RE: Atomic Twister - counterexamples - (Hurricane Andrew)

[Dave Brown <david.brown@nist.gov>]

A question came up in discussion recently.....  While most of us I'm

sure are confident in the structural design and integrity of the reactor

containment buildings.  How well are the control room

buildings/areas protected....?  I am sure there are significant

structural standards for these as well..... just not a topic I've heard

discussion of...


At 08:04 AM 5/7/02 -0400, you wrote:


> >>>>Wasn't there one of
>
> the Florida
>
> plants in the direct path of hurricane Andrew(?) a while back that
>
> sustained
>
> damaged, but nothing nuclear.<<<<<
>
>
> You are right, there was "nothing nuclear".
>
>
> Funny you should ask.  I looked these web pages up yesterday to
>
> respond to
>
> Norm's posted article about the tornado "near miss" at Calvert
>
> Cliffs, and
>
> never got back to finishing it.
>
>
> In a nutshell, Turkey Point took a "direct hit" from this
>
> category 4 (and
>
> now thought to be a possible cat 5) hurricane in August of
>
> 1992.    The
>
> safety systems and structures held strong.  The plant was OK, but
>
> some of
>
> the buildings had some damage.  About half of us here lost our
>
> homes, or
>
> could not live in them for months.  Lots of people had to live here
>
> on site
>
> in the buildings outside the protected area, because there was no
>
> where
>
> else to live.  There was some damage  to the smoke stacks on
>
> the fossil
>
> side.  One (I think it was just one of them - maybe both) had to
>
> be
>
> destroyed and completely rebuilt.  (There are two fossil units here
>
> too).

Regards,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dave Brown, CHP
National Institute of Standards and Technology
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301-975-5810 - office
301-921-9847 - fax
david.brown@nist.gov
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