D'oh! Misplaced chair shuts down nuclear plant in Taiwan
- Reference: 1627477270
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/28/taiwan_nuclear_plant_shutdown/
- Source link:
The plant owner, state-run Taipower, said the incident did not cause any grid power outages, although the power supply light turned yellow from green, indicating the system was running at 6-10 per cent of operating reserve ratio.
Both the power company and the [1]Atomic Energy Commission , a government agency for atomic safety, confirmed there was no concern about radiation release.
[2]
An investigation by the Association for Natural Energy pinpointed the cause: [3]misplaced furniture . Staff working in the control room moved the chair to clean and, in the process, knocked the acrylic protective cover of a main steam isolation valve switch causing it to tilt, shift, and close, setting off a chain reaction that tripped the main steam turbine and stopped the reactor.
[4]
Taipower filed a report on the 6:30am oopsie and by 11:40pm the reactor was approved to restart.
However, restarting a nuclear reactor of this type from scratch takes three days to reach maximum output, according to the [5]Taipei Times .
[6]
Luckily for Taiwan and the power company, the incident took place early in the morning when demand was low and sufficient reserve capacity existed.
The reactor in question is scheduled to pump out power until March 2023, when its operating permit expires. ®
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[1] https://www.aec.gov.tw/newsdetail/headline/5756.html
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YQF-EjmrCAp64oWaTBZ2bgAAAAA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.aec.gov.tw/newsdetail/headline/5757.html
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQF-EjmrCAp64oWaTBZ2bgAAAAA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2021/07/28/2003761562?fbclid=IwAR1Iet6ViZbEMowYebuZJ9YQDnSpSSHiflG-zroEABY6GKuRLQwDktmJFog
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQF-EjmrCAp64oWaTBZ2bgAAAAA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: it was always the (dry) cleaner
"doesn't the icon look like somebody working in one of them places?"
Only if you've caught your cleaners rifling through your coat pockets...
Re: it was always the (dry) cleaner
I thought the cleaners always went through the pockets, because they don't want weird stuff interacting with the chemicals. Sometimes if I have left an item in a pocket, I have found the item in a bag pinned inside a random pocket. If there were times I left an item and didn't get it back, I don't know about it.
Re: it was always the (dry) cleaner...
That's exactly how the great AI that controlled its own power supply and could read peoples intentions was finally deactivated (classic SF tale). The AI didn't detect the intention.
"the incident took place early in the morning when demand was low"
Unless someone has ignored the timezone, I would have expected 6:30am to be getting close to a peak time.
People getting ready or travelling to work, offices and factories starting up...
Three MIle Island-
The controls were so identical that the operators customised them with beer pump handles etc to tell them apart.
Let me guess
Tibor did it? Or was it Zutroy?
Obligatory icon!
Isn't the acrylic shield supposed to STOP that kind of accidental operation??
Bored in the wee small hours...office chair race?
oops.
We were moving it to clean, honest...
The shield prevents a face- or palm-plant action, not an oopsie-slide-it-up-bump action. I'm guessing that the chair arm could come up over the edge of the console, and bump things.
On the positive side, the power plant should be shut down in a couple of years.
Wet cleanup in control room
I suspect that additional carpet cleaning was needed when the klaxons went off and all the control room displays started flashing red.
system was running at 6-10 per cent of operating reserve ratio.
Britain does not have that much reserve, even at the best of times. We only have about 2% spare capacity.
Re: system was running at 6-10 per cent of operating reserve ratio.
That would explain the occasional momentary switch-over dropouts that play havoc with the Vermin Media router, but don't even empty the caps in the PSU of my desktop PC.
On an unrelated note, does anyone know why a cable modem needs to take 15 minutes to reboot?
Homer
Homer would be proud.
it was always the (dry) cleaner (doesn't the icon look like somebody working in one of them places?)
At least it is a change from unplugging some equipment to plug in the vacuum cleaner...