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| Re: Entire IRT suspended (1519202) | |||
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Re: Entire IRT suspended |
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Posted by nasadowsk on Sun Jul 21 07:17:30 2019, in response to Re: Entire IRT suspended, posted by TransitChuckG on Sun Jul 21 00:40:01 2019. Yeah. The fear was that the automatic system was going to overfill the primary side of the system, which could theoretically cause it to bust pipes, or at least make pressure control really hard. This was based on a pressurizer level indicator that was wonky because the thing was dumping steamy/foamy water out of the top of the pressurizer.Eventually, a superheated steam bubble formed in the reactor itself (bad), and things went south from there (literally). The failing fuel added to the mess by puking out the noncondensible gasses they held, and eventually the main pumps became airbound. A combination of dumping pressure and refilling the system got things to the point where they could restart a coolant pump. Then things got better, except for the pesky hydrogen bubble everyone was panicking about. It turns out the NRC was using the wrong calculation about it, and the bubble was shrinking away on its own (they actually add hydrogen into the coolant as an O2 scavenger anyway). After a few weeks, they were able to shut the coolant pumps and the plant cooled off on natural circulation. It wasn't until a few years later when they stuck a camera into the reactor vessel that they saw there was so much damage in there. Eventually they had to jackhammer the stuff out. The water in the primary side was ultimately filtered, purified, released. The entire plant sits dark and dry now... 1/3rd of the core melted, and a large chunk relocated to the bottom of the reactor vesse. |
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