Here's what it looks like inside a nuclear power plant

Beyond this state everyone needs hearing protection hard hats ey glasses so what we're looking at here is the main air lock on unit 5 this airlock is the main entrance point to the unit 5 reactor Building inside the concrete wall is um the reactor itself all the fueling components and all the support systems that uh move the fuel heat from the re to the boilers when an operator is assigned to unit 5 the equipment bases are painted pink they know that they're on the right unit they use it as an airor prevention tool here we're entering uh unit six this is a a mirror image of unit 5 same type of uh air loock all the same equipment inside the reactor building so everyday reactor building operators are going in to uh perform rounds and routines monitor equipment take reading it operates just like a space station airlock if an individual wants to go into the uh reactor building the outer door will open an individual will enter that door the door will close behind uh the doors will seal on either side equalize the pressure and then on the inside door will open and the individual can access the reactor building on the inside stations where our individuals um put on their personal protective equipment before going into the reactor building we can remove our hearing protection I'll turn off the mic for now and we'll uh go into the control room because they're allowed to eat and drink in there it's uh kept clean so we make sure everyone monitors before it bring any papers or themselves into the control room good everyone will have to badge and as the light turns green we'll allow you into the control room yeah good what we'll show you guys here is the control room for our station my name is clar Monroe I am the duty shift manager today the training to become a uh control room shift supervisor or or a shift manager is approximately a 4-year program we take science fundamentals we learn the uh specifics about the equipment here the logic and then we also uh go through simulator training so uh about 6 months worth of worst case scenarios uh and your response to it and you really start to develop a process because you really have to be able to respond to anything our authorized nuclear operators also will take about four years of training so the control room sh supervisor sits in the middle so that you can basically see all of the four units we have a licens individual at each of the the panels that you'll see there and they're actually not allowed to leave the operating Island unless someone relieves them so there's always someone in attendance at each of the uh each of the reactors you'll see we have an abundance of hand switches and lights and everything like that every single one of them has a specific purpose and uh even though it looks like a lot uh these guys and girls know exactly what each and every one of them does what you're looking at is the uh digital control computer for unit 5 it's 80s technology we're looking to refurbish and replace it with a more modernized uh digital control system as we move into refurbishment at 82 83 84 and 85 just a memory of uh the first time that they came came online here what you're looking at is the uh unit 7 turbine generator set the big steel pipes those are the uh steam lines from the boiler inside the reactor building they bring the steam in to turn the turbine what you see here is the low press turbine spindles that came out of the last unit uh unit outage uh they're going to be refurbished and placed in the next unit when we refurbish the turbine steam will come right into the middle of the turbine here uh through the big steam pipes the big steel steam pipes you see Steam comes into the middle and it goes out through these blades as the steam expands through the turbine it makes the turbine spin so that's how we get the steam energy spinning the turbine which is then connected to the generator and the output from the generator goes out to our switchyard that you saw out front of the plant and that goes out to provide electricity to the onterio grid

Channel: CBC News

Views: 322,581

Keywords: Toronto, Pickering, nuclear, power plant, electricity, power

Id: xHA3rI6bwpI

Length: 4min 16sec (256 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 28 2023