Reason for and a critical question about 2012's 6.9% decline in nuclear production

[PamW]

38. How does that relate.....??????

kristopher,

How does the Davis-Besse incident in ANY way relate to what I posted????

I posted that the Japanese reputation for quality in the nuclear field was pretty much a SHAM.

If anything, the Japanese nuclear industry got their laurels from the good reputation of the Japanese automotive industry.

Now - by what "logic" does one arrive at the conclusion that I said the Japanese were responsible for Davis-Besse.

Sigh!!!

Additionally, you really are too "hung up" on the pretty much non-event at Davis-Besse.

Because you don't understand the workings of a nuclear power plant; you don't really understand how relatively benign the Davis-Besse incident was.

Before you go "nuclear", I'm not saying that it was OK. It was a big maintenance failure for Toledo Edison, and they should be ashamed.

However, as big as you think that fissure in the Davis-Besse vessel head is; it is relatively small compared to the size of the head.

The Davis-Besse PWR, like all PWRs in the USA have to be able to withstand a "double-ended guillotine break" of the main coolant piping. That is; imagine a big imaginary guillotine were to crash down and split the main coolant pipe, and then both ends were displaced laterally, so that coolant could escape from both cut ends. That's the "double-ended guillotine break" scenario.

Although there is no known mechanism that could cause such a breakage, and such a breakage would be THOUSANDS of times worse than the Davis-Besse fissure; the PWR is required BY LAW and NRC regulations to be able to survive the "double-ended guillotine break" without endangering the public.

I know it looks "impressively bad"; but if you knew the physics and fluid dynamics; you wouldn't be so impressed.

Lots of things look A LOT worse than they really are.

PamW


PamW