OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
I couldn't make the @High Performance Lubricants Open House this year, since it happened to fall on the same dates as our group was getting an in-plant tour of Bruce Nuclear Generating station, which produces ~30% of Ontario's electricity!
This was a truly once in a lifetime opportunity, since the Unit 6 MCR (refurbishment project) had just wrapped up and fuel loading had just completed the day before. We were able to get up close and personal with Unit 6, including seeing the brand new steam generators, of which there are 8, on a unit with a thermal capacity of 2,832MWth, which gets converted into ~880MWe (1.18 million HP). The unit had not been fired since the replacement of all these key parts, so radiological hazard level was essentially zero, allowing us to get into places you normally can't. We received no dose for the entire tour.
@Rand was able to come up and join as well.
It's amazing to consider that what's essentially a 20x20 box can produce 4% of Ontario's electricity Most of the plant (which also really isn't that large) is the supporting equipment. Each unit has 4x 10MW pumps for their HT system for example, so there's lots of plumbing!
Bruce is a special plant in that it can handle a total loss of grid power and not have to SCRAM. It dumps steam to the condensors, and the reactors will drop down to 55% and idle, running all the services for the units and the site. This is a fantastic service in the event of a black start, as you have a tremendous amount of firm capacity with a ton of inertia that can be used to rebuild the grid, and that's exactly how it was used in the 2003 Blackout.
This was a truly once in a lifetime opportunity, since the Unit 6 MCR (refurbishment project) had just wrapped up and fuel loading had just completed the day before. We were able to get up close and personal with Unit 6, including seeing the brand new steam generators, of which there are 8, on a unit with a thermal capacity of 2,832MWth, which gets converted into ~880MWe (1.18 million HP). The unit had not been fired since the replacement of all these key parts, so radiological hazard level was essentially zero, allowing us to get into places you normally can't. We received no dose for the entire tour.
@Rand was able to come up and join as well.
It's amazing to consider that what's essentially a 20x20 box can produce 4% of Ontario's electricity Most of the plant (which also really isn't that large) is the supporting equipment. Each unit has 4x 10MW pumps for their HT system for example, so there's lots of plumbing!
Bruce is a special plant in that it can handle a total loss of grid power and not have to SCRAM. It dumps steam to the condensors, and the reactors will drop down to 55% and idle, running all the services for the units and the site. This is a fantastic service in the event of a black start, as you have a tremendous amount of firm capacity with a ton of inertia that can be used to rebuild the grid, and that's exactly how it was used in the 2003 Blackout.