Hanford nuclear power plant undergoes emergency shutdown (WA)

[flamingyouth]

RICHLAND, Wash. -- The Columbia Generating Station nuclear power plant on the Hanford nuclear reservation underwent an emergency shutdown Friday, but state emergency officials said there was no release of radiation and no danger to the public.

Rob Harper, spokesman for the Washington state Emergency Operations Center, said the plant was shut down manually because of a failure in the automated shutdown system.

Although he said there was no threat to the general public, the Emergency Operations Center at Camp Murray was activated under the plant's emergency plan.

Harper said workers at the electricity-producing plant were conducting tests about 10 a.m. when an automatic shutdown system failed. He said not all the control rods went into the reactor and two had to be inserted manually.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Nuclear%20Plant%20Shutdown

Not to worry, folks, move along! :crazy:

[bahrbearian]

1. Cracked Vessels, faulty shutdown system, leaky storage tank's..

OK, I'm moving along , nothing to see here. ( as I start running)!

[flamingyouth]

2. Yeah, nothing to worry about here in Washington

AUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!

[HereSince1628]

3. Hanford is scary... as a kid I read "We almost lost Detroit"

which chronicles many of the mistakes of the early power years of the nuclear technology age, including a number of incidents at Hanford.

Personally, I found the story about the nuclear engineer impaled on the roof of the experimental reactor room by fuel rods horrific...I seem to remember he was so contaminated they had to bury him in pieces in order to keep the radiation at acceptable levels.

The good news out of the bad news is that leaking radioisotopes led ecologists to understand the nature of several otherwise poorly understood biogeochemical cycles. See? Radio isotopes are friendly to environmental issues!

[G_j]

11. both my parents worked at Hanford when it first opened

years later they both died of lung cancer

[Barrett808]

4. Don't forget The Plume -- 440 billion gallons of radioactive waste

An underground lake the size of Manhattan Island, seeping through the groundwater into the Columbia River, welling up in salmon spawning areas...

[stevedeshazer]

5. That's what worries me

I live downstream.

Actually, with the half-life of some of this stuff, we ALL live downstream.

[squidbro]

18. Some of us live downwind

I live upstream from Hanford.

However, it is of little consolation as it is down wind.

While I do believe that nuclear energy can be safely done, I am quite leery of it. Businesses always want to cut corners to save costs and maximize profits.

Safety, no matter the cost, should be paramount, but it never is. Profits are.

Hence, the best thing is to avoid nuclear energy.

[mbperrin]

6. There's that clean, safe, reliable nukular

energy again!

Folks, there's only one nuclear reactor located sensibly, and that's the Sun, about 93 MILLION miles from here. Catch those rays!

[jdj]

8. I think so too, but I'm amazed

that people argue in favor of it. And as we approach peak oil, it is only going to get worse.

[DODI]

7. There was a plant in Washington state that had the acronym of WOOPS

or something like that. That always cracked me up. They changed it.

[steely]

9. I think it was the whole utility, not just a single plant....

It wasn't WOOPS, it was closer to WPPS(S?), for Washington Public Power Service/System? Hanford was part of it.
I used to work in the industry many moons ago.

[DODI]

12. Thanks, I couldn't remember.

[InkAddict]

10. Perry had a problem too the other day

http://channels.attbusiness.net/index.cfm?fuseAction=viewNewsArticle&nav_id=33&category_name=National&article_id=210a3e4bcd79d25865f003133377c78e

[Massacure]

13. A lot of these reactors are 40 or 50 years old.

Modern reactors are a lot less complex, and there is a lot less to go wrong.

[struggle4progress]

14. kick

:kick:

[seventhson]

15. be afraid

but be educated:

www.radiation.org

it will make you safer armed with knowledge of how to protect yourself

[Ediacara]

16. CONTROL RODS!?

Correct me if I'm wrong (which I might be), but "control rods" are Cadmium rods that are thrown into the core to collect neutrons and stop the chain reaction if and only if a meltdown is unpreventable.

PLEASE someone with knowlege of nuke reactors comment on this. If this is true and they're saying that there's nothing to see, THEN THEY'RE TALKIN OUT OF THEIR ASS!

[Buck Turgidson]

19. Control Rods stop the chain reaction in core of the reactor

CAVEAT: I was NAVY Nuclear Power Plant Operator way back in the 1970's. Commercial nuke plants use similar but different technology. Based solely on the information in the news release, this is not a big deal.

You are essentially correct. Control rods are made of a material that absorbs neutrons like a sponge. If the control rods are all the way in(down), then there is no nuclear fission because there are no suitable neutrons in the core. If the control rods are all the way out(up), there are lots neutrons.

Normally, the power plant operates with the control rods somewhere in between. During startup, you manually withdraw the rods until the reactor has acheived a self-sustaining chain reaction with a stable population of suitable neutrons.

If there is a problem, the plant operator is trained to insert the control rods to stop the chain reaction. Depending on the issue, the operator inserts the rods partially or all of the way to the bottom.

During special circumstances, the reactor plant contol system will override the operator and insert the control rods automatically. In very special circumstances, the control rods are released from the control rod drive mechanism and literally fall to the lowest position in the core.

At the Hanford plant, 185 control rods were inserted automatically. Two of the rods stuck in position and to be inserted by the operator.

Automatic rod insertion events happen several times a year and are not considered news-worthy. Stuck control rods happen almost never, hence the press release. It is unusual, but not dangerous for one or two rods to stick.

It would be a concern if all of the rods were to stick at once.

[Ediacara]

20. THANKS

Thanks for the info, and for calming me down :-)

And welcome to DU :hi:

[Wink]

21. In agreement

I'm an instrument tech at a midwest nuke plant. I maintain, among other systems, the rod control system. This was an unusual event as I've rarely seen a control rod get stuck but as you have said already, one or two rods sticking isn't a danger to the public. It does however create some stress on the core itself due to the unbalanced heat distribution. This mainly affects the life of the rod and not much else.

[Ediacara]

22. Thanks for the clarification

from both of you. I was under the (incorrect) assumption that control rods were a last ditch effert to avert meltdown, but as I see now, are a standard safety precaution for any thermobarometric anomolies in the core.

[Ediacara]

17. kick

:kick: