Nuclear refurbishment in Ontario

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: PimTac
No different than down here in WA state where freeways cost $1 billion per mile to build and housing is in the stratosphere since British Columbia put a tax surcharge or something on foreign buyers thus sending all the Chinese down this way. As for nuclear plants, we had the WPPSS fiasco. Shameful.


Reminds me of the South Park song... Blame Canada!

 

[bubbatime]

I understand the concept of nuclear. Does anyone know what country has the safest reactors? I always heard France's stuff was very high tech, but I dont know enough about nuclear to know otherwise. I hear US stuff is very outdated due to onerous EPA guidelines.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: bubbatime
I understand the concept of nuclear. Does anyone know what country has the safest reactors? I always heard France's stuff was very high tech, but I dont know enough about nuclear to know otherwise. I hear US stuff is very outdated due to onerous EPA guidelines.


I'd say ours are the safest, given they use natural Uranium, rather than enriched. But there may be some inherent bias built into that answer

France has a variety of different reactors in service, they are based, more or less, depending on vintage, on US Westinghouse designs. They however have a newer European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) that they are deploying, which was developed in conjunction with Siemens.

A great article on the France situation can be found here. Be warned, it is a long read, but very thorough.

 

[StevieC]

My brother did his Co-op in university at a power plant in France as we have relatives living in Alsace. Safety is a huge deal for them and not only talked about but strictly enforced.

He was quite impressed with their technology as an engineer.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: StevieC
My brother did his Co-op in university at a power plant in France as we have relatives living in Alsace. Safety is a huge deal for them and not only talked about but strictly enforced.

He was quite impressed with their technology as an engineer.



I think you'll find that's relatively universal in nuclear power. If you get a chance, I'd encourage you to do the tour of Darlington or Bruce. Nuclear is probably the most highly regulated and strictly overseen operation in the world. Our plants have won many awards for their safety records.

 

[StevieC]

Oh no doubt and it helps me sleep easy at night. Just sharing the experience at the one in France via my brother. Unfortunately it was after 9/11 and photo's were strictly forbidden for security purposes. The only one he has is standing at the security gate.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: StevieC
Oh no doubt and it helps me sleep easy at night. Just sharing the experience at the one in France via my brother. Unfortunately it was after 9/11 and photo's were strictly forbidden for security purposes. The only one he has is standing at the security gate.


Same policy here too, I could take pictures at the road of Bruce, but nothing inside.

Not surprised about France, they get the majority of their power via nuclear and I believe have the most nuclear installed capacity in the world, something like 427TWh a year of output? Makes our ~100TWh look rather paltry in comparison, LOL!

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Originally Posted By: Donald
I am hoping fusion will come online before I am too old to care.
Another cold fusion debacle like the one that The University of Utah (COLD fUSION U) tried to pass off about twenty some years ago. And EPRI spent a lot of dollars looking into cold fusion for generation. That was enough for me to never mention that I had ever been to EPRI training seminars.

 

[MolaKule]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: StevieC
My brother did his Co-op in university at a power plant in France as we have relatives living in Alsace. Safety is a huge deal for them and not only talked about but strictly enforced.

He was quite impressed with their technology as an engineer.



I think you'll find that's relatively universal in nuclear power. If you get a chance, I'd encourage you to do the tour of Darlington or Bruce. Nuclear is probably the most highly regulated and strictly overseen operation in the world. Our plants have won many awards for their safety records.


For sure. And very secure. Paramilitary units are all over the place.

Or visit a University's reactor facility like MURR.

http://www.murr.missouri.edu/

This where I did some of my Master's research using a JPL grant.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: MolaKule
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: StevieC
My brother did his Co-op in university at a power plant in France as we have relatives living in Alsace. Safety is a huge deal for them and not only talked about but strictly enforced.

He was quite impressed with their technology as an engineer.



I think you'll find that's relatively universal in nuclear power. If you get a chance, I'd encourage you to do the tour of Darlington or Bruce. Nuclear is probably the most highly regulated and strictly overseen operation in the world. Our plants have won many awards for their safety records.


For sure. An very secure. Paramilitary units are all over the place.

Or visit a University's reactor facility like MURR.

http://www.murr.missouri.edu/

This where I did some of my Master's research using a JPL grant.