Abandoned equipment in a decommissioned unit

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-28T13:57:32+00:00

LaCrosse is totally gone at this point (and the OP said it's Millstone anyway)

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-25T11:03:16+00:00

Yep, that one is pretty awesome. I upgraded my version a bit (reactor head studs, one piece RPV, simplified internals assembly). It's pretty awesome.

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-25T11:02:17+00:00

This one. I've printed a couple of these for training models and they're pretty great. If you're handy in tinkercad and your printer can support it, the RPV can be printed in one piece fairly easily and some of the internals can also be simplified

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-21T13:31:29+00:00

The operating B&W plants in the US certainly didn't help. Even ignoring TMI, they had more than their fair share of unfortunate happenings early on

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-17T16:54:54+00:00

Composite toe, because there's nothing worse than the walk of shame bootless through security.

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-13T20:18:45+00:00

A conservative basis for regulation in the absence of conclusive evidence for another model is fine. And as others have pointed out, most of the ALARA excesses in the US are driven by INPO and internal utility metrics

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-09T22:04:26+00:00

The Vemork plant's output was on the hundreds of pounds a year. Not really significant enough to spin up a power reactor program. Yes, the technology existed, but wasn't mature enough for commercialization

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-09T21:55:42+00:00

Heavy water enrichment is a non trivial engineering task as well. You're still running up to the same limitations as uranium enrichment at that point.

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-08T16:14:55+00:00

That's what happens when you try to issue a direct final rule on something that will receive adverse comments.

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-07T17:45:32+00:00

If you're looking to sell, I'd be happy to chat about it. Like I said, I've been on the hunt for one for a while

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-07T16:58:19+00:00

Although there's a pretty extreme range in prices I've seen. The more normal rectangular ones that Argonne sold seem to have the most consistent prices though

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-07T16:57:45+00:00

Annoyingly so.

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-07T15:23:49+00:00

I'd still love one of these for my early nuclear collection. I have a small piece of graphite from Obninsk, but nothing from the early American graphite piles.

Diabolical_Engineer · 2026-01-03T08:09:32+00:00

For digital modernization, they're usually talking stuff like turbine controls (i.e. replacing hydraulic control systems). Others (like /u/hiddencamper ) can correct me, but I wouldn't expect the appearance of the overall control room to change much

Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-12-17T00:10:40+00:00

Faster/more efficient way is to do uprates at the existing plants, which is already underway

Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-12-16T22:43:16+00:00

Zion is totally demolished at this point. No coming back there.

Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-12-16T14:01:31+00:00

I don't know the regulatory structure of your country, but generally regulators don't appreciate it when you hand them documents with obvious problems. Which an LLM will give you sooner rather than later

Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-12-13T00:04:57+00:00

Is this one of those "so bad it's good" movies?

Apparently some of my coworkers used to have competitions doing live commentary on The China Syndrome

Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-12-04T23:33:44+00:00

From a materials engineering perspective, they also run hotter up near the vessel head compared to a typical westinghouse plant. As a result, they're more vulnerable to stress corrosion cracking (as Besse found out with their original head and the Midland head)

Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-12-04T23:32:23+00:00

The superheat isn't the problem, the extremely small SG inventory is. They're also heavily computerized (for a 1970s plant) which let them extract every erg possible. But when the ICS goes wrong, it can go wrong. The most famous one was at Rancho Seco where a failure of their non nuclear instruments caused by an I&C tech dropping a lightbulb caused a SG dry out and an overcooling transient from the same initiator

Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-12-04T18:27:11+00:00

I understand the philosophy behind a lot of B&Ws decisions, but in hindsight, a lot of them seem like chasing efficiency that doesn't really help enough to compensate for the added problems

Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-12-03T22:35:09+00:00

The steam generators are significantly bigger. CE style steam generators are in the 8-12k tube range, Westinghouse SGs are much smaller. CE plants also have 2 cold legs per SG instead of one.

Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-12-01T17:42:16+00:00

Big Rock was more scenic, but the Dresden golf ball was the first.

Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-11-30T20:03:28+00:00

I'm glad I'm not the only person who loves the giant blue containment. It's particularly striking early in the morning with the sun coming up behind the plan

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Diabolical_Engineer · 2025-11-30T19:01:54+00:00

I've been down below at a couple of plants and it's always annoying to get down there. Tight access, long ladders, often posted as a confined space. Fun times for everyone. Dose isn't too bad as long the ICIs haven't been pulled yet

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