 
> Steven,  you asked about reactors and cold weather.  I recall several years ago I was at a mid-winter Emergency Preparedness seminar (coincidentally) when a call came in that a midwest nuclear plant declared a Site Area Emergency (I think) due to the freezing of an essential cooling reservoir.  If I remember, the plant had trouble drawing water due to ice buildup at the intake.  They worked through the problem in a few hours and got out of the emergency but I suppose they might have begun a downpower if they were unable to provide adequate cooling.  All commercial nuclear plants are designed to either operate or safely shutdown with whatever their particular extreme conditions are - hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, freezing, etc.  For example, Florida plants have either operated through or shutdown in advance of hurricanes and then started back up after evaluation proved there was no damage to equipment important to safety.  The joke out here in California is that if the "big one" ever hits, the nuclear plants will be ready to provide power but there won't be anything left standing to send the power to. 
> 
> Eric M. Goldin, CHP
> <Eric.Goldin at sce.com> 
> 
> 
> Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:49:18 -0700
> From: Steven Dapra <sjd at swcp.com>
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Rolling blackouts
> To: radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu
> Message-ID: <201102050349.p153n97O094879 at ame7.swcp.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
> 
> Feb. 4, 2011
> 
>                 Certain areas in Texas and New Mexico were subjected to rolling 
> blackouts as a result of the recent extreme cold.
> 
>                 Does anyone know of a case when a reactor had to shut down or whose 
> operation was adversely affected by cold weather?
> 
> Steven Dapra
> 
>