Belgian nuclear reactor shuts down after fire

[rwenzori]

Fairly cheap things, nuclear reactors. Sellafield/Widscale:

The total cost of decommissioning, which will be borne by UK taxpayers, is now considered to be in excess of £70 bn.

 

[Pitbull]

I'm actually curious about that. With the whole debacle between Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the world - how is that project doing?

Very good question. I have no idea. I'll read up on it and see if I can find something. Last I saw was that the Dome is about 1/2 way complete and it came to a halt.

 

[Compton_effect]

When the Chernobyl disaster occurred and it was the West which informed the East about it, scumbag People's and Worker's parties officials went on TV interviews claiming the fears were exaggerated.

They didn't start evacuating the city for 3 days. There is a bridge that had a good view of the fire. Locals actually drove out to go and look at the fire with their kids, and stood in full view of the reactor core:wtf:. Almost all of them died withing the next 6 months.

 

[Chris.Geerdts]

Why reference a German town when it's in Belgium, Huy municipality?

Aachen is a well known resort town, very close to the border.

 

[Space_Chief]

They didn't start evacuating the city for 3 days. There is a bridge that had a good view of the fire. Locals actually drove out to go and look at the fire with their kids, and stood in full view of the reactor core:wtf:. Almost all of them died withing the next 6 months.

Oh sure. These were officials in the satellite states not in the USSR.

 

[Pitbull]

They didn't start evacuating the city for 3 days. There is a bridge that had a good view of the fire. Locals actually drove out to go and look at the fire with their kids, and stood in full view of the reactor core:wtf:. Almost all of them died withing the next 6 months.

yea, there was a monument put op for the Fire fighters that all died because of the disaster. Weird that everyone knew the dangers involved in the nuclear power station, however it was like it slipped their minds that maybe it's not that bad

 

[Space_Chief]

yea, there was a monument put op for the Fire fighters that all died because of the disaster. Weird that everyone knew the dangers involved in the nuclear power station, however it was like it slipped their minds that maybe it's not that bad

The guys who were called "Liquidators" knew the dangers. They were soldiers and were told to do their duty for their "motherland" and so they did. Of course it was the motherland which screwed up this badly by creating a disgusting system which destroyed morality and created a collectivist regime where ordinary people were worthless.

 

[Chris.Geerdts]

There's that kryptonite word again. If the plant had been gas or coal, no-one would have batted an eyelid. But use the word "nuclear" and reason melts away.

As a young electrical engineer, I was pretty big on nuclear.

Then 3 Mile Island happened and terms like 'meltdown' entered the popular lexicon. I realised a nuclear reactor is basically a controlled nuclear bomb, as long as it's controlled. Then I started reading all the 'incidents' we hadn't heard about and started tracking some of the audit results. Then Chernobyl happened - people really did die, the ground really did become contaminated, with nuclear radiation with a half-life in decades. Contamination got into the upper atmosphere and affected rural livestock continents away. Fukushima was next, with radiation escaping into the air, the sea, the land ...

Need I go on

 

[TooFastTim]

So only those who work there know?

I'm saying that there's a helluva lot of self-proclaimed experts who have sweet FA knowledge of shielding, inverse square law, ALARA etc. I Like trees and forests but it doesn't make me a forester.

Chernobyl was bad. Really bad. That reactor did what no reactor should ever do. It exploded. Yes it was a dodgy design and because the staff were under pressure to cut corners. But one good thing came out of it. Ask a health physicist.

In the past 20 years, less than 70 people have died as a consequence of Chernobyl. That's quite a few less than 7000-8000 who die annually as a result of coal power stations. Under 4000 thyroid cancer cases might be attributable to it, but in some cases also to the screening process itself.

I am quite aware of the relative dangers of both coal and nuclear. Incidentally do you know of the three fatalities at Koeberg?

 

[Arthur]

Incidentally do you know of the three fatalities at Koeberg?

Radiation-induced? No, I am not. Are you suggesting Koeberg has caused radiation deaths?

I am aware of some ordinary industrial accidents there. And other places, like the 6 people who died at Ingula pumped storage facility about a year ago.

 

[The_Assimilator]

a nuclear reactor is basically a controlled nuclear bomb

Just like a coal fired plant is a controlled fire.

Need I go on

A total of 3 serious accidents in more than 6 decades of operation. With a total fatality and contamination count orders of magnitude lower than the total fatality count and contamination caused by coal plants operating "normally" during the same period. Makes you think.

 

[Pitbull]

Just like a coal fired plant is a controlled fire.



A total of 3 serious accidents in more than 6 decades of operation. With a total fatality and contamination count orders of magnitude lower than the total fatality count and contamination caused by coal plants operating "normally" during the same period. Makes you think.

Koeberg has been running for 60 years? Wow, now there is a fact I didn't know

 

[Rkootknir]

Wonder what would happen if this occured at koeberg

Precisely the same thing if an explosion occurs in any other power station's switchyard? No power will be delivered from there anymore.

It's a silly and misleading headline from Sapa. Per the release itself, there was a fire in the power station's switchyard - it doesn't appear that anything went wrong with the reactor itself (other than it shutting down automatically), i.e. there was nothing nuclear involved in the fire. The same thing can happen at any power station.

 

[Cray]

Just like a coal fired plant is a controlled fire.



A total of 3 serious accidents in more than 6 decades of operation. With a total fatality and contamination count orders of magnitude lower than the total fatality count and contamination caused by coal plants operating "normally" during the same period. Makes you think.

Got a source on the deaths caused by coal plants? If you want to make a fair comparison it should be total fatalities per Megawatt supplied as I would suggest there are a lot more coal plants in the world than Nuclear ones.

In addition it should be broken down per country as a coal plant run in a 3rd world country would logically be more dangerous than one run in a first world country.

 

[TooFastTim]

Radiation-induced? No, I am not. Are you suggesting Koeberg has caused radiation deaths?

Yup.

Arthur, I appreciate that you are, by-and-large, in favour of nukes. But to downplay the severity of the Chernobyl disaster is playing in to the hands of the tree huggers.

We're all forgetting that the accident in Belgium in the OP was a transformer fire and has zip to do with the reactor.

 

[Cray]

Arthur, I appreciate that you are, by-and-large, in favour of nukes. But to downplay the severity of the Chernobyl disaster is playing in to the hands of the tree huggers.

I certainly wouldn't want to hug these trees (even if I was a tree hugger)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Forest

Today, radiation levels in the Red Forest can be as high as one Roentgen per hour, but levels of ten milliröntgens per hour are more common. More than 90% of the radioactivity of the Red Forest is concentrated in the soil

 

[Archer]

Got a source on the deaths caused by coal plants? If you want to make a fair comparison it should be total fatalities per Megawatt supplied as I would suggest there are a lot more coal plants in the world than Nuclear ones.

In addition it should be broken down per country as a coal plant run in a 3rd world country would logically be more dangerous than one run in a first world country.

Deathprint of power - mortality rate
Coal - 170,000 per trillion kWh (China skews this number hectically, USA's rate is only 15,000)
Nuke - 90 per trillion kWh

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/06/10/energys-deathprint-a-price-always-paid/

 

[Cray]

Deathprint of power - mortality rate
Coal - 170,000 per trillion kWh (China skews this number hectically, USA's rate is only 15,000)
Nuke - 90 per trillion kWh

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/06/10/energys-deathprint-a-price-always-paid/

Much appreciated

 

[The_Assimilator]

Koeberg has been running for 60 years? Wow, now there is a fact I didn't know

I'm talking about Three mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima.

Yup.

Do you have any sources to back up your suggestion?

Deathprint of power - mortality rate
Coal - 170,000 per trillion kWh (China skews this number hectically, USA's rate is only 15,000)
Nuke - 90 per trillion kWh

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/06/10/energys-deathprint-a-price-always-paid/

Thanks - so worst case, coal is 166 times deadlier than nuclear. Average case: 1,888 times. Best case: 3,111 times. These numbers don't merely diminish the arguments against nuclear - they destroy them absolutely.

 

[TooFastTim]

I certainly wouldn't want to hug these trees (even if I was a tree hugger)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Forest

Roentgen is a disused unit (as is MU). We usually use Sieverts. 1 Roentgen is 9 mSieverts so you can hug said tree for about 2 hours and a radiation worker with a higher permitted dose has copped his annual dose.I have, in the past, copped my monthly dose and been told to cease and desist for a month. That was a very scary device.