At 10:28 PM 7/13/01, Kevin Tarr wrote:
>From: J. van Baardwijk
> > At 20:29 5-7-01 -0700, Doug Pensinger wrote:
> >
> > > > They (and many other countries' governments) certainly don't seem to
>have
> > > > unlimited faith in the safety of their own nuclear reactors. The
>website of
> > > > the International Nuclear Safety Center has a map of Europe that shows
>the
> > > > locations of the various nuclear power plants. Notice that there are
>quite
> > > > a lot of them built near national borders and near oceans.
> > >
> > >The reason that they are located near oceans and rivers (which,
> > >coincidentally, also often form natural borders) is that nuclear power
>plants
> > >require cooling water.
> >
> > That argument is only valid for nuclear power plants near rivers. As I
> > pointed out in a previous post, you can't use sea water for coolant
>because
> > it's too salt: you'll get a corrosion problem in the pipelines.
> >
> > .
> >
> >
> > >It's not polluted with chemicals, nor is it radioactive
> > >but it is a good deal
> > >warmer than the ambient temperature of the source water. But then,
> > >conventional plants use cooling water as well.
> >
> > And that's supposed to make things right? "Conventional plants dump their
> > coolant in the river, so it's okay for us to do the same"? Or, closer to
> > home: if you neighbour dumps his trash in your garden, does that mean it's
> > okay for you to dump your trash in his garden?
> >
> >
> > Jeroen
>_______________
>
>I don't know if this was talked about, have e-mail in three places. I have
>read lots of posts which have refuted a lot of the statements made, true
>facts about plant location, cancer clusters, use of sea water....
>
> >Do you also have a good explanation (other than: if it goes wrong, part of
> > it won't be *our* problem) for the fact that many nuclear power plants are
> > built close to national non-water borders? Example: Germany and Belgium
> > built nuclear power plants close to the Dutch border -- no rivers or
> > anything acting as a natural border
>
>First looking closer at the maps of Europe: Germany has many plants not on
>any borders. The fact that two are on the Dutch border proves nothing. Those
>two are on rivers. One is shut down. The other one seems to be near a city
>(can't see which one).
>
>Belgium has three reactor sites. Two are on the Dutch border. Both are on
>rivers. One has no other information supplied. All three seem to be the same
>distance from cities.
>
>Obviously chosing a site is the most important part of the nuclear process.
>The plants were built in the 70's. If you had a population density map and
>perhaps a map showing property rates from the year the site was selected you
>could probably pick the site the plant was built (if you didn't know). You
>(collective you) want a plant built in a city? Indianapolis just blew up an
>arena, they could use that vacant lot to build a reactor! Sarcasm.
>
>One thing not widely know is that the nuclear plants (at least here in the
>US) have to be completely supplied by outside power. I thought that is
>stupid but I can understand the reasons. TMI has a hydrodam plant that
>produces 10MW of power and TMI uses 7-9MW. The hydro plant was there for
>many many years before TMI was built. A plant that is built has to be close
>to this other power plant. Don't know how close.
>
>Now the questions about river water. I live three miles from Three Mile
>Island (ever hear of it?). I can see it from my bathroom window. I've been
>on the public and private tours. The river water is brought in but it isn't
>like running water over a hot pan in a sink, it doesn't just come in and go
>right back out. The water is mostly evaporated, ever see cooling towers?
>Some water is released back into the river but usually it is near the
>current temerature of the river. There are two closed systems and the
>cooling system. The water in contact with the reactor rods themselves is
>flashed to steam, that steam is put through a heat exchanger to heat the
>next system to steam. That steam drives the turbines. Then that water is
>passed to the cooling tower where it is cooled with the river water. It's is
>neat to see the cooling towers up close. The bottom ten feet of the towers
>are actually cedar wood. (Obviouly the tower is held up with cement, it's
>just the bottom ten feet the cement is like a lattice, foot wide cross
>members with nothing between them.) The cedar is set like window blind slats
>and offset so the water drops off of each and the air gets pulled through
>these little waterfalls.
>
>A lot of water is drawn into the plant and some is discharged but no effects
>have been seen on the river. In fact plenty of people fish below the plant.
>The river does get covered in ice even below the discharge points, it's not
>as if in the middle of winter there are green trees and cat o'nine tails
>growing on the banks surrounded by snow.
How many tails do the cats living downstream typically have?
-- Ronn! :)
