Earthquake: Effects on BGW
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BG Europe Fan said:
Not to pull this thread off topic, but my father has worked at Surry Nuclear Power Station and North Anna Nuclear Power Station since 1981. The plants' reactor buildings are designed to with stand a direct hit from up to a maximum of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake without sustaining critical damage (i think up to an 8.0 magnitude without more than very minor damage), not to mention a 30ft telephone pole flying directly into them at up to 300mph (specifically designed for that in case of a tornado or hurricane.) There is almost no situation in which you should panic over a nuclear power station. The only instances in which case there have ever been any accidents were pure human error (humanity is, admittedly, not so bright sometimes.) And unlike Japan's power plants, ours our designed to automatically shutdown when any significant event is detected (i think a direct hit from a 4.0 and up, for example.) In addition, Dominion's plants are widely acknowledged as among the safest in the country. I'm sorry if I seem like I'm trying to say you're wrong or anything, it just bothers me that the general public still fears nuclear so much. Besides major major major unchecked long-term human error and freak natural events of MASSIVE proportions, there's almost nothing that can turn these plants unsafe to the surrounding public.
Fin!
I personally have nothing against nuclear, in fact I think we need more, I was just making a list of what's concerning people in the area right now. That being said, I still find cause for concern when a reactor 7 miles from me goes into emergency cool down AFTER the plant lost power from the grid.
I was at the park today and people on Apollos and a lot of people in Ireland said they felt it and things shook, I was standing at the Mach Tower when it was going up and then all of sudden it went into safe mode and slow descended, and they held every back at the loading zone until I guess they found out about the quake and shut it down, they didn't tell anyone so I figured this piece of crap is broken already! So I head to DarCastle.. shut down, ok over to Apollos... shut down, at this point I'm ready to ask for my money back even though I'm a seasons holder! Shortly after the word was spreading and an announcement was made over the whole park PA system about he quake and the rides being closed. It was only about an hour and a half before things started running again so thumbs up there!
Most of the kids in our regular group were not there today because they were at the EPICENTER! Well, A few miles away at Lake Anna during the quake, they said things kind of vibrated around rather than the hard shaking you see int he movies and the cars almost seemed to be vibrating around on the sand. The Reactor was shut down completely automatically as soon as seismic activity was detected and they say it was a flawless shutdown, no word on any kind of damage but that area is/was mostly farmland they made lake anna out of so its really soft ground with sand/mud for the lake.
Cerebral
Most of the kids in our regular group were not there today because they were at the EPICENTER! Well, A few miles away at Lake Anna during the quake, they said things kind of vibrated around rather than the hard shaking you see int he movies and the cars almost seemed to be vibrating around on the sand. The Reactor was shut down completely automatically as soon as seismic activity was detected and they say it was a flawless shutdown, no word on any kind of damage but that area is/was mostly farmland they made lake anna out of so its really soft ground with sand/mud for the lake.
Cerebral
I was eating in Italy where Mix It Up is when it happened, didn't feel a thing. Also didn't hear an announcement, found out all the rides were shut because some guy asked me if I knew when they would open.
jonfin826 said:
I had decided to wait a while, to cool off and let me calm down before I dissected this post. I'm not hear to discuss the issues with nuclear power, start a flame war, or discredit anybody. I also want make know that I fully support nuclear power, and hope we continue to make further advances in the technology. It should also be noted that I have an uncle that works as Director of Safety at the Columbia Generating Station and is working t''wards becoming a Nuclear Physicist. That being said:
I agree...
that MOST of the public's fears with nuclear are unwarranted.
that Dominion does have a good track record in the way they deal with their 4 nuclear sites across the USA.
that human error and freak natural events are the cause of most, if not all, nuclear accidents.
I disagree...
that there is almost no situation in which you should panic over a nuclear power station. People are going to panic regardless, and having a earthquake in the vicinity of a nuclear reactor does warrant concern.
that North Anna is designed to withstand a 9.0 quake. That's just bunk, Dominion and the NRC have public stated that it can withstand up to a 6.2. The NRC also expressed concern on the reactors' integrity after the quake.
that there's almost nothing that can turn these plants unsafe to the surrounding public. Yes there is, it's called politics. That's the root of Japan's nuclear problem. Regulators, not wanting to upset their possible future employers, only adopted regulations that fit the power companies' agendas. It should be noted that the majority of nuclear reactors are made by either a Japanese or French company (Westinghouse is majority owned by Toshiba), and that virtually all reactors in the world have automatic shutdown procedures including Japan's.
that the reactor shutdown because of the quake. They had an emergency shutdown because they lost power from the grid. Reactors require 3 power sources, and 2 cannot be from the reactor itself. The quake had nothing to do with it, Surry kept puttin along during the quake. There is also the fact that it takes longer than 1.5 minutes to shutdown a reactor. Have you tried to stop a bomb mid-explosion? It's nearly impossible, but that's basically what a reactor is, a controlled bomb.
The reason I say Dominion's safety record isn't the best is because of two thing: 1) The fact that Dominion removed the seismographs they had at North Anna, because of budget cuts and 2) They knowingly built 2 reactors over a fault line, although "reportedly dead", and want to build a third reactor there as well. There is also the fact that ALL reactors in the USA are still storing their waste onsite.
Just something to keep in mind.
See, if you guys would have just skipped college like me you would have to have these discussions. 
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