Recent content by gmax137

Re: four hours and seven days. The plant Tech Specs typically require seven days diesel fuel onsite in seismic, tornado-proof tanks. The station blackout rule (10CFR50.63) requires demonstration that the plant can 'cope' with loss of the emergency diesels and loss of the offsite AC power for a...

Try to find a copy of NUREG-0712, "SAFETY EVALUATION REPORT RELATED TO THE OPERATION OF SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION, UNITS 2 AND 3" this is the NRC evaluation report (1981) that concludes by granting the operating license to the plant. Including the supplements it's probably 1000...

The sky is the limit, man. You can do whatever you really want to, if you have the brains and the interpersonal relationship senses.

For completeness, should note that the B&W units with once-through SGs do produce some superheat, though not so much as a fossil boiler.

And I thought I was the only one here who cared about Whitworth fasteners [glasses]

Well, how sophisticated (accurate) do your answers need to be? Given the coolant inlet & outlet temperatures and pressures, you can look up the enthalpies. Don't have inlet & outlet pressures? - recognize that the small variation in pressure doesn't affect the enthalpy much. Multiply core...

Maybe some of you guys should move into project management, you seem to have a better grasp of what needs to be done there than the guys currently in those positions. So, what's stopping you? You'd be doing your company and your fellow employees a favor.

Do I understand the situation: the lowest set safety valve is set at the design pressure, and there are additional safety valves set at higher and higher set pressures? That's the situation I have seen (many times) in the main steam piping in nuclear units (B31.1 power piping). The...

Mixing vane grids have been used in power reactors since the mid 1970s (if not earlier). The vanes are formed as 'tabs' as part of the grid - they aren't welded on; and (maybe) most important, they don't have a 60 year service life, they are part of the fuel bundle and therefore have to last...

hmmm ... I don't think mixing vane grids are a new idea.

I think maybe what you're missing is the idea that the compressor loads on a low pressure setpoint and unloads when the pressure is restored to a high setpoint. So even though the machine runs constantly, it cycles. The pressure measurement is taken at the receiver. More sophisticated...

katmar said "My concern with the solutions from powerful software is always the old 'garbage in = garbage out' problem." I worked with a guy (ex-Navy Chief) who changed that old GIGO to "Garbage in, Gospel out" I always thought that was pretty funny and it actually describes the phenomenon...

I can say that as mentioned above, "all" the valves in the nuclear power plants are tagged. And not just in the 'nuclear' systems, but also in the balance of plant, down to the service air, auxiliary steam, even potable water systems. I was at one plant in the mid 1980s where large parts of...

Sorry about my last post - it reads more harsh than I meant it to.

"I too, cannot accept 'igniting' as a plausible result of overheating." Why is that? Zirconium fires during machining operations are a well known and observed phenomenon. Please note, I'm not disagreeing, I'm just of the opinion that someone saying "I don't think so" is pretty worthless. And...