ALERT: Minor water leak reported at N.C. State's nuclear reactor

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9831210/

7/7/2011 1:23:48 PM

oh snap!

7/7/2011 1:25:32 PM

talk about water pressure...that's a ton of water for a pinhole leak

7/7/2011 1:25:46 PM

Damnit, you just beat me to posting...my title was going to be 'Imminent Nuclear Meltdown Off Kaplan.'

7/7/2011 1:26:07 PM

Quote :

"Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina State University officials said Thursday that there is a low-level water leak in the liner that surrounds its nuclear reactor but that it poses no danger to the public. University spokesman Keith Nichols described the leak as the size of a pinhead and that it was leaking about 10 gallons per hour from the 15,000-gallon tank. Nichols said it would be considered a public threat if it were leaking at 350 gallons per hour. “This is a research reactor and considerably smaller than a commercial power reactor,” said Gerry Wicks, the university’s reactor health physicist. “It's design significantly limits the possibility that, even under the worst circumstances, this facility presents any kind of danger." The leak was discovered as a result of routine monitoring of the reactor, Nichols said. Stay tuned for more on this developing story..."

7/7/2011 1:29:18 PM

Ok, someone get someone from the department in here.

7/7/2011 1:32:31 PM

WE ARE ~3% OF THE WAY TO A PUBLIC THREAT!

7/7/2011 1:33:01 PM

Use chewing gum to stop the leak.




Kinda worked for Griswald at the Hoover Dam.

7/7/2011 1:33:08 PM

Quote :

"Imminent Nuclear Meltdown Off Kaplan"

lol

7/7/2011 1:37:50 PM

So do they even bother repairing something like this? I mean you could make up the difference with a bucket every day...

7/7/2011 1:56:33 PM

because what is leaking is radio active and would be a public threat over time.


did they actually find the leak or did some dumb-ass miss-calculate evaporation in the summer time?

7/7/2011 1:59:46 PM

$1,000,00 question is:


How is babby hole formed?

7/7/2011 2:00:33 PM

Quote :

"because what is leaking is radio active and would be a public threat over time. "

it's probably about as much radiation as talking on your cell phone.

7/7/2011 2:18:43 PM

Ohh i'm sure its probably not much... it really depends if it is off the reactor loop or the secondary loop. If its the secondary you'd have to drink it to hurt you and even then it would probably still have to be your only source of water.


The primary loop on the other hand...



i wouldn't drink the water that fills this pit... would you ??

7/7/2011 2:21:51 PM

i would. probably would get some pretty sweet superpowers

[Edited on July 7, 2011 at 2:24 PM. Reason : who wants to start a business venture with me?]

7/7/2011 2:23:54 PM

Depends... would you hold my sign while I drank it?

7/7/2011 2:24:10 PM

Quote :

"i wouldn't drink the water that fills this pit... would you ?? "

yeah, i probably would.

i don't have real high standards.

Quote :

"If it's brown, drink it down. If it's black send it back."

7/7/2011 2:26:03 PM

Quote :

"Ohh i'm sure its probably not much... it really depends if it is off the reactor loop or the secondary loop. If its the secondary you'd have to drink it to hurt you and even then it would probably still have to be your only source of water."

Hole is in the liner. That means primary loop. It's de-ionized and continuously filtered. The leaking water is technically radioactive...but barely.

[Edited on July 7, 2011 at 2:54 PM. Reason : sp]

7/7/2011 2:53:45 PM

^^^Yeah, and barely radioactive in the sense that trying to test for it down stream is impossible because rainwater, for instance, has trace amounts of naturally occurring tritium.

Quote :

"talk about water pressure...that's a ton of water for a pinhole leak"

Its a pool-type reactor where the pool top is open to atmosphere. So the water pressure is simply the result of the pressure-head associated with ~30ft of water...assuming the pinhole is located at the bottom of the pool.

7/7/2011 4:03:34 PM

Quote :

"poses no danger to the public"

nothing to see here fuckers

7/7/2011 4:03:51 PM

7/7/2011 4:05:26 PM

3-eyed fish for the bass fishing team!

7/7/2011 4:09:35 PM

Quote :

"So do they even bother repairing something like this? I mean you could make up the difference with a bucket every day..."

Not at 10 gallons per hour.

7/7/2011 4:11:07 PM

Glow Pack!



Lol

7/7/2011 4:12:57 PM

Quote :

"Not at 10 gallons per hour"

Right, not with a bucket, but they have a water make-up rate approximately 8 times higher than whats coming out right now, so making up lost water ain't no thang.

Quote :

"So do they even bother repairing something like this?"

Even if they operated the reactor with a leak like this there would be no harm to the public/environment. Of course they won't until they get it fixed. It will probably be a week before they get it fixed. Its actually kinda cool how they find the leak. They will take three hydrophones and triangulate the sound to where the water is leaking.

7/7/2011 5:48:28 PM

7/7/2011 6:01:38 PM

ITT: weekend nuclear physicists

7/7/2011 7:02:22 PM

^To be fair, 90% of things related to a nuclear reactor are covered within mechanical engineering which is probably why you have so many people commenting on it on an NC State site

I know when we build reactors, the main process team is usually all mechanical engineers and like 1 nuke guy.

7/7/2011 7:25:23 PM

^^ LOL, I'm sure that nobody on TWW has a nuclear engineering degree....

7/7/2011 9:16:03 PM

^^^ I was an NRC licensed operator on the PULSTAR during undergrad.

I know a little about it.

7/7/2011 9:50:35 PM

hail to the king, baby!

7/7/2011 10:28:20 PM

Quote :

"^^ LOL, I'm sure that nobody on TWW has a nuclear engineering degree.... "

YOU SIR ARE MISTAKEN

I SPENDED 8 HRS/DAY POASTING UP IN THIS BITCH FOR MAGNA CUM LAUDE NUKE ENGINEERING SO STEP OFF BIYATCH OR I'LL USE MY NUKE MATHEMATICS ON YOU

7/7/2011 11:20:42 PM

i, too, am employed in the nuclear community

7/7/2011 11:37:39 PM

Quote :

"Ohh i'm sure its probably not much... it really depends if it is off the reactor loop or the secondary loop. If its the secondary you'd have to drink it to hurt you and even then it would probably still have to be your only source of water."

There is no fucking primary loop let alone a secondary loop in that reactor.

7/8/2011 12:45:15 AM

I'm so fucking sick of the sensationalist media working around the clock to try to destroy nuclear power ever since the Japan thing.

BREAKING NEWS: A BIRD HAS CRAPPED ON THE NUCLEAR RACTOR OMG OMG OMG

7/8/2011 2:30:30 AM

Lol the media.

The GOLO frenzy was doing all the heavy lifting.

7/8/2011 7:51:26 AM

Quote :

"There is no fucking primary loop let alone a secondary loop in that reactor."

100% wrong.

7/8/2011 10:05:26 AM

PAGING paerabol

7/8/2011 1:04:39 PM

Its pronounced nuke-u-lar

Btw, nuclear physicists are not the same as nuclear engineers.

7/8/2011 1:32:26 PM

Quote :

"There is no fucking primary loop let alone a secondary loop in that reactor."

Incorrect.

Quote :

"The PULSTAR is a pool type reactor, where the pool provides both shielding and a source of cooling water. In the PULSTAR, flow enters the top of the reactor from the pool and flows downward through the core. The coolant then enters an outlet plenum where it is directed to a delay tank before entering a heat exchanger where the core heat is transferred to a secondary cooling loop. The cold fluid is then pumped back to the reactor pool."

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~doster/NE400/Laboratories/HeatBalance/HeatBalance.pdf

If you're a nuke student I do hope Doster eats you alive. The most ridiculous thing would be that you didn't think there was any coolant loop at all. Wow.

[Edited on July 8, 2011 at 4:36 PM. Reason : ]

7/8/2011 4:24:25 PM

Quote :

"If you're a nuke student I do hope Doster eats you alive."

Good 'ole Doster. The person who said there's no primary/secondary loop can't be very bright.

7/8/2011 6:44:08 PM

7/8/2011 6:54:53 PM

OMNUCLEAR I hope it doesn't end up like Japan

7/8/2011 6:58:00 PM

Pfft...nothing like what happened at Fukashima Daiichi could happen to the pulstar. The power density / decay heat from the pulstar is such that even with no water in the pool, the core can air cool via natural convection and remain undamaged.

7/8/2011 10:35:20 PM

Quote :

"PAGING paerabol"

i'm pretty much staying out of nuke threads...the easy ones like this are already answered and the SB-style threads are so full of misinformation and dumbassery that it's better for my blood pressure to stay out


but yes, this leak ain't shit. the only reason it's on the news is due to the fashionable media culture of sensationalism


although I will take a moment to be mean-spirited rub this one in

Quote :

"There is no fucking primary loop let alone a secondary loop in that reactor."

-confusi0n



[Edited on July 8, 2011 at 11:04 PM. Reason : ah, doster.]

7/8/2011 10:59:33 PM

7/9/2011 12:06:25 AM