What happens if the San Onofre Nuclear Plant catches fire?

Question

It extemely close.........

http://cbs8.com/misc/fires_oct_07/maps.h...

Will we all be done for?

http://cbs8.com/misc/fires_oct_07/maps.html

Answer 1

The nuclear plant will be safe. Everything AROUND it may be toast, but the plant itself will not experience any nuclear problems because of the fire. Reactor buildings are surrounded by large expanses of non-burnable areas and the buildings themselves are steel reinforced concrete or steel. The plant has its own firefighting capabilities, and if it is required, extra resources will be focused on keeping the fire away from the plant . Power transmission FROM the plant may be interrupted by loss of power lines from the plant, but a nuclear event isn't going to be caused by this fire. You may ignore Martin K.s carryings-on about Chernobyl, That was an accident caused by a problem within the plant itself, an old, limited redundancy design put together with Soviet tecnical capabilities. Their reactor technology, and their construction standards were "Lacking" to be understated.

Answer 2

The only damage which may occur would be in the plant's substation, and maybe the office buildings (both of which can be replaced). I went on a tour of a nuclear plant about 10 years ago, and I can remember how secure nuclear plants are. What most people who don't understand about nuclear plants is that the containment buildings which surround the reactors are made of reinforced concrete that is over 10 feet thick, and has rebar that is several inches thick. That's just the containment building. Then there's the reactor vessel itself, which contains the uranium fuel (the reactor core), and the vessel surrounding it has several feet of steel (about six feet or so). And the refueling floor, which the reactor vessel sits in (a cavity) is also made of concrete. And concrete doesn't burn. The control room has numerous backup switches, and every plant has a fire station. An interesting fact about San Onofre is that the plant is connected to southern California's 230 kv system (230,000 volts), which isn't that big compared to the main lines in California, which operate at 500 kv (500,000 volts). Other plants like Diablo Canyon, and Palo Verde in Arizona are connected to 500 kv lines. What punkrock and Stephen H said about the nuclear plant is 100 percent correct. They are right. Every plant has fire fighting crews. And the area surrounding the plant would not catch on fire because the ground that the plant sits on is also made of concrete. All nuclear plants are built on concrete foundations. Most of the security guards who work at nuclear plants are ex-military, and the plants have state-of-the-art security devices. The reason why Chernobyl melted down was because RBMK reactors (the ones that the Russians use) had many defects with the control rods, and the fact that Chernobyl didn't have a reinforced containment building. Control rods are made of boron, which absorbs the neutrons. Control rods cover the uranium, which are packed in fuel rods. Neutrons break apart the uranium atoms (a process known as nuclear fission), thus creating heat. When the boron absorbs the neutrons it slows down the process, and shuts the reactor down when the control rods completely cover the fuel rods. The control rods used by the Russian RBMKs were made of graphite, and only the tips of the rods were made of boron. It's reactor building was made of plain steel, which couldn't protect the surrounding area in the event of an accident. The control room operators at Chernobyl weren't even trained in nuclear engineering. They were trained to operate coal plants. The scram button, which is designed to automatically shut down the reactor took much longer to do than the PWRs (pressurized water reactor), and BWRs (boiling water reactor) used in the U.S. San Onofre uses two Pressurized Water Reactors, which are totally different in design than the RBMKs used by the Russians. The only way a nuclear reactor can melt down is if there is a loss of coolant (which is water), and the fuel rods are exposed. And a meltdown would only occur if the reactors are operating. There's nothing to worry about.

Answer 3

It will be a bad day in San Onofre! I recently visited the Chernobyl area just on the border of Ukraine/ Belarus. The effects of that were quite catastophic. That thing melted down in the mid 1980s. The crops that grow there have no nutrients whatsoever. I was shooting a documentary film there. We went to the childrens hospitals. The kids there were all very sick. Remember that these kids were not even born at the time of the meltdown, but all their symptoms were as a direct result of that nuclear incident. I would like to hope that San Onofre would have implimented extra safety procedures- but disasters do happen. I'm sure that in time there will a similar situation, if not there then somewhere in the world. However the forest fires are not going to set this thing off, it would have to be a major internal malfunction to cause a catastophe.

Answer 4

it would be hard for it to catch fire because it all concrete and they do that on purpose. thats why there is no plant life within 200 feet of the power plant. plus that concrete is about 4 to 5 feet thick not only would a fire not phase it but san diego would never let really let the fire get that close.it may look close, but trust me they know what they are doing, you would need a highly sofisitcated missle to penetrate those walls, thats why the camp pendelton is so close to it......for safety

Answer 5

That being the Nuclear Power Plant....I would think they have an excellent fire protection factor, possibly with their own trained employees to do that firefighting as they would know what to protect first. Gosh, at least I hope so. I would hate to think we could all be gonners...I m evac'd now and still cant get home. All roads are still closed.

Hey It is very unusual that Calif has basements.....maybe 1 in 200,000 homes.....

Answer 6

Here you first find a basement and stock up on suplies keep a radio handy. Next if it burns get on your knees put your head between your legs and Kiss your A*$$ goodbye.

Answer 7

Someone will call 911 and the fire department will show up.

Answer 8

How will the fire burn through feet-thick concrete?

Answer 9

Nothing

Answer 10

A big boom! I would leave now to be safe.