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Scuba Diver Survives Being Sucked Into Nuclear Plant (nydailynews.com)
mdsolar writes: A man scuba diving in Florida somehow survived being sucked into a nuclear power plant in a terrifying log flume ride. Christopher Le Cun was boating off the coast of Hutchinson Island when he and his friend went under to check out three large shadows beneath the waves that looked like buildings. After diving down, he felt a current that quickly pulled him toward one of three intake pipes, got sucked in and was immersed in darkness for five minutes in the water being taken to cool the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant. Le Cun told WPTV that he thought he was going to be chopped into tiny bits when he hit a turbine at the end of the 16-foot-wide, quarter-mile tube. However, the turbine never came, and the pipe eventually spat him out into a reservoir at the plant holding water used to cool the nuclear reactor. After finding a passing worker, Le Cun was able to call wife Brittany, who thought her husband was dead after seeing the shocked face of his diving partner.
So, apparently these guys moored to the warning buoy being interested in what was beneath it. Upon entering the water, they see a gigantic pipe, with some hardware that was clearly intended to prevent marine stuff from accidentally entering the pipe, so they thought: "What a great idea! lets bypass these things intended to keep big stuff out and enter this here pipe!"
Darwin just missed on this one...
I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
It wasn't a nuclear plant that sucked in the diver. It was a current created by an artificial lagoon being drained below sea level and the sea via gravity refilling it. That is why there was no impeller or turbine to chew him up.
From TFA: "The company claims that there was a sign telling potential visitors to “stay back 100 feet” to avoid getting sucked into an unwelcome James Bond-style thrill ride. It also said that Le Cun intentionally swam into the intake pipe and got past equipment meant to prevent anything foreign from getting into the pipe."
A long long long time ago I heard exactly the same story.
Here's a blog discussion among scuba divers claiming the exact same event, at the exact same nuclear power plant, that was posted in 2013 (referring to a past, previous event).
So, either this is a hoax, or this happens occasionally at the nuclear power plant in question.
(I *do* have to wonder how something gets sucked into a reservoir without encountering propulsive blades.)
When I first heard the story, it mentioned that there was no warning of any kind to deter scuba divers from that location. The current news story says the same thing.
I mean, it is *exactly* the same story!
Does this happen often?
It's not like you just come across pipes like this in open water, but no SCUBA diver worth their salt would get near an unknown pipe like that.
Exactly! Someone please mod this up! I have some friends who dive, and they tell me, "Before you go down . . . look around!" Local diving clubs have maps of places with potential dangers, and are more than welcome to give you advice, free of charge!
These guys are a couple of idiots with too much money to spend on gear, and obviously have no training whatsoever.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Not so. Nuke are about 30% efficient, coal plants around 45% and gas plants around 60%. Other forms of generation need less cooling. Gas can get away with air cooling.
How do you think they drive cooling water into the reactor?
With a pump.
A turbine converts flow energy to mechanical energy by driving a shaft. A compressor/pump (whether it has rotating blades or not) does the reverse.
If the fluid is a gas, it's called a compressor; if liquid, it's called a pump.
Uh huh.... http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/a...
The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is a measure of a power source which attempts to compare different methods of electricity generation on a comparable basis. It is an economic assessment of the average total cost to build and operate a power-generating asset over its lifetime divided by the total energy output of the asset over that lifetime. The LCOE can also be regarded as the minimum cost at which electricity must be sold in order to break-even over the lifetime of the project.
Projected LCOE in the U.S. by 2020 (as of 2015)
Power generating technology Minimum Average Maximum
NG: Advanced CC with CCS 93.3 100.2 110.8
Advanced Nuclear 91.8 95.2 101
Just a bit of clarification:
In a pressurized water reactor there are typically 3 loops: primary, secondary and "feedwater".
Both the primary and secondary loops are closed... but can hardly be considered "radioactive". The water in the primary system will develop a small (very small) amount of tritium that will build up. Tritrium does have a medium length half-life (about 12 years) so you wouldn't want to drink a bunch of it... but it also won't be radioactive for long. However, the amount in the primary system is really small.
Other reactor types (like CANDU) that use heavy water (deuterium) are much more likely to develop tritium... but even then it is a tiny amount (a few kilograms a year in thousands of tons of water).
The primary and secondary are really closed because they're at high pressure and have carefully controlled chemistry (to keep down corrosion and, in the case of the primary system, to help control the nuclear reaction using boron (dissolved boric acid).
The feedwater (which is what comes from rivers/lakes/oceans typically) is simply there to condense the steam generated in the secondary system back into water after it flows through the turbine.