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So all of you Doomsday Preppers and Survivalists...re: River Bend Nuclear Power Plant...

Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:05 pm
Posted by GFunk
Denham Springs
Member since Feb 2011
14970 posts
Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:05 pm
If the SHTF as most of the folks in the preppier world talk about...IE-If the Power Grid goes down or we have a disaster that knocks out power for not only weeks...but months...

What’s the plan to ensure River Bend’s radioactive material continues to be cooled and doesn’t go Chernobyl and send a Cancer Cloud the size of Katrina over South Louisiana?

It’s 30 miles or so North of BR. What’s the plan for this from a doomsday/SHTF moment or scenario perspective? You just driving in the opposite direction of the prevailing winds?
This post was edited on 12/30/18 at 11:08 pm
Posted by Eli Goldfinger
Member since Sep 2016
32785 posts
Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:06 pm to
Nuclear facilities are hardened and not dependent on the grid for self sufficiency.
Posted by RummelTiger
Official TD Sauces Club Member
Member since Aug 2004
92879 posts
Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:07 pm to
quote:

IE-If the Power Grid goes down or we have a disaster that knocks out power for not only weeks...but months...

What’s the plan to ensure River Bend’s radioactive material continues to be cooled and doesn’t go Chernobyl and send a Cancer Cloud the size of Katrina over South Louisiana?


Ain't they got dem generators, baw?
Posted by Tigerbait357
Member since Jun 2011
70768 posts
Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:08 pm to
Posted by GoIrish02
Member since Mar 2012
1491 posts
Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:08 pm to
Don't forget about the other 2 nearby Entergy nuclear sites, Waterford 3 in Killona, LA (West Bank of St Charles parish) and Grand Gulf in Port Gibson, MS.
Posted by GFunk
Denham Springs
Member since Feb 2011
14970 posts
Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:10 pm to
quote:

Eli Goldfinger
quote:

Nuclear facilities are hardened and not dependent on the grid for self sufficiency.


Totally understand that. But to what extent is this self sufficiency rated for? Months? Perpetuity? To add to that, are there human capital needs that require human intervention that can be assured?

Not paranoid as much as I am curious about the contingencies that they’ve been required to plan for.
Posted by 777Tiger
Member since Mar 2011
88368 posts
Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:10 pm to
yeesh, is that a Chernobyl survivor? at least shop the face out
Posted by Jim Rockford
Member since May 2011
104268 posts
Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:13 pm to
Fukushima had volunteers going in to keep things under control even though they knew the radiation would kill them. Good luck finding anybody with that kind of sense of duty in Louisiana.

Anyway, I'm upwind of all that shite. Nice knowing you baws. Thoughts and prayers.
Posted by Eli Goldfinger
Member since Sep 2016
32785 posts
Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:13 pm to
They would immediately go into cool down. My guess is that they would have 5x the necessary reserve to shutter the facility.
Posted by BlackCoffeeKid
Member since Mar 2016
12889 posts
Posted on 12/30/18 at 11:19 pm to
Can't remember the acronym but they have an Apocalypse Plan in order to protect the surround community/environment. Put in place post-Fukishima. Contains radioactive material indefinitely I'm pretty sure.
This post was edited on 12/30/18 at 11:25 pm
Posted by shmashmortion
Member since Feb 2011
490 posts
Posted on 12/31/18 at 12:05 am to
The NRC is a very conservative and safe controller of nuclear energy and the risk of these plants is very low. From what I hear, they sit inside these plants and just wait for someone to even think about making a wrong move and they slap them with a fine. There is no room for error with those guys.

Fukushima didn’t prepare for the tsunami, Chernobyl was some crazy ussr testing. 3 mile island was our only real scare, but it wasn’t a true meltdown, it only tastes great on breaded wings.

Do a little reading, they actually do strategically place the power plants for possible uranium exposure.

Nuclear energy is very safe and was even starting to gain ground under the Obama administration, before Fukushima fudged things up. IIRC their reactor design is different than ours (they use graphite) , and that made it susceptible to the incident. I believe that nuclear power is really a case where something extremely dangerous is made into a non threat through the controlling of risk and use of safeguards.
Posted by sta4ever
Member since Aug 2014
17397 posts
Posted on 12/31/18 at 1:00 am to
Nuclear energy is very safe, cheap, and efficient
Posted by White Roach
Member since Apr 2009
9666 posts
Posted on 12/31/18 at 1:02 am to
There's a nuke about 30 miles north of NYC on the Hudson River. I think it's called Indian Point or maybe Stoney Point. I don't know what the prevailing wind conditions are there, but I know it makes some local residents nervous. It was built in the 60s or 70s I believe and is up for relicensing. Some people don't want it to happen. Whether that fear is out of ingnorance, valid concerns, politically motivated or some combination of the three, I don't know.

When the earthquake struck, Fukushima SCRAMed the three reactors that were operating. Three other reactors were already offline for refueling. Emergency generators came online to continue to circulate cooling water. When the tsuenami hit, it overwhelmed a ~35' seawall and flooded most of the generators. They were able to keep (or reestablish) cooling water circulation on a couple of reactors, but four overheated and at least one completely melted down.

I don't know all the particulars, but I seem to remember that if the emergency generators and fuel storage had been located at a higher elevation, the disaster could have been avoided or largely mitigated.
Posted by Sao
East Texas Piney Woods
Member since Jun 2009
68469 posts
Posted on 12/31/18 at 1:18 am to
quote:

Nuclear energy is very safe, cheap, and efficient


So was DWH. Nothing is fail safe. OP is discussing long term contingency. DWH was 86 days, for example.
Posted by junkfunky
Member since Jan 2011
35741 posts
Posted on 12/31/18 at 1:34 am to
quote:

Not paranoid as much as I am curious about the contingencies that they’ve been required to plan for.




Good try, terrorist, I'm not falling for it.
Posted by EA6B
TX
Member since Dec 2012
14754 posts
Posted on 12/31/18 at 2:00 am to
quote:

Nuclear facilities are hardened and not dependent on the grid for self sufficiency.


IF they shut down the reactor, and there is no incoming source of electric power from the grid, they are dependent on diesel generators to circulate cooling water through the reactor to prevent core melt. How long the cooling must continue depends on who you ask, seems to range from 2 days to two weeks to go from shutdown to the point where cooling is no longer required. Hopefully they have enough diesel on site.
Posted by jeffsdad
Member since Mar 2007
24069 posts
Posted on 12/31/18 at 6:09 am to
Hopefully, they didn't use the same engineers pre-Katrina New Orleans used. Dug a hole and put the back-up generators for the water pumps in.

they were "hiding" the pumps from the water I suppose.
Posted by fishfighter
RIP
Member since Apr 2008
40026 posts
Posted on 12/31/18 at 6:51 am to
Live less then 3 miles from it. Yes, I would be toast. No care.
Posted by White Roach
Member since Apr 2009
9666 posts
Posted on 12/31/18 at 7:52 am to
What pumping station(s) had below grade back-up generators? Not that it mattered in the end, because the only thing that stopped the water from rising was when the water level in the city equilized with water level of the lake. There wasn't enough pumping capacity to stay ahead of the water coming in through the level of breaches. Or at least I don't think there was.
Posted by Rekamyah
Ovadalevee
Member since Jun 2008
1866 posts
Posted on 12/31/18 at 7:56 am to
quote:

LINK


Nice reactors.
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