Tour of Nuclear Power plant

this is Darlington on the shores of Lake Ontario about 70 kilometers east of Toronto it's one of Ontario power generations to nuclear generating stations and it's basically a factory for making lots of electricity enough to power a city of around 2 million people that's about 20% of Ontario's electricity needs the building is divided into two main areas along its length the nuclear side with the reactors and the conventional side with the turbine generators that make the electricity there are four generating units at Darlington units one two four each with a reactor and a turbine generator each unit can generate 935 megawatts of electricity you Darlington produces electricity using the heat that comes from splitting uranium atoms in a process called nuclear fission the fuel is naturally occurring uranium that's processed into small pellets the pellets are sealed into metal tubes which are welded together to form a fuel bundle the fuel bundles are then inserted into a large tank called the calandria which is the heart of the nuclear reactor in CANDU reactors a special kind of water called heavy water flows around the fuel bundles heavy water is found in all water rivers lakes and oceans on average one out of every seven thousand drops of water is heavy water it's ten percent heavier than ordinary water because it incorporates a heavy form of hydrogen called deuterium the heavy water slows down tiny particles called neutrons so they are more likely to hit and split the uranium atoms a chain reaction of splitting atoms releases tremendous heat into the heavy water the heated heavy water flows through a closed-loop system that's pumped through the reactor to a set of steam generators where it transfers the heat to ordinary water when that water boils it turns into steam the steam is transported at high pressure through pipes to a large turbine where it pushes the blades and turns a shaft connected to a rotor in the generator causing the rotor to spin the spinning rotor is a large electromagnet that produces rotating magnetic fields these fields move across coils of copper wire in the generator producing electricity the electricity is fed into transmission lines that carry the power from Darlington to people's homes and businesses all used fuel is carefully stored in safe and secure areas that are constantly monitored by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency so let's take a tour of Darlington before going into the station everyone has to pass through a security building that operates a lot like an airport security system there are machines to check for explosive chemicals x-ray machines and metal detectors then everyone has to pass through a turnstile where their security card and their individual hand bone structure must match at all times highly trained security staff inspect every person and everything entering and leaving the station then all personnel picked up devices that are issued to them to constantly monitor for radiation while inside the station safety is the number-one priority at all Ontario power generation facilities so everyone working in the station must have the proper protective equipment safety glasses hard hats safety boots gloves and hearing protection visitors must also wear safety equipment the main entry for the station is through an area known as unit zero this is where the common systems for the entire station are located heating lighting ventilation and the operations control room also located in unit zero are the mechanical maintenance shop were experts in welding machining and pipe fitting work on equipment the control maintenance shop for the experts in electrical instrumentation and electronic systems and stores where people pick up the tools and parts they need to do their job the station is divided into zones according to the location of systems and equipment to prevent the transfer of radioactive materials whenever people or equipment move from zone to zone they monitor to ensure no transfer of radioactivity let's start at the beginning of the fishin process where heat is released from the fuel each of the four reactor buildings is made of heavily reinforced concrete with external walls 2 metres thick when a reactors operating no one can enter the reactor vault but when it's shut down for maintenance radiation fields decrease and train staff can safely work here technicians put on protective equipment login with their tools and then access the reactor through the airlock system the reactor consists of a large heavily shielded vessel or calandria which contains 480 fuel channels and 6240 bundles of uranium fuel we're now looking down on the top of the reactor vault the process of nuclear fission draws the heat from the fuel to boil ordinary water into steam all that steam is transferred over to the turbine side of the station through large steam lines so this is the turbine Hall it's almost four football fields long and nineteen stories high all four turbine generating units are located in this one giant area you can see the color coding unit one is red Unit two is yellow unit three is green and unit four is purple this color coding extends all the way through the systems for the unit and into the control room since all four generating units are identical the color coding ensures correct unit and system identification the turbine blades are shaped like a fan where steam enters and turns the blades in the center is a connecting shaft that rotates at 1,800 times a minute as the steam pushes the blades at the very end is a relatively small piece of equipment the actual generator where the electricity is made from here it's out to the grid and into homes and businesses so finally we come back to unit zero and the control room Mission Control for the whole station every important system in the plant is monitored and controlled from this room by highly trained and certified staff authorized nuclear operators go through an average of eight years of high-level training and testing to become fully certified by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission all Darlington staff are lifelong learners and spend up to 20 percent of their time in continual safety and job training OPG nuclear generating stations use the defense-in-depth safety philosophy that sets the highest standards for plant design and operations for critical components and systems backup devices ensure redundancy at all times as well as fast-acting shut down systems there is a secondary containment structure called the vacuum building this 71 meter high 24 story cylindrical concrete structure is connected to the reactor buildings by a pressure relief duct and is a unique safety feature of the can-do system so that's a look inside the massive machine that is the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station but ultimately that's not what makes the power it takes people over 2,500 highly trained and skilled staff work at Darlington 24 hours a day 365 days a year supplying the homes and businesses of Ontario with safe reliable clean electricity

Channel: Theo Jenetopulos

Views: 1,305,642

Rating: 4.8232961 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: _AdA5d_8Hm0

Length: 10min 58sec (658 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 04 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/todd10k]

no candu

[u/Hiddencamper]

Every reactor, not just CANDU, has a reactor protection system (RPS) which monitors over 2 dozen parameters in the plant and generates automatic emergency scram signals.

Typical things the RPS watches include water levels, steam line pressure, containment pressure, reactor pressure, power, neutron flux, turbine valve position, etc

Normally a plant has 3 or 4 independent RPS systems monitoring all these parameters and voting to keep the core online. If any 2 systems fail to vote to keep the core online, the reactor automatically trips and is shutdown within 2-3 seconds.

[u/nukethor]

Pretty much all nuclear reactors are designed to shut down quickly. It's called a scram and all the control rods are driven into the core either by gravity, spring pressure, or both. Someone mentioned Chernobyl earlier and yes it was designed to and a rod got stuck. Because of that now, reactors are designed to be shutdown with multiple contingencies. For instance if your most reactive rod is the one stuck (the rod that is most effective at stopping the interaction between the fuel and neutrons) the cores are still designed to be shut down. Everything is suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper conservative.

[u/Voxu]

MR MESEEK CANDUUUU

[u/Fishamatician]

See that's the CANDU attitude we need on reactors.

[u/ConcreteSlushy]

They will also apologize in under two seconds after said emergency.

[u/[deleted]]

Chernobyl was also designed to shut down in seconds. Who knew that rods would stuck.

PS. Don't beat me, i love nuclear energy and want more of it.