[ RadSafe ] Fwd: Rolling Blackouts

[Maury Siskel]

Hi Jeff,
This is terrible because my data are anecdotal and worse yet a cohort of 
merely one. Anyway the rolling blackout here in one part of N. Richland 
Hills, a suburb of Ft. Worth, lasted 15 min. I was awakened by the 
beeping of my oxygen accumulator and discovered that it was making noise 
because the electricity supplier was withholding its juice. By the time 
I learned it was a 15 min. rolling blackout due to near capacity 
demands, the 15 min. passed and my accumulator resumed sucking juice. 
Even as near as other sections of N. Richland Hills did not experience 
the blackout.

Think how much fun this will be when a few hundred thousand or so people 
get home from work and all plug in their electric car chargers at the 
same time -- in thunderstorms and high winds ... in ... sigh. Reminds me 
of Stu's LOBA account.
Best in brightness or dark,
Maury&Dog [MaurySiskel  maurysis at peoplepc.com]

=============================
Jeff Terry wrote:

>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
>>
>>
>>    
>>