How to startup a nuclear reactor
Published: Tue, 02/25/14
were something to behold.
By following those procedures, you could take a "mild
mannered" lukewarm nuclear reactor, and heat it up to the
point where you could power and propel a submarine.
Or, in the case of a commercial nuclear plant, you could power a
city.
To become good at starting up a reactor and engine room, you needed
to become proficient at working in parallel.
There were lots of procedures going at the same time, and you
usually were preparing to get the boat underway, as the reactor is
typically shutdown in port.
Here's how the overlapping processes looked - big picture --
for a nuclear powered submarine:
* make reactor calculations
* brief the teams
<--- startup reactor --->
<--- startup engine room --->
remove shore power *
get underway*
So, you could say there were a lot of moving parts. There are
overlapping procedures, involving multiple teams of people.
When you are first learning to lead the startup process, it can be
quite overwhelming. Sometimes you screw it up. Luckily, there are
experienced people around to *gently* guide you back on path.
There aren't very many shortcuts to learning this, besides
studying the procedures and then doing them.
I remember the first time at nuclear prototype school when the
instructor tried to draw the process out on the board. I felt out
of my league, but by the end of my tour on the submarine, I could
easily lead the whole thing and even taught junior officers how to
do it, too.
To start it off, your enlisted Reactor Operator starts remotely
pulling the control rods up out of the reactor by a few inches.
This makes the reactor more, well, "reactive" and start
producing lots of neutrons.
As you pull the control rods further out, and add power, eventually
the reactor becomes "critical."
Being critical isn't a bad thing for a reactor, it's
important. At that point, the reactor is making just as many
neutrons as it is losing them. Call it breaking even.
Pull the rods out more, and you get supercritical, then you really
start cooking.
Really, you actually start cooking now because the neutrons bounce
around on the water molecules and heat them up. It's
beautiful! Ha
I hope you have enjoyed this primer on nuclear power! If you live
in the US and pay taxes, you probably helped pay for my nuclear
power education, so the least I could do is share some of it with
you. Heh
In the March issue of Frac Sand Fortunes, subscribers will get a
real education on the frac sand biz.
You see, searching for frac sand and inventing new products for the
frac sand industry can be complicated ventures.
Lots of moving parts, just like the reactor and engine room startup
procedures.
You need that experienced voice telling and showing you exactly how
to do it. Helping you along the way.
Gently guiding as you learn the industry.
In the March issue of Frac Sand Fortunes, frac sand explorer Stuart
Burgess drills down to the *atomic level* on exactly how to search
for frac sand and how to identify frac sand deposits.
Jim Roemer goes *supercritical* on the trials and tribulations
involved with inventing and bringing a new product into the frac
sand industry.
Both interviews are "nuclear powered," for sure.
To step into the control room, subscribe to Frac Sand Fortunes here:
http://www.globalenergylaboratories.com/newsletters/