Texas....a lesson for the entire nation

For a reactor aboard a submarine water cooling makes a lot of sense. Me being 69 this year- I can't really expect to see much progress in nuclear generating technology in my time left, but the Generation IV reactors sound promising.
 

Chet said:
I have to say that our power company, PPL is pretty good in this part of PA. They have installed a switching system that re-routs power from one section to the section having a problem. Knock on wood.

PA also has a system where you can buy electricity from a number of suppliers introducing competition. PPL deals only in power distribution separate from suppliers
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I've got to admit that PA. power companies have really done a great job with getting rid of outages. Usually, the only thing we , in PA., can boast about is that we have the most number of crooked politicians in prison than any other state. I don't know what the power co.s did, but they got their act together.
I don't want to sound like I'm dumping on Texas, but in my very learned opinion (?). It sounds like the power grid in Texas was run on the cheap. Whether that was to maximizes profits, or they just didn't have the money, there was no real back up system. What they had was running 100%, and if anything at all happened, it was all going to crash.
And coming from Pennsylvania, I'll bet when Texas investigates this, they will find a "cozy" relationship with the power companies and the power company regulators.
 
squatting dog said:
@Happy Joe. I was wondering how many amp hours that battery of yours is. (always looking in case something better comes down the pike).
Should we need it, We have solar for our motor home boondocking excursions. Would only take a few minutes to hook to the house if needed. (y)
We had the 6v flooded batts hooked in series originally, but, when they finally quit, I went with some sealed 12v. AGM batts in hooked in parallel. I,ve only got 530 watts of solar, but, there is room on top for at least 6 more panels. (I will purchase as I can afford them).

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That particular system used a 35 amp hour 12 volt deep discharge Lead acid battery powering an 80 watt chinese inverter. It is very limited but will run a 350 lumen 110volt bulb for more than 5 days of limited usage befor needing a recharge.. I do not bother recharging it until after comming home from 4 day weekends. I use it for camping because it is lightweight, easy to carry and does the job. (less than half the weight of my larger 100 A H lead acid battery). I noticed that the prices of lithium batteries seem to be coming down a bit So I will likely replace the scooter battery with one when the it finally dies... I keep it on a battery maintainer 100% of the time when it is not in use but it is getting old.

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I have nothing to critique about our state of Texas but rather am keeping all of those affected by the storm in my prayers.5ea8c078b31bcea11b295814a3feb3ca[1].jpg
 
Happy Joe said:
That particular system used a 35 amp hour 12 volt deep discharge Lead acid battery powering an 80 watt chinese inverter. It is very limited but will run a 350 lumen 110volt bulb for more than 5 days of limited usage befor needing a recharge.. I do not bother recharging it until after comming home from 4 day weekends. I use it for camping because it is lightweight, easy to carry and does the job. (less than half the weight of my larger 100 A H lead acid battery). I noticed that the prices of lithium batteries seem to be coming down a bit So I will likely replace the scooter battery with one when the it finally dies... I keep it on a battery maintainer 100% of the time when it is not in use but it is getting old.

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Looks like you've got it figured out. (great setup).
I've been watching the price of lithium batteries too. They have to come down quite a bit in price before they make sense for our use though.
 
Nathan said:
Well, aside from the message of self serving politicians and corporate greed, I would like to interject that nuclear power "can be" safe and a desirable alternative. Green! Yes, I know some bristle at the term...
Nuclear Power plants FAIL because of one major event: cooling failure. Back in the 1960s a proto-type reactor was built at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, had a fail-safe cooling system utilizing molten salt. That could have been our energy savior, but the Navy wanted nuclear powered submarines, of course the cooling system would depend of using water. For reasons unknown, the focus of the nuclear power industry was solely on designs using water based cooling systems.
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The link you provided explains why MSRs aren't feasible yet. Molten salt is highly corrosive and it's difficult and expensive to safely dispose of the waste.

It took until 2008 to remove all the uranium from that 1960s experiment, and fission products remain in the salt, so cleanup is still underway despite already costing $130 million just for that one experiment!
 
WhatInThe said:
My guess it came down to costs and what they could obtain and produce at that time. In other words it came down to money not having to procure the associate raw materials, refine them then turn them into reactor parts.

But this is what puzzles with a lot of these so called renewables which rely on electronic components and batteries which are loaded with heavy metals that must mined to start the manufacturing process.
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The materials in solar panels and lithium batteries can be recycled, but it's a lot cheaper to just dump them in landfills. Maybe there need to be mandates that require them to be recycled, although that would go over like a lead balloon.
 
Don M. said:
The news is saying that Texas went through a similar power outage about 10 years ago, and measures were supposed to be implemented that would mitigate future issues. It appears that those "measures" were largely just "hype", and little or nothing was actually done. Perhaps the severity of this outage will force the authorities to actually do something.

With our ever changing climate, it's anyone's guess as to what future years will bring in the way of cold and heat waves, etc. The only sensible approach is to try to plan for the worst, and be grateful if it doesn't happen.
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Kind of makes you wonder if someone got a little “extra pocket money” to skip the winterizing.
 
Irwin said:
The link you provided explains why MSRs aren't feasible yet. Molten salt is highly corrosive and it's difficult and expensive to safely dispose of the waste.

It took until 2008 to remove all the uranium from that 1960s experiment, and fission products remain in the salt, so cleanup is still underway despite already costing $130 million just for that one experiment!
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O.K.
 
JonDouglas said:
Regarding Texas and the rest of the nation, promising to upgrade infrastructure is the politician's benchmark promise that voters generally don't hold them to. It will be interesting to see what the people of Texas do.
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In 2008, the EMP commission estimated that hardening the critical nodes of the US grid would cost around 2 billion--hasn't been done. A few years after their report, our president at the time committed 7 billion to expand the electrical grid in sub-Saharan Africa.

I remember reading a survey some years ago that 75% of people questioned said they would not survive a national grid outage of even several months ...and they're correct. If the whole nation goes, it'll be quick and awful for a lot of people. Much of our military is grid dependent and there's no way they could use what they are able to produce to support citizens. Parts of the world not affected could help, but how long would that take to mobilize?
 
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fuzzybuddy said:
... there was no real back up system. What they had was running 100%, and if anything at all happened, it was all going to crash. ...
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That's true nationwide. The grids were built piecemeal without standardization. If enough critical nodes fail in one of the three grids, all of that grid goes and there are no replacement parts.
 
My power came back and today my water, almost. All water lines are open but my kitchen faucet is clogged. I will take it apart tomorrow to see what the clog is but after troubleshooting so far i think it is the wall plumbing leading to my kitchen. Here's the problem, Condo Owner will resist paying for any repairs is my guess for now. Years ago the kitchen floor in the unit below me literally cracked right down the middle and she had to pay the bill. Even with a lawyer she lost the case. He floor looked like an earthquake hit. How that was her fault (no play on words) is beyond me.
 
Will the next part of this nightmare be non-payment by insurance companies? Even if they pay, there’ll be a wait while they analyze the situation and then folks have to hope the shady contractors aren’t too prevalent.
 
Nathan said:
Well, aside from the message of self serving politicians and corporate greed, I would like to interject that nuclear power "can be" safe and a desirable alternative. Green! Yes, I know some bristle at the term...
Nuclear Power plants FAIL because of one major event: cooling failure. Back in the 1960s a proto-type reactor was built at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, had a fail-safe cooling system utilizing molten salt. That could have been our energy savior, but the Navy wanted nuclear powered submarines, of course the cooling system would depend of using water. For reasons unknown, the focus of the nuclear power industry was solely on designs using water based cooling systems.
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The thing that people don't talk about with nuclear reactors is what you do with them once they have outlived their useful purpose. They need to be encased and also maintained to keep them from leaking radiation. I haven't read up on this myself but I've heard some folks talk about it. I don't have any references to point people to. I do recall that the amount of energy needed to maintain their enclosure for the many years in the future that is needed is a non-trivial percentage of the energy they put out during their useful lifetime.
 
My over 40 years in engineering/construction was in the water/wastewater field. Politicians controlling budgets want to see things built they can hang a "bronze plaque" on. Parks... Libraries... Recreational facilities... Water and sewer lines are underground and unseen. They don't want to spend money on those. When they come up for reelection, they can point to the new park and say, "See what I did?" They can't point to a water line or give tours of a water treatment facility as part of their campaign speeches. So... until someone has no water or cannot flush their toilets... the underground utilities are left deteriorating. It's very similar with our outdated power grids. We have three power grids of which only two are interconnected. We should have multiple power grids across the country. If hackers take out one grid, the interconnection can bring it back on. Today, hackers can disrupt two grids and 90% or the country is without power.
The tragedy in Texas should be a learning experience for the entire Nation. Other states should not turn a blind eye, simply because it didn't happen to them! It can happen to them!!! Most of the electrical utilities are privately owned corporations. A corporation has to show profit for its shareholders. All utilities... electric, water, sewer... should be owned by municipalities, states, or the federal government. Profit should not be the priority! Accessibility and dependability should be most important.
 
AnnieA said:
All three sectors of our national grid are horribly dated and exposed to failure due to natural causes (extreme weather, solar flares), cyber attack or an EMP. There are strategic parts that if knocked out would cause a cascade and nationwide failure. Huge transformers that are too large for semis to carry that were put in place by rail car eons ago no longer have train tracks anywhere near them. There are no spares in waiting; production would take over a year and we don't have manufacturing ability to make them in the US anymore.

Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath by Ted Koppel is a sobering read.
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I read that we came close to a nationwide power failure at least once when that regional failure happened several years ago. We also dodged the EMP bullet scientists warned might happened years ago. These things may not be a matter of "if" but "when".

Regarding the OP. I read that utility bills have skyrocketed to ridiculous amounts...criminal in IMO!
“I don’t feel like I’ve used $6,700 of electricity in the last decade,” DeAndré Upshaw, a Griddy customer whose utility bill exceeded $6,700 as a result of the winter weather event, told The New York Times. “That’s not a cost that any reasonable person would have to pay for five days of intermittent electric service being used at the bare minimum.”

“My savings is gone,” said Scott Willoughby, a 63-year-old retired veteran and Griddy customer who was reportedly charged $16,752. Willoughby told the Times he nearly drained his savings to pay the bill, commenting: “There’s nothing I can do about it.”
https://www.truenewshub.com/dailywi...with-utility-bill-spikes-should-be-protected/

I hope the government succeeds in preventing these companies from collecting these un-Godly fees!
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I hope the government succeeds in preventing these companies from collecting these un-Godly fees!
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I'm conflicted about this. How are people going to learn not to do reckless, ridiculous things like "we don't need government" without a good, swift kick in the ass?

These are adults who entered into contracts. Shouldn't they be responsible for the nonsense they agree to? re: bailing them out....................in Texas there are too many folks constantly voting in the same rubes who wouldn't bail their own mother out, yet when they have troubles...........WAH!
 

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