Quote:
Originally Posted by Amnorix
Yes, I know those 50 aren't doomed to die at this point. Hopefully never.
But there was one point where the radioactivity levels "at the gate" were very significantly higher than healthy. That was a spike, but I'm assuming too many more spikes like that and the long term effects won't be good.
I have far more questions than answers to anything at this point, however. Maybe you or Donger can help:
1. if all the radioactive stuff is in the containment core, then how/why did the explosion (which didn't reach the core) result in radioactive stuff leaking.
2. I get that the plant uses water that it circulates around to keep things cool. Why is seawater better than fresh?
3. the seawater goes in and by heat exchange I assume turns into steam, which what -- goes around the system intermingled with fresh, cools back down to water, and recycles again?
4. How do they suddenly just tap into seawater. I'm assuming they don't hook a pump and hose to the ocean and pump it into the core for chrissakes. But you've got to be puming it in from somewhere somehow, so how do you keep any radioactive material from leaking back out into the water supply, which would be disastrous I assume.
5. Is there a website you know of that describes, roughly, how these plants work, in layman's terms?
I'm currently in the situation of knowing alot of what is going on, but not understanding WHY or HOW it goes on, and find I'm getting more and more annoyed about that. A referral to a website or two would probably be best if anyone knows of any. Wikipedia has failed to answer any of these types of questions.
|
1. As you can see above, in a BWR, the core coolant is the same loop as the generation. Therefore, the water is radioactive. The loop for the condenser is a separate loop. Apparently, they had to vent the coolant side somewhat, which resulted in a release of radioactive steam into the atmosphere.
2. No, sea water is bad for reactors. The only did this out of necessity.
3. As I said above, in a BWR (which these are), the core coolant loop is separate from the condenser coolant. In a PWR, both are on separate loops. See?
4. The ECCS system allows for direct injection of coolant, in this case seawater, in the case of emergency.