(25 April 2013, 15:08)Tartar Horde Wrote: The control rods need to be cooled by the water surrounding them, even if they are retracted they remain highly radioactive, but they are still surrounded by water to cool them. The back up systems all work off Diesel/petrol etc in the case of a total electrical breakdown to make electricity to power the pumps for the cooling system to work. If no one comes to top the fuel tanks up the generators will run out of fuel and stop, therefore stopping the water pump systems from maintaining a cool enough temperature to stop the fuel rods melting the building. This is what happened in Fukashima, once coolant pressure was lost nothing could stop the reactor from going critical. The Documentary about life after humans have vanished shows the very scenario I am talking about. I will try to get link for it folks.
yes but the back up system failed at Fukashima went the back up generator got flooded by the tsunami coming over the top of the wall
in a power down situation the back up generator would kick lower the control rods and keep pumping water until the reactor core is cooled and I'm sure that there would be more than enough fuel for the genny to do this.
with the control rods down the nuclear chain reaction stops but the core is still hot .... think of a boiling kettle that still hot just after it switches off but that cool over time due to air cooling.... In a reactor the same will happen due to water being pumped around but once it is cold it not going to heat up again until the control rods are raised and the pumps are back on (and lot's of other things too)... with your kettle the water will only get hot again if you switch it back on
back up safety systems will put the reactor in to a safe statue in the shortest possible time if the power grid goes down and this is all done using back up generators. Depending on the weather in winter in the uk just this last year we've seen places with no power for days due to the weather taking down power lines
Search
Calendar
Help
