On 4/17/2011 10:03 AM, Alain wrote:
>> a) makes no damn sense to me at all (even if it was some minimal system,
>> enough to just keep pumps going), unless the tsunami took out
>> lines/systems in the actual turbine part of the system. I would have
>> thought those would be internal to the reactor, but.. Then again, their
>> systems reuse a lot of waste heat/energy, so its hard to say how complex
>> the whole thing was, and thus "where" those systems where, and thus
>> whether it was even feasible to have the turbines in the reactor
>> buildings. Its a definite WTF for me, but may go towards the whole, "If
>> you make the thing so damn big you can't do *basic* shit to keep it
>> working, you may be building them too big." If I where to guess... They
>> probably have "internal systems that funnel water to and from the
>> reactor, then a "heat exchange" point, with and entirely separate
>> system, which is external to the reactors themselves. This would then
>> run out to their actual turbine systems, where the heated water produces
>> the actual power, is cooled, then pumped back into the exchanger. You
>> don't want to run radioactive water through the turbines, or use a
>> system where water from one might get into the other. This means that,
>> for practical purposes, power isn't generated "in" the reactor itself,
>> at all. So...
> The reactor heat water in the primary cooling loop.
> It circulate between the reactor and a heat exchanger just outside the
> reactor housing.
> This water, in turn, turn water in the secondary loop into steam.
> That steam powers the turbines.
> All of this is housed in a building that contains the reactor housings.
>
> One big buiding that contains the reactors, the primary to secondary
> heat exchangers and the turbines. The transformers are located outside
> and alongside that building, as shown by the satellite and aerial photos
> of the site.
> The link from the building to the transformers station are very short
> and shielded from the sea by the large building.
> The transforming station was unaffected by the stunami.
> The main building did NOT suffer from the stunami at all, but did stop
> it and protected a significan area.
> The power lines where cut over 100m BEHIND the plant.
> It's the lost of those lines that caused all the problems.
>
In other words, there was no logical reason it couldn't have run from 
the power being still generated. Well, unless there was something in 
there so that, under disaster conditions, it "stopped" generating power, 
so shorts couldn't happen. Still... I don't get it.

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