Octavo
Illuminator
There is one more point I'd like to raise. At Koeberg the reactor operators are trained to deal with just about every eventuality and like airline pilots they have a manual with a checklist that has to be followed in cases of emergency.
The chief objective of the reactor operators is to maintain containment and shut down the core in the event of serious problems in a safe manner. However, if something happens that threatens containment (like, say the core has melted through the floor and is in danger of melting through the containment building), the RO's are instructed to call the off-site disaster management centre which is manned 24hrs a day by highly-trained specialised staff.
The people at this centre have a COMPLETELY different perspective and the actions that they take are all motivated by the need to keep exposure and leakage to a minimum. They have entirely different procedures and methods than the RO's.
I'm not sure if this is how it works at all nuclear plants or just Koeberg (can anyone tell me?)
The idea here being that the RO's are interested in keeping the plant online and the core safe and approach things from that perspective - the disaster guys don't give a ◊◊◊◊ about the core or the people manning the plant - their sole objective is to keep contamination at bay and their procedures reflect that priority (often to the detriment of anyone unlucky enough to be on-shift at the plant).
Also, the containment building (at Koeberg at least) is designed to withstand a directed strike by a 747 or a cruise missile an maintain structural integrity. The entire plant is built on a raft of rollers in order to ensure it can withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8 on the richter scale without any damage to the containment building.
I don't think people realise the level of redundancy built into these plants and the extent to which people have planned for every single eventuality.
The chief objective of the reactor operators is to maintain containment and shut down the core in the event of serious problems in a safe manner. However, if something happens that threatens containment (like, say the core has melted through the floor and is in danger of melting through the containment building), the RO's are instructed to call the off-site disaster management centre which is manned 24hrs a day by highly-trained specialised staff.
The people at this centre have a COMPLETELY different perspective and the actions that they take are all motivated by the need to keep exposure and leakage to a minimum. They have entirely different procedures and methods than the RO's.
I'm not sure if this is how it works at all nuclear plants or just Koeberg (can anyone tell me?)
The idea here being that the RO's are interested in keeping the plant online and the core safe and approach things from that perspective - the disaster guys don't give a ◊◊◊◊ about the core or the people manning the plant - their sole objective is to keep contamination at bay and their procedures reflect that priority (often to the detriment of anyone unlucky enough to be on-shift at the plant).
Also, the containment building (at Koeberg at least) is designed to withstand a directed strike by a 747 or a cruise missile an maintain structural integrity. The entire plant is built on a raft of rollers in order to ensure it can withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8 on the richter scale without any damage to the containment building.
I don't think people realise the level of redundancy built into these plants and the extent to which people have planned for every single eventuality.
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