Hi to all…
Thanks to Zul for the great information in his twilight post…
For this entry I will basically show you some of the safety features that are implemented at the nuclear power plants (NPP).
There are only 2 major accidents occurred in about 14,000 cumulative reactor-years of NPPs in 32 countries around the world. Can you imagine how safe the industry is?
Enough with the safety records, now let we start with some facts.
Some comments in previous post had mentioned about safety and the safest location to build a nuclear power plant. Don’t worry, the people in the nuclear industry will try and put their best effort to ensure that each of us, our community and our environment safe against any hazards cause by the plant itself.
Of course, NPPs are/will never build in risky areas. Any industry with this level of safety will never dare to take any risk. So, there will never be a power plant build in flood prone areas, extremely high population areas or even locations with a risk to hit by tsunami.
What will happen if somebody asks you, our county is near to earthquake prone areas? How can you safely build a NPP?
As all of you know, Malaysia is situated near the Pacific Ring of Fire. If you have no idea about what is this, please flashback to your secondary school period…hehehehe =P
The reactor building itself is built on strong base rock, below the soft ground soil. Structure that built on the ground surface will experience more effect from earthquake as the soft soils above the rock stratum will amplifies the effect of earthquake. In the figure below, you will notice that intensity of shaking is lower for a NPP compare to general structure even they are located at same distance from the seismic centre. If there are any major earthquakes, sensors around the NPP will detect them and the reactor will be shut down automatically.
Still not sure about the safety???Take a look at the figure below.
Diagram demonstrating the defense in depth quality of nuclear power plants.
- Wall No. 1 of defense is the inert, ceramic quality of the uranium oxide itself.
- Wall No. 2 is the air tight zirconium alloy of the fuel rod.
- Wall No. 3 is the reactor pressure vessel made of steel few centimeters thick.
- Wall No.4 is the pressure resistant, air tight containment building.
- Wall No. 5 is the reactor building or in newer NPP a second outer containment building.
There are other few safety measures besides the five walls of protection. Some of them are already explained in our previous post. Any more doubts about the safety???
References:
- Our class notes
- artilce related
- article related [2]
I still have doubt with the safety measurement taken for building and operatng NPP in Malaysia.How can u ensure that none of nuclear disaster can't be happen by all the safety requirement taken for having NPP in Malaysia?even NPP have five layers of protection wall,is it the guarantee of free disaster?..;)
ReplyDeleteKamariah bt Kamaruddin
ME082753
kasyahkhairuddin@yahoo.com
actually can u tell me about the price for build a nuclear power plant? if something happened to the NPP is it costly?
ReplyDeletemuhammad fikri bin baharudin
fiq.bahar@gmail.com
hey! it's Dzul with a D. think monkey-D-luffy lol
ReplyDeleteI agree with Fik.How much is the cost to build a NPP which to generate electricity enough for the whole Malaysia? maybe some of us also eager to know the spent since we have already known the benefial for all. TQ
ReplyDeletearif afifi bin ahmad
me084865
megatron_183@yahoo.com
we all know about the safety but is it worth or not ? plus the cost maybe very high. so, safety for the people and also the country must come first before build something we are not sure about its safety.
ReplyDeleteMOHD IZHAN BAZLI BIN BASIR
CE082720
izhanbazli@gmail.com
as we have read a lot about nuclear energy in all the past articles, NPPs are all safe but not totally. there is still room for error to happen. ther are still things such as human error and technical problems but, i believe the NPP nowadays have very high technology to prevent any major accidents
ReplyDeletejoel bharath
me083556
sect6
although there have been errors that happen in NPPs, im pretty sure that engineers have learned from them. this should mean that our NPPs will be better in terms of safety.
ReplyDeleteYANG GUO XIAN
ME083672
iainygx@hotmail.com
it seems costing much! how much one NPP would cost? btw , nothing is approve if it not safe to use/operate :)
ReplyDeleteNormie Suhaida
me084231
normie.sd@hotmail.com
salam n hye..
ReplyDeletehmm.. quite interesting info there. Went look at the picture that you put, I'm thinking about money that we will spent on this npp since it's got many safety features n build deep down into the grown. can you explain a little bit. TQ. ^_^
HAZIM BIN SHARUDIN
ME083548
sena_90@yahoo.com.my
If everyone is talking bout the cost of building NPP then we (the malaysian government) should think about saving. Why is that building something like NPP is worried as a waste???I dont get the idea!Waste is the 100 storey buildng which is gonna be build as proposed in the recent budget! Having our very own NPP is important as the years goes by the population increases so paralllely the demand for power increases too. So what are we gonna do then?? Burn more coals?? Cause more damage to mother earth?? Think about it before speaking ;)
ReplyDeleteIf everyone is talking bout the cost of building NPP then we (the malaysian government) should think about saving. Why is that building something like NPP is worried as a waste???I dont get the idea!Waste is the 100 storey buildng which is gonna be build as proposed in the recent budget! Having our very own NPP is important as the years goes by the population increases so paralllely the demand for power increases too. So what are we gonna do then?? Burn more coals?? Cause more damage to mother earth?? Think about it before speaking ;)
ReplyDeleteGovinderan Mageswaran
ME083544
ninemoons_firing@yahoo.com
I have always say there should be no problem of safety of a NPP. People should not be worry of the thing blowing up. And pls don't say ppl will sabotage the plant. If they want to sabotage, they can do it now!!! So many MLNGs and coal power plant standing there, choose 1... Surely u think it's not sufficient to create enough destruction. There are a lof of round things in a MLNG, and 1 blow up that day, and I can feel the wave shaking the house...(Imagine all of them blowing up). If i got money, i will definitely invest on this nuclear power plant money. It is a long project and money will come slow but surely it's a profit 1. If not, TNB would not be involved, right????
ReplyDeleteAng Jit Yong (ME83530)
aplox3@hotmail.com
salam n hi..
ReplyDeletenice article and i really agree with mr govinderan..but plz be a cool man bcoz each person have their own ideas and u must be respect on those ideas..actually if we compare about the cost of building NPP and da cost to build menara warisan which are more beneficial?for me having our very own NPP is more important for a long time energy to replace coal n gas..it will save da cost for a next future:)tq
wan khairi hakimi bin wan abdul aziz
wankhairi_90@yahoo.com
ce083464
Its fantastic to know that of all the power plants around the world, only two so far had failed, those two failed due to mainly human error, it is probably best to trust the system rather than to always find fault in the system.
ReplyDeleteMuhamad Rifdy Bin Samsudin
CE083444
ed_dy12@hotmail.com
niceand very informative article there!!
ReplyDeletenow i know how that NPP will react when there is earthquake! the NPP build in now day are very save, not just installed with the sensor for the earthquake, the is also provide with 5 wall that have own function on every wall! now we can say that the nuclear power are save! but we must remember, that one of the cause for nuclear disaster are human error! so we need to be more careful during handling this NPP.
MOHD SHAFIQ BIN IDRIS
ME083587
sapik_900906@yahoo.com
If we want to build nuclear power plant, we have to build it honestly. I mean government have to make sure that there is no corruption. So that the power plant are build according to the proper specification. This is to ensure that the power plant is really safe.
ReplyDeleteSyarifah Nur Hamizah Bt Syed Kasim
ME083650
ija_rc@yahoo.com
As a conclusion, from what i hve read, all of them are talking about safety. I think this NPPs is safe enough to build in Malaysia.
ReplyDeleteAmirul Hafez Bin Darobi
ME084047
apeh90@yahoo.com
I'm sure once the npps are built, every safety features are to be taken under great supervisions from the operator. Thus i have no doubt in the people or machines whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope the phrase "never rely too much on technology" isn't applicable nowadays because we don't want anything bad happen in the future. We have to rely on the system that it will react accordingly if something happen.
Zulfadhli Bin Zahudin
CE083466
darhein_90@hotmail.com
great effort. the most important thing before we want to implement anything is the safety. now it is proven that the safety of NPP is strong enough and will not harm people unless there is an error which happen in Chernobyl incident. NPP can make a good return in our environment compare to other source of energy. it is safe,reliable and the source is inexhaustible. this is the alternatives solution to our environment problems and also solution to the better living in future.
ReplyDeleteAhmad Adam Bin Mohd Rozain
Me086000
aa_bencho@hotmail.com
the inital cost to built a NPP is high, but the benifit we get will be a never ending 1 as the plant can be operationg for many many years. its not only safe but helps the people to save thier money too as cost will decrease as time goes by.
ReplyDeleteJUSTIN PETER JOSEPH
ME083557
terbalik_just23@hotmail.com
salam..how about the human error or devices failure?..if that happens, how to overcome that problem?..and lastly, if some disaster happen, what about the cost to maintain that?..is it more expensive if compared with the hydro power plant or other power plant?..TQ
ReplyDeleteMOHAMAD ASHIFF BIN KAMALUDIN (ME083578)
ars_shiffy@yahoo.com
Probably one of the most detailed posts on how safe a nuclear reactor is. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteYour facts and diagrams have made me believe the safety about nuclear power plants. This post deserves attention from the public. =)
NG KAH HOO
nakahee_90@yahoo.com