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Davis Besse comments
I thought I'd share a very humrous and hysterical
"analysis" of the Davis-Besse RPV/CRDM corrosion
problem. I especially like the idea that:
1. The water in the RPV flashing to steam (throttling
process) will somehow result in an increase in
temperature,
2. That the temperature is a couple thousand degrees C
when Tsat at 2500 psig is 668.13 oF, that
3. The accident could have been 10 times worse than
Chernobyl,
4. That this could have been an accident of "biblical
proportions" with people dying all over the world in
one big cataclysmic ELE,
5. That the steam pressure leaving the RPV would
remain at 2500 psig,
6. That somehow the CS system could not mitigate the
pressure increase (to about 60-75 psig by my rough
calculations in the absence of *ANY* emergency
systems) to below design pressure ratings (around 50
psig), and
7. That is is a cover-up especially since all the
documents related to this issue are in the public
domain and that this issue is over 10 years old!
I could go on, but I am still having a hard time
keeping my laughter in. The sad part is that Mr.
Hoffman is not joking. He really believes this. This
is the sort of stuff that we all face when dealing
with nuclear power issues: hysteria, extention, and
phobia.
Regards,
Tim
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@a...>
Date: Tue Mar 26, 2002 4:22 am
Subject: Was it terorism? Or carelessness? Or
stupidity that nearly cost us Ohio?
ADVERTISEMENT
FYI -- PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS TO YOUR LOCAL MEDIA --
DON'T LET THE DAVIS-BESSE COVER-UP CONTINUE!
WE ALMOST LOST OHIO -- AND YOUR STATE COULD BE NEXT:
Did you hear about what almost happened at
Davis-Besse, a nuclear reactor in Ohio?
It would have been "10 times worse than Chernobyl" as
one eminent scientist I've spoken to put it.
Most people have no idea how close we came to
catastrophe. A mere half inch.
Here's the basic sequence, in lay-person's terms:
Davis-Besse is a 900 Megawatt PWR (Pressurized Water
Reactor) owned by FirstEnergy Corp.. It is located 21
miles ESE of Toledo, OH. It first went online in 1977.
It's getting OLD.
Winds tend to go from the Northwest to the Southeast
in that part of the country, but not always. Areas
that are variously downwind from Davis-Besse include
Sandusky, OH, Cleveland, OH, Pittsburgh, PA,
Washington DC, Toronto, Canada, as well as Virginia,
West Virginia, New Jersey, NYC, Long Island, New
England, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina...
On March 11th, 2002, while investigating other leaks
in flanges (the Nuclear Regulatory Commission calls
them "nozzles" but they're really flanges) above (and
coming out of) the reactor vessel investigators
discovered a hole all the way through the reactor
pressure vessel's carbon-manganese six-inch thick
steel outer layer. The hole was four inches by five
inches wide on the surface when it was discovered.
All that held back the 2500-PSI pressure inside the
reactor was a half-inch thick stainless steel liner
(variously reported as only 3/8ths of an inch thick)
-- on the inside of the reactor pressure vessel head
-- and the liner was BULGING!
If the liner had cracked, the accident would have been
of Biblical proportions indeed. (Imagine a hole in a
piece of cardboard, covered with a piece of plastic
food wrap, and you push your finger through the hole.
That's what was happening to the reactor pressure
vessel. How much time was left? Days? Weeks? We'll
never know -- luck (or God) saved us because the
reactor head was checked just in time. You've heard
of Just In Time Manufacturing? This was Just In Time
Catastrophe Avoidance!
Had the situation progressed much further, and a crack
develop in the liner, the extremely radioactive water
explosively rushing out would have, in short order
(seconds, or fractions of a second):
*1) Flashed over to steam.
*2) Expanded the hole in the reactor vessel.
*3) Cracked the reactor's fuel rods and thrown their
contents towards and out the hole.
*4) Pulverized the fuel pellets as they flew through
the hole at tremendous speed, further expanding the
hole in the reactor vessel.
*5) Cut a hole in the containment dome like it was
made of BUTTER. Yes, I know containment domes are up
to about ten feet thick, but this stuff is at 2500
PSI, at well over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit,
possibly actually getting MUCH hotter as it's
pulverized coming out the hole, and concrete itself
pulverizes at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit. And there
is LOTS of coolant in the system which will virtually
ALL get shot out the hole in the pressure vessel like
it was coming out of a cannon, along with the fuel rod
assemblies and everything else inside the reactor
(that is, pieces of irradiated metal, some of which
will flash-burn if they come in contact with oxygen).
In the end, the containment dome would have a hole in
it directly out from where the hole in the pressure
vessel was. There would be pulverized radioactive
particles spewing into the air and falling onto the
ground for hundreds of miles around.
*6) Killed millions of Americans.
*7) Been blamed on terrorists, and we would have
bombed another country into Depleted Uranium hell, in
the vain belief that it would somehow alleviate our
own misery and suffering. But the true culprit was
our own technology!
The cost would be in the trillions, the suffering
unspeakable, and we wouldn't even know what hit us. A
"China Syndrome" would be better than this! Chernobyl
would have been better than this! We dodged a bullet.
Was it sabotage? Boron doesn't normally corrode
carbon-manganese steel. Was something added to the
borated water just so that something like this would
happen? If so, what? And when? And by whom? Did a
worker leave something in the works, which corroded
and changed the chemical structure of the water
(negligence), or was something placed in the water on
purpose?
The above statement was written by Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
Below is the CURRENT (March 25th, 2002) Department of
Energy (DOE) description of the Davis-Besse reactor.
Note the following sentence: "Safety-related problems
in its early years tarnished its reputation, but its
sale to new owners has brought about a recovery." How
inappropriate can you get?!? I bet they'll change
this wording very soon, if they haven't already.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/at_a_glance/reactors/davisbesse.html
The Davis-Besse plant is a single unit reactor located
east of Toledo in Oak Harbor, Ohio on the shore of
Lake Erie. The site covers 954 acres of which 733
acres is leased to the U.S. government for a National
Wildlife Refuge. Safety-related problems in its early
years tarnished its reputation, but its sale to new
owners has brought about a recovery. The site is
licensed for dry storage of spent nuclear fuel and had
3 casks as of March 2000.
Operator: FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co.
Owners: Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company
(51.4%), Toledo Edison Company (48.6%)
Reactor Supplier: Babcock & Wilcox
Capacity: 873 net MWe
Reactor Type: Pressurized water reactor
Date of Operation: April 1977
License Expiration date: 04/22/2017
Electricity Produced in 2000: 6.70 billion kWh
2000 Average Capacity Factor: 87.32%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For a list of all nuclear reactors in the United
States:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/nukelist.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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** THE ANIMATED SOFTWARE COMPANY
** Russell D. Hoffman, Owner and Chief Programmer
** P.O. Box 1936
** Carlsbad CA 92018-1936
** (800) 551-2726
** (760) 720-7261
** Fax: (760) 720-7394
** Visit the world's most eclectic web site:
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