Alert at PPL Nuclear Plant

Alert at PPL Nuclear Plant

www.wnep.com

The plant has been on alert since 9:30 a.m. Tuesday but officials stress the public is not in any danger.

PPL officials said freon gas is leaking from an important equipment cooling system inside unit one's reactor building. Workers were forced to evacuate the area.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The cooling system has been compromised at this nuclear facility with FREON GAS leaking from it.

they said that there are four classifications when something goes wrong at the plant. One, the notification of unusual event; two, an alert, which in effect now; three, a site area emergency and four, a general emergency. Only the last two affect the public. PPL doesn't expect this situation to escalate beyond alert.

www.wnep.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

so much for safe and reliable clean energy eh....

2nd line

Yeah, they're downplaying the accident. a level 2 alert in a 4 level alert system to me isn't a take it or leave it incident lol... even if it is just a leak in the reactor's coolant system. What else is in disrepair there - one might wonder....?

reply to post by Heyyo_yoyo


when the workers start leaving quickly, thats when it's time to run with you geiger counter at hand.
how would a leak such as this be caused?

Originally posted by Heyyo_yoyo
Yeah, they're downplaying the accident. a level 2 alert in a 4 level alert system to me isn't a take it or leave it incident lol... even if it is just a leak in the reactor's coolant system. What else is in disrepair there - one might wonder....?

We don't know that it's an accident, if it's in the reactor's coolant system, or if it was due to disrepair. Both reactors at the plant are in operation.

Both units at the facility are still in operation but PPL officials said crews are are still trying to stop a freon leak in the unit one reactor building.

Officials said they don't know how the leak started but they added the building does have a back-up cooling system so it is able to operate as it should.

[edit on 10/8/2010 by Iamonlyhuman]

With level 2 and evacuations IMO they are down playing to keep the public from a panic so I would assume this may be expected to become serious if repairs are not made soon. Will watch for updates.

Reactor's coolant system?????

Reactors are not cooled with Freon Gas.

The equipment in the building may be cooled with Freon Gas like the electrical and mechanical.

Freon gas displaces oxygen and this is a big safety problem for people working in the building but not a problem for the reactor.

These are two boiling water reactors the buildings get hot and must be cooled to work in. Think giant A/C units to keep the building around the reactors cool so people can work.

The worst that is going to happen is they will have to shut down the reactors because it get to hot for the computer that run them.

reply to post by ANNED


Thanks for the info - haven't had an update on this for 7 hours, huh.

I worked in an commercial airconditioning factory for over 2 years and dealt with freon on a daily basis. This isn't a very serious concern. Before the leak can be fixed, all the freon must be drained and then a positive nitrogen charge place on the piping so that no contaminants get into the system while welding/brazing the leak to close it. Then the system can be recharged and everything is back to normal. Really nothing to worry about folks.

Here is some info on Freon Gas.

en.wikipedia.org...

It was an air cooling system. A reactor building cooling system. Also known as an air conditioner because some non-critical equipment as well as workers need cooling in a building with a reactor inside that generates 3,000,000,000 watt's of heat. The reactor system itself is cooled with water... Grow up and learn the first thing about how a Nuclear power plant works before you condemn the most reliable source of electricity on the planet - Nuclear. In 2007, Susquehanna 2007 had a capacity factor of 95%. There's probably only a dozen power plants in the entire world that beat the reliability of Susquehanna, all Nuclear. This is merely another case of Nuclear perfectionism. If an air conditioner failed at a coal power plant, or a data center would it reach the news? No. Nuclear should be no different.

[edit on 13/8/2010 by C0bzz]