Hi everybody, it is nice to able to post a message again! This time I would like cover more details on safety measures present at a NPP. In previous blog, we did saw what are the safety measures and precautions taken to control the reaction, to control the radiation at the containment chamber itself in case of explosion and etc. Now, we are going to look into external environment configuration of a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).
First we are going to look into the structure itself, where it will be built. Basically NPP will be built at much more deeper level below the land compared to other structures. The main reason behind this move is too minimise the seismic vibration caused by earthquakes. Whenever there is a presence strong earth quake, the NPP opeartion will be SCRAMed ( will be shutdown immediately ASAP). But at the first stage of selecting place for NPPs, we would look for areas which not prone to earthquekes. This explains, the extra safety measures that a NPP pose in order to overcome problems related to earthquakes. Picture below depicts the earthquake safety measures at a NPP.
Secondly, we would look into the most afraid form of attack, which is the plane crash. Eventhough, we believe one would not make such attack upon a NPP because it will somehow reflect to them back but we don't know how human changes. So let's get prepared for such attack. Talking about plane crashes, in order to fully convert the force of plane at certain speed, it need larger medium. Let's compare the size of Empire State Building and a NPP. Empire State Building collapsed due to its larger size where it absorbed the energy from the planes, while NPP has smaller size and it would not absorbs much energy and the containment wall is strong enough to withstand a plane crash onto it. Here is a link where you can find the facts about it.
http://www.nei.org/newsandevents/aircraftcrashbreach/
Thirdly, we would look into the cooling towers and also the tertiary water pump system. Basically, they are made for one main function. Which is to cool the water vapor from turbine and feed it into the reactor. At colling tower, these vapors are condensed at normal temperature in a open space, where it might appear like dangerous gases coming out from the cooling tower. well, actually they are just water vapors.....
If there is no presence of cooling tower, the vapor will be cooled at nearby sea or river. But, the question is will the heat liberated to the nearby sea or river will threaten the living organism there? for example, if the heat from the NPP gives rise to the sea water temperature, it will kill the microorganism which is the food source for fishes. But research shows that, heat exchanged from the NPP will not harm underwater creatures.
AND there is new info for guys, there have been great advancements in Nuclear Technology and it leads the Russians especially to build new type of NPP, which is floating NPP! it is not joke but it have been developed since the year 2000. The stations are to be mass-built at shipbuilding facilities and then towed to the destination point in coastal waters near a city, a town or an industrial enterprise. Many have opened up their doubts upon this type of NPP especially about its hinderance on terrorist attacks. Where it is much more vulnerable compared to NPP built at land site.
But it also pose some advantages in terms of overcoming land constraints, and overcoming problems like having a NPP at my backyard and etc...But guys what do you think about this???
