Can Nothing Stop a Meltdown? - The China Syndrome - Nuclear Engineer First Time Watching
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Күн бұрынWill The China Syndrome stand up to the test of time and scrutiny in this episode of CRITICAL REACTION? Stay tuned!
If you'd like to support the channel further, consider leaving a $Thanks or visiting my Patreon: / theatomicage
References and Attribution:
[1] "Nuclear Experts Debate 'The China Syndrome'," by David Burnham (www.nytimes.com/1979/03/18/ar...)
[2] "Animated Images Of Plants PWR And BWR," (www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-...)
[3] Rahn, F. J., "Power Reactor Pressure Vessel Benchmarks: An Overview," pg. 11, (www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/72...)
[4] "Fukushima Daiichi Accident - World Nuclear Association" (world-nuclear.org/information...)
General references:
"Prof. Richard Muller explaines nuclear meltdown and chernobyl," ( • Video )
"The Fukushima Daiichi Accident, Technical Volume 1/5: Description and Context of the Accident" (www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publica...)
"The Fukushima Daiichi Accident, Technical Volume 2/5: Safety Assessment"
(www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publica...)
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:45 Reaction Start
02:41 State of Nuclear Industry in the Late '70s
04:32 It Takes a Long Time to Build Nuclear Plants
05:23 The Accident
06:03 Turbine Trip
06:31 SCRAM
07:33 PWR vs. BWR
09:39 Nuclear Reactor Sensors
10:10 Water Level and Decay Heat
11:39 Emergency Core Cooling System
14:21 Spent Fuel Pool and Reloading a Reactor
16:04 Evil Plant Manager
16:35 The China Syndrome
22:05 More Evil Plant Manager
23:26 Non-Destructive Examination
24:25 Jack Goes to the NRC
25:28 Dismissing Plant License Applications
26:50 Jack Takes Matters into His Own Hands
27:44 SCRAM the Son of a ...
29:41 They're Cable Cutters!
30:10 The Pump Goes Crazy
30:49 Kimberly Interviews Ted Spindler
32:57 Outro
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching, everyone! I just wanted to acknowledge the continuity errors and say that, "yes, I've seen them." I'll work my hardest to prevent these in the future and I now have a newfound respect for those in charge of continuity on major movie and TV productions.
@paulheitkemper1559 2 жыл бұрын
Have you considered doing a video explaining about the effects (to the environment, soldiers, workers, etc) from all that Russian army activity at Chernobyl?
@charlesemery1560 2 жыл бұрын
The level of information you give in these videos will make any continuity problems disappear.
@killman369547 2 жыл бұрын
If i remember right the term SCRAM is or was an acronym that stood for "Single Control Rod Ax Man" and it was coined way back during the manhattan project and the first US nuclear reactor in Chicago. Basically that reactor only had one control rod which was held by a rope. There was one guy and his one and only job was to cut the rope if the reactor started to get out of control. Addendum: There's a video from the channel "AtomicHeritage" titled "SCRAM it!" that explains it as part of their explanation of the B reactor at Hanford. The channel is a pure gold mine for obscure nuclear history.
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
@@paulheitkemper1559 what would you like to know specifically? but no, i have no plans to make a video about the Ukraine stuff. it would need to be quantified with scientific study - and i'm an engineer, not a scientist. I couldn't say much more than "they kicked up some radioactive dust and I wouldn't want to be in a foxhole in the Red Forest."
@paulheitkemper1559 2 жыл бұрын
@@TheAtomicAgeCM I suppose that's fair. If there's not enough to say to make a worthwhile video, then there's no point.
@jjmelon5526 Жыл бұрын
“ Irresponsible to go on the air without facts”. If only the media actually worked that way!
@alpham777 11 ай бұрын
Right lol I was like what ever happened to that shit lol
@johnhays2915 11 ай бұрын
Fast Forward to today: BREAKING NEWS!!!
@Ralph-yn3gr 2 жыл бұрын
I never found this to be a particularly anti-nuclear movie. It seemed pretty ambivalent on it really, like "nuclear power can be dangerous, but we can handle it if we do the right thing." It seemed to me to be an anti-corporate movie more than anything else, because the reactor didn't actually melt down. Like, the guy's greed caused an accident, but the safety systems did their job. If anything it was saying "it's a good thing we over-engineer these things to the extreme, because otherwise that guy's greed could have killed a lot of people. don't be that guy." Still, I can see how people could take away an anti-nuclear message, especially if just days after watching it for the first time Three Mile Island happened.
@raven4k998 2 жыл бұрын
this plant should be shut down
@Ralph-yn3gr 2 жыл бұрын
@@raven4k998 I figured that was because of the corners cut during construction, not because it was a nuclear plant specifically.
@MrArgus11111 2 жыл бұрын
I was brought up being taught that China Syndrome was an "anti nuclear" power film.... I recently finally watched it.. it's an anti corruption film
@echo-channel77 Жыл бұрын
It was anti-nuclear but it seems tame by today's standards. Back then the anti-nuclear sentiments were out of pure ignorance and driven by the nuclear winter crowd (these were the post "big freeze/snowball earth" activists, but pre-global warming activists). One thing you can always count on is that every 10-15 years, a new activist group will be trained by politicians, on "request" by lobbyists, will emerge. Today it's even more insideous because climate activists have no idea they're simply helping to increase their own slew of taxes to fund R&D of renewable energy industry, the lobbyists of today's monoparty/uniparty of DC. Why is this being done? Because renewable resources are a LONG way from being capable of meeting today's energy needs because the technology is nowhere close to being ready. The efficiencies are beyond awful and contrary to popular belief, the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. Germany found this out the hard way. If everything switched to renewable today, renewable would barely supply enough energy for less than 10 minutes out of a 24 hour day.
@linezgames3893 2 ай бұрын
its simply idiots let ego get in the way, indenial, or simply afraid to face the truth in fear of losing their job Hence the interview.
@JanetDax 2 жыл бұрын
I saw China Syndrome shortly after TMI. You can imagine the reaction of the audience when the scientist in the movie mentioned a meltdown could contaminate an area the size of Pennsylvania.
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
a very eerie coincidence indeed (not a lake erie pun lol)
@TheRealDrJoey 2 ай бұрын
Where that came from was the Price-Anderson Act. The insurance industry said they had no way of gauging what the liability for a nuke plant would be, and a study was done that said in a worst-case scenario an area the size of Pennsylvania could be contaminated.
@amp771 2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the analysis. Well, ‘but…that pump’s f*cked’ should definitely be the first entry to your T-shirt store 🤣
@raven4k998 2 жыл бұрын
at least he's not saying that it could go nuclear and explode🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@LogicalNiko Жыл бұрын
This movie opened on March 16, 1979. Three mile island happened on March 28, 1979. It was the first semi-realistic nuclear reactor disaster film. Its script was basically written on the hypothetical disaster relying on recent safety problems in industrial plants having little plans and correct auditing, combined with more information being available about FERMI-1, SNAP8DR, and SL-1 failures; as well as using the Nuclear plant risk management manuals to feed a disaster scenario. It generally was playing on a distrust that built in the 1970s of businesses covering up mistakes and gaslighting the public about safety. Those fears were generally founded and a lot of regulation came out of TMI. It was however pure coincidence of the movie’s timing.
@LuisDiaz-fs8uh 2 жыл бұрын
My father, who just passed, worked at TMI at the time of the accident. After TMI, he worked at plants overseas. He said that the China Syndrome got the control room spot on.
@TheRealDrJoey 2 ай бұрын
That was one of the coolest Hollywood sets since "Rear Window."
@christopher273 2 жыл бұрын
In the penultimate scene of the movie, when the reactor is safely shut down and Jack lies dying on the floor of the control room, Jack feels a shudder, just like the one he felt after conclusion of the accident at the film’s beginning. He whispers “I feel it” to Kimberly. The scene then switches to TV station’s control view of the media scrum outside the containment building. The TV signal is interrupted, and the screen goes black. Presumably, the shudder Jack felt was the pump rupturing, resulting in a total loss of coolant, and then the eponymous “China Syndrome” occurs, allowing the superheated, molten fuel to come in contact with groundwater beneath the containment building.
@bloodymarvelous4790 9 ай бұрын
One of my all time favorite movies. I love that the backup systems to backup systems to backup systems worked. There was no meltdown. The pump struts broke, but the concrete supports held. There was no music (except source music) in the movie, and you never noticed. The movie managed to create suspense through direction, cinematography, editing, and performances.
@nicholaspanagotopulos9323 2 жыл бұрын
Hey man, just re-discovered your channel after a long time! Watched you all through high school. Now working as a reactor test engineer for nuclear subs in Newport News! Always loved your content man. You got me playing dangerous waters too
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
hey, that's awesome to hear! thanks for dropping a line. sounds like a sweet gig you got there. keep an eye out for a new sub sim called "Modern Naval Warfare" hopefully coming out by the end of this year. it's a spiritual successor to Dangerous Waters, and it's gonna be awesome
@LogicalNiko Жыл бұрын
Some say Fermi coined SCRAM in his reports to management on the safety protocols on experiments, in reality it was used to explain the "Safety Control Rod Axe Man" which was a guy who could cut the rope attached to the control rod. It holds some weight as a lot of the early University of Chicago experiments were done with in jokes and the type of fast and loose goofing around you find on a college campus. The other more likely story was an in joke about what to do if things go wrong....you scram (i.e. get away really fast).
@karlmortoniv2951 Жыл бұрын
The way I heard it from someone who might have actually known what he was talking about but wasn't gonna go into detail as to how he knew it (I'm not trying to be cute, the guy had a very interesting and mysterious background) was that 'scram' began as gallows humor like you might find on a college campus as you said but a bureaucratic authority figure type without a sense of humor overheard it and asked what it meant so someone who was quick on their feet came up with an acronym off the top of their head that made the guy in authority happy and it stuck. That seems to be how these things work in real life, but I have no idea if it's true.
@zombieregime 11 ай бұрын
I mean....if i ever decide to get a formal education in nuclear physics I fully intend to get a set of dayglow safety colored shirts that say things like "I am a nuclear physicist. If you see me running, try to catch up." and "I am a nuclear reactor technician. If you see me running, its too late." The fact Im of a portly build makes it a bit funnier, as Im not likely to be seen in a dead sprint run....ever. Thats the kind of morbid humor I want more of in the world 😁
@LogicalNiko 11 ай бұрын
@@karlmortoniv2951 I remember by childhood friends dad tell the Axe story to us. He wasn’t around for the start of the manhattan project but in the 60s-80s he managed metallurgy labs at the University of Chicago, as well as coordinated labs at ANL and Fermi. So I’m sure most of the people he trained and took over from were directly involved with the early Piles and Reactor developments. On the other hand those are the stories you play up tell your teenage children to make them more interested in what was also a semi-full set of experiments.
@spaceanarchist1107 7 ай бұрын
I thought it meant "Set Control Rods At Maximum."
@TheRealDrJoey 2 ай бұрын
Speaking of him, in the 60s in Monroe Michigan they built a breeder reactor, the Enrico Fermi, and before it got to 10% power it had a partial meltdown that had them chewing their nails for hours. It took a couple decades and millions of dollars before they discovered what caused the problem. BTW, a meltdown in a breeder CAN reach critical mass.
@rickhicks6833 Жыл бұрын
A seismic event would cause a reactir trip, followed by a turbine trip. Stop creating heat, then stop removing heat. Excessive cooldown adds positive reactivity.
@Nicky_Pin_It 2 жыл бұрын
Talking Turbine Trips: Theres both mechanical and electrical safeguards installed to ensure the rotating equipment is not damaged in the event of a casualty. My guess is the "earthquake" triggered one of these safeguards causing the turbine to trip. When it trips, there's normally a steam inlet valve that will shut, taking the machine offline, and a subsequent breaker opening disconnecting it electrically. Im not going to get into specifics because every plant/set up is different. Just tech talk
@eaglescout1984 Жыл бұрын
I feel like you also need to do a "Reacts to..." of the Netflix mini-series Meltdown at Three Mile Island. It's pretty obvious to me the filmmakers cherry-picked facts and editing to indict the entire nuclear energy industry, including the government side. Basically they paint everyone in charge like the plant manager of this movie.
@a24396 11 ай бұрын
I recall hearing two stories about the origin of the term SCRAM: 1. It's an acronym: Safety Control Rod Ax Man (SCRAM) - which was the person assigned the last ditch job at the Chicago pile (CP-1) of using an ax to cut the rope that held up the emergency control rods, therefore letting them drop into the pile and stopping the reaction. 2. When one of the pioneers of nuclear power (Volney “Bill” Wilson) was assembling a control panel that happened to have a big red button. When he was asked what it was for, he said if there's a problem, you push that button. When asked what to do next, he replied: "Well, you scram out of here..." Either version could be true though the current lore is it was a slang term and not an acronym...
@LordNavala 2 жыл бұрын
I was told by someone once that SCRAM was an acronym for "Shutdown Control Rod Activation Mechanism". Never knew it really didn't have one.
@MrJackk10 2 жыл бұрын
Shutdown control rod axe men.
@jaycee330 2 жыл бұрын
@@MrJackk10 It's a matter of debate: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scram
@spaceanarchist1107 7 ай бұрын
Or "Set Control Rods At Maximum"
@zombieregime 11 ай бұрын
AFAIK, SCRAM comes from the first research reactors and stands for Safety Control Rod Axe Man. The 'axe man' refers to a person designated to stand next to a tied off rope that is suspending an 'emergency control rod', ie a rod that when inserted into a reactor makes criticality impossible. The 'axe man' literally held an axe in hand and his job was if anything looked wrong, or if someone told him to (ie, they see something wrong), use the axe to cut the rope dropping the safety control rod into the reactor, killing the reaction. Remember, this was the very first cobbled together research reactors before nuclear energy and related fields were a thing, reactors were very simple geometries, and a single large neutron absorber slid into the middle of the reactor assembly blocked all fuel elements from throwing neutrons at each other. Ergo, to SCRAM a reactor is the proverbial signaling the Axe Man to release the Safety Control Rod. Thus the SCRAM button is the Safety Control Rod Axe Man "HEY FRANK! CUT THE DAMN ROPE!!!" button.
@placebo7267 Жыл бұрын
Watching a 'safety' talk and hearing someone cheer as a car goes over a cliff. True comedy.
@KingSNAFU Жыл бұрын
Your girlfriend was spot on in her assessment, even in the trailer for the movie that was released at the time. The movie was sold as a movie "About people who lie." Mike Gray, who was one of the screenwriters for the movie, based the initial reactor incident on an incident that occurred at the Dresden Nuclear Power Station in 1970.
@ReservedForFutureUse 2 жыл бұрын
Great video Charlie! I've been looking forward to this one!
@egvijayanand 10 ай бұрын
In fact, The China Syndrome movie was released before the accident of The Three Mile Island. The movie is the first one and the accident happened around 2 weeks after that.
@DrkEnigma 2 жыл бұрын
Good job on this critique..... I live in New Hampshire & was 13 when three mile island happened also I live 52 miles from the NextEra Seabrook Station....I also remember all the protests when they were opening Seabrook....As long as you have smart capable people running these plants , there won't be any issues
@kentclark6420 Жыл бұрын
That's what they said about Chernobyl.
@DrkEnigma Жыл бұрын
@Kent Clark they were neither smart nor capable...
@pastorjerrykliner3162 11 ай бұрын
So I was a kid (7) when TMI happened... Ironically, I now live less than two-miles from the plant... Anyway, "The China Syndrome" was HUGE when I was a kid. Literally the stuff of comic books and legends. The idea that the core would "melt" and become an unstoppable hot mass that would literally melt it's way all the way to the center of the earth, unleashing all sorts of crazy environmental catastrophe. We believed these things for years. Not just contaminating "local groundwater" but eating all the way to the freaking center of the earth. The paranoia around nuclear power was that pervasive. Now, after TMI, Chernobyl, and Fukashima, reality has taught us better. "Corium" is nasty stuff, but not the stuff of the apocalyptic nightmares of the 1970's and '80s...
@markwatkins6882 Жыл бұрын
Well done,really enjoy listening to your commentary !!! Thought Jack Lemon did a great job,spooky stuff !!!
@TheAtomicAgeCM Жыл бұрын
thank you!
@andrewmoore7601 2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for making this! Been wanting to watch this movie for years and I was finally motivated to so I could watch your reaction without spoilers
@swokatsamsiyu3590 2 жыл бұрын
Yes, I've been waiting for you to review this movie! We were pretty much saying the same things again when they appeared on the screen. While I have no formal education in nuclear physics nor am I a licensed operator, I do study nuclear reactors as a not-at-all nerdy hobby with the emphasis on the good old RBMK. And I have been a fully certified Master Welder for the better part of 30 yrs. When it comes to construction/ mechanical matters, that's right up my alley. But yeah, you did an awesome job again on the review side of things. Very clear and concise. That's a "subscribe to channel" from me!
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
Thank you!
@Ralph-yn3gr 2 жыл бұрын
Rewatching this and I wonder if the HPCI valve being offline while the reactor was running was an early hint about the poor safety culture among management. Jack Lemmon didn't know about it, probably because he'd have objected to running the reactor with it down, and as you said no sane reactor crew would run the thing without it.
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
never thought of it that way. thanks for that, ralph!
@timothyvincent7371 Жыл бұрын
SCRAM =Safety Control Axe Man. The first atomic pile, built of graphite blocks in the basement of the squash court at the University of Chicago, had control rods suspended over the core by ropes. These were tied to a single rope stretched over a wooden block and a man was stationed to swing an axe, cutting the rope and allowing gravity to drop the control rods into place at the first sigh of trouble. Yes, that was a Chart of the Nuclides, sometimes called "Chart of the Knuckleheads".
@jaylisplays 2 жыл бұрын
Really enjoy the videos, stumbled on your Chernobyl reaction videos and ended up subbing. Would be interesting to see some videos discussing some of the lesser known nuclear 'incidents' like the SL-1 reactor, The Demon Core, Castle Bravo etc. Also some of the orphaned source stuff could be interesting, just how poor disposal and tracking has caused issues. Either way, keep the videos coming and I'll keep watching!
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
thank you! Yes, I do want to cover lesser known incidents with a focus on criticality safety accidents. See you in future comments sections!
@logicplague Жыл бұрын
6:39 I remember reading that the first experimental reactor at Chicago was small and had only a single boron control rod suspended over the core with a rope. If any problems were detected, a worker with an axe would cut the rope and the control rod simply fell into the core, stopping the reaction. The worker who did this was known as the Safety Control Rod Axe Man, SCRAM. edit: The term was coined by Enrico Fermi
@kniforger 2 жыл бұрын
Saturday Night Live did a parody called "The Pepsi Syndrome," which if you haven't seen is well worth a watch; if you'd care to do a critical reaction to it that would probably also be interesting, if a bit short.
@gabbylang2 Жыл бұрын
I like this in-depth analysis. I read somewhere that SCRAM may stand for Safety Control Rod Axe Man, which was an actual function to be performed by a person in case automatic lowering of the rods failed
@teddybetts3254 Жыл бұрын
That's what I heard too.
@langdalepaul 2 жыл бұрын
Hi Charlie. I think my two biggest issues with this film are both connected to the feed water pump at the centre of the accident. Firstly, it’s not at all clear to me how a reactor scram would put such an increased stress on a feed water pump as to make it unstable and likely to, what, bust a gasket? The feed water pump (or pumps as I’m sure there are more than one, and also many back-ups) may need to continue to run in a recently shutdown reactor, but surely at no greater rate than when the reactor is operating at full power? Secondly, if a single feed water pump does break, or blow, or fail catastrophically in some way, there would most certainly be backup systems in place that wouldn’t leave the core at risk of exposure and meltdown. That and the spooge coming out of the pump at the end! 😂
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
paulie walnuts! yes that part is unclear. I'm under the impression the water hammer/overpressure/whatever thing was what happened first followed by the SCRAM. I'll have to watch those bits again. It's all set up well from a purely movie stand point in how these events will affect the plot throughout the movie, but the actual nuclear engineering depicted is unclear
@killman369547 2 жыл бұрын
I think the main problem with the feedwater pump in question was that it's support brackets and the welds that hold them together were not up to scratch. From what i understand nuclear grade welds have to basically be perfect considering the operating conditions they're placed under. And if they're anything less than perfect it's no good and it has to be re-done from scratch which would cost a lot of time and money. Time and money the power company didn't want to spend because it meant taking the plant out of service for weeks.
@spaceanarchist1107 7 ай бұрын
Maybe the idea is that the turbine trip redirects the water through the pump? But the trip happened before the scram, so I'm not sure how that would work
@TheRealDrJoey 2 ай бұрын
@@killman369547 Right. And that was made clear in the film I thought.
@Cherry-bq4oh Жыл бұрын
Hey, glad to find your channel! I was just wondering if a "China Syndrome" was actually possible or not yesterday, so It's cool to have a solid answer from someone who knows their stuff.
@samuellist1844 Жыл бұрын
Aa, I’d love to see you do an extended version of these videos. I feel like 30 minutes isn’t enough for you. Don’t get me wrong, you absolutely killed it in this video, I just would love to see you talk about the dosages the operations room engineers who had to go and turn on the water pumps.
@atariboy9084 Жыл бұрын
The neat thing about this film is it was the first I knew that don't have ANY music in the film from start to end.
@TheAtomicAgeCM Жыл бұрын
it has that song over the opening credits but i guess that doesn't count? but yeah that is indeed interesting
@silikon2 4 ай бұрын
Special Bulletin (1983) is also a very good movie. It's made as a faux newscast and is about PhD's who claim to have brought a nuke to Charleston's harbor and say they will detonate it in order to force America to begin disarmament. Might be up your alley because I think your work relates to moving nuclear material. One of the story questions is whether or not these guys could have the material to do this. It's 40 years old so of course the video quality is dated. But it asks questions like whether the media is actually complicit in the news stories it covers. The scary thing is the scenario seems plausible as a terrorism angle (and perhaps moreso today) but also the way the news covers the story doesn't seem all that dated at all.
@4everlearnin 2 ай бұрын
You mentioned the inspection of pipes which reminded me of Silkwood which was a movie related to your part of the industry.
@eddiecollison Жыл бұрын
Very glad to see the first reaction to this movie, I saw it in the theaters in 1979 as an 11 year old and loved it as a suspense film. Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas and Jane Fonda had strong performances.
@josephmassaro 2 жыл бұрын
If it wasn't anti-nuclear, it certainly wasn't doing nuclear any favors. There was a lot of fear around nuclear plants and this movie coupled with Three Mile Island put a nail in the nuclear industries coffin. An argument can be made that this film had a greater impact on the public perception and fears than Three Mile island, an actual nuclear accident. Fiction is sometimes more impactful on people than reality.
@irichardson85 2 ай бұрын
good video and good job, you are very knowledgeable and you should be promoted "via the algorithm" - nuclear energy is a part of our future; keep us lit, warm, connected and above all safe. Take care man
@cherylsims5636 Жыл бұрын
In the late 1970s the was a new nuclear power Plant built in Seabrook, New Hampshire. I know there was lots of protest about it. it did come on line for a while but then closed
@DEUS_VULT_INFIDEL 2 жыл бұрын
I loved the feel of the movie. Like one of those cheesy old instructional videos mixed with the classic dystopian 80s sci-fi held well together by some good acting.
@nutsackmania 2 жыл бұрын
I pretty much know most of this stuff so I watch your channel to make fun faces "with" you. It's like having a half-imaginary friend. You do good work.
@dksiix 2 жыл бұрын
Great video as always, keep it up .
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
thank you!
@ianmaw66 2 жыл бұрын
I read somewhere that SCRAM stands for Safety Control Reactor Axe Man as it was literally a guy with an axe.
@Wafflepudding 2 жыл бұрын
I call shenanigans, more likely it came from scram as in "run away"
@ianmaw66 2 жыл бұрын
@@Wafflepudding I read it in a book about the early nuclear submarine reactors, so I doubt it but all I can tell you is what I read.
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
both seem to be plausible theories from what I've seen but nothing is official as far as i'm aware
@ReservedForFutureUse 2 жыл бұрын
While there was a guy with an axe ready to cut the rope securing the control rod at the Chicago Pile, that explanation of SCRAM is probably a back-cronym
@ianmaw66 2 жыл бұрын
@@ReservedForFutureUseMaybe so.
@colinm3130 Жыл бұрын
I believe SCRAM came from the first reactor built at university of Chicago under the racketball courts. Their control rod was basically held up by a cable and they had a person with an axe who would cut the cable in an emergency to shut down the reactor. I believe it was Fermi who was in charge and told the person holding the axe that if they cut the cable outside of an emergency that he would then use the axe on him. But the term came from "Safety Control Rod Axe Mechanism".
@teddybetts3254 Жыл бұрын
This is the story I heard as well, but I didn't remember the details that you did.
@Thxtnt Жыл бұрын
I thought it was "Single Control Rod Axe Man" I might've misheard though
@helgewagner8916 Жыл бұрын
I thought it was safety cut rope axe man
@philipcable437 Жыл бұрын
@@helgewagner8916 correct
@Thneed2003 Жыл бұрын
Start Cutting Right Away Man, He had the axe to cut the rope.
@TheTimzorz 2 жыл бұрын
Very interesting video, hearing your take about everything and helping understand what is happening, seems like a good movie, but weird at the same. time
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
Thank you! I thought it was a good movie as far as movies go but I didn't like the anticlimactic ending. Some of the technical stuff could have been better and the moustache twirling was amusing lol
@obo7707 10 ай бұрын
Very interesting. Well done. Thank you
@emiliavorreilli638 2 жыл бұрын
My impression on nuclear energy has always been that it's essentially magic, and that's coming from a chemical engineer. I know parts of it are expensive, but as far as I'm concerned, the only reason we don't power just about everything with nuclear-derived energy is because doing so would effectively remove a massive lever of control from the economy. In other words, we've stopped advancing as a civilization.
@rjcubby13 Жыл бұрын
Yeah when three mile island happened it helped stop construction of the nuclear power plant being built in Madison, Indiana, I am sure there were possibly other factors but I am sure three mile island helped seal the deal, I am glad I have discovered your channel I am finding it very informative as well as entertaining
@PatrickLipsinic Жыл бұрын
This comment for what you said @3:20. STP in south Texas. The construction started in 1975 and commissioned both units in 1988. I was living in San Antonio at the time when these came online. There was plans for two more units but that was axed.
@craigchamberlain 2 жыл бұрын
Nice job. Another movie I would love to hear your thoughts on is "Fat Man and Little Boy" aka "Shadow Makers" from 1989. It stars Dwight Schultz, John Cusack, Paul Newman and Bonnie Bedelia amongst others. It's a movie that is not often seen through normal broadcast or streaming sources but I think you would appreciate it. It chronicles the advent of the first atomic bomb.
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
thank you! it's on the short list. i've seen it before a few times but the movie definitely focuses on human stories so there's a lot of technical stuff to elaborate on
@miely0847 Жыл бұрын
I’m saving this video. Thank you
@jaycee330 2 жыл бұрын
I think you should review "Silkwood" as well, that might be right up your alley.
@adamjacobschmidt Жыл бұрын
I enjoyed Silkwood, but like TCSyn, to me it wasn't really about atomic energy
@MikePerigo Жыл бұрын
Another movie from the same period that I would recommend you watch is Silkwood (1983). It's been so long since I watched it that I can't guarantee there was enough technical detail to justify a review video but it is based on a real-life event and involves management trying to place the blame for the accident onto the victim.
@unpronouncable2442 9 күн бұрын
Safty Control Rod Axe Man. Emergency->Axe man-> Cut rope->Control rod falls-> No more emergency.
@Robert-mq5jx Ай бұрын
Well done. Learned a little about nuclear energy production.
@TheAtomicAgeCM Ай бұрын
thank you!
@fredboat 10 ай бұрын
I like the Bar seen, 10 years of boredom, 1 minute of Terror. Shit happens, Decent movie. Was at the Bay City plant in Texas in the 70s, Electrician, Waist of money and time on an Epic scale.
@StopCappingMan Жыл бұрын
Also, SCRAM was a term way back when Control Rods were manually manipulated via rope/cable. Its Safety Control Rod Ax Man or SCRAM. If there was an incident, the SCRAM individual would cut the rope or cable to allow for immediate insertion of the control rods.
@toolthoughts 2 жыл бұрын
great video once again! I'd love to hear your thoughts on what would be the best lines of development for future reactors. And what do you think about the new EPRs... Any insight on why the Finnish one was such a mess of a project to build?
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
thank you! I don't think it's clear to anyone yet what will be "best." I don't have a strong attachment to any design. What one thinks will work best and what ends up working best usually don't line up in the complex world of engineering. I don't have any particular insights into the Finnish build, no.
@daveyeisley794 11 ай бұрын
scraming the reactor - SCRAM stands for Start Cutting Right Away - the story goes that in the first research reactor the control rods were lowered by ropes. In case of a runaway reaction the ropes were to be cut and the term scram came from there. My father told me this story - he worked at Peach Bottom and when TMI happened he was sent there to help.
@joshgellis3292 2 жыл бұрын
Yeah… I myself know up to some level that there’s design differences between Ventana (if it was real), Three Mile Island and the Fukushima Daichi Plants between when the incidents happened, the problem types and I even know for a fact that there’s practically a myriad of different ways different plants can be made. lol.
@tinglestingles 2 жыл бұрын
Thank you useful information
@joshlund1861 7 ай бұрын
What does "going solid" mean? The 3 mile island operators were so worried about it that they reduced reactor water levels.
@TheAtomicAgeCM 7 ай бұрын
There's a thing in the pressurized water reactor loop called the "pressurizer", which maintains the reactor loop at a constant pressure. It sticks out the top of the reactor loop and it's only partially filled with water, the rest being air (steam). The air, which is very compressible, is there so that any sudden changes in flow or pressure in the reactor loop water has a place to expand into or contract from without bursting pipes. If there weren't that air bubble there, it would be what they called "solid" and a surge in pressure (called a water hammer) could burst the loop open because water is effectively incompressible. If you've ever turned off a water faucet in a house suddenly and heard a bang or a knocking sound, that's from the sudden cut off of flowing water creating a pressure surge (water hammer) and causing your pipes to bang around. At Three Mile Island, they had a valve stuck open that they thought was closed, so it was able to vent steam out of the loop, lowering the pressure, and making the water level in the pressurizer climb (a scenario for which they had not been trained).
@joshlund1861 7 ай бұрын
@@TheAtomicAgeCM That makes so much more sense than believing that they were baffled why lowering the reactor water level mysteriously makes more radioactive steam.
@TheTransporter007 2 жыл бұрын
When you talk about the RPV being 12-15" thick, that's true, but what about the effects of long term neutron bombardment of the metal?
@satinjazzdolls8615 2 жыл бұрын
I really enjoy your videos. A while back I asked if you would react to Nickolas Means' Who Destroyed 3 Mile Island? on LeadDev's channel. I'm still interested in what you think about his presentation. Particularly since you are in a high safety business, what he said about assessing disasters to pinpoint the real causes. Thanks.
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
Thank you! I watched his presentation a few months back, it must have been after we talked about it. I wasn't too familiar with TMI at the time to add anything to his presentation, and I'm not as familiar with the in-depth reactor systems he was going into. But I do agree with what he said about assessing disasters - I included that in my Chernobyl Part 5 video.
@murri1972 7 ай бұрын
Great video.
@TheAtomicAgeCM 7 ай бұрын
thank you!
@mizzyroro 2 жыл бұрын
Did you just not include the part where he dumped the water when he thought the pressure was hugh? That's like key to that sequence.
@spidrespidre Жыл бұрын
Thanks for making the video on this. I agree that the notion of The China Syndrome, that a runaway meltdown can end up on the other side of the world, is ridiculous. But that's genuinely what many people feared from nuclear back in the day, and would have been egged on by the fossil fuel industry - that had (and continues to have) a serious vested interest in seeing the nuclear industry fail. You mentioned the importance of QA and I would argue that it was the lack of QA that doomed Fukushima, not the earthquake or the tsunami. The Japanese living on the upper east coast of Honshu knew all about the risks of massive earthquakes and tsunamis. That 'tsunami' is a Japanese word should surely be a give away.
@NBT2469 2 жыл бұрын
Long time no see, sir. How is life treating you?
@patchwrk Жыл бұрын
Along similar lines, I'd love to hear your response to the 1986 film "The Manhattan Project" with John Lithgow... it was one of the most ridiculous anti-nuclear-everything movies produced.
@sillyk6688 Жыл бұрын
Great video on a good movie. Comments: *The man claiming a potential "China syndrome" event was an anti-nuclear activist, so his statements shouldn't be considered a factual claim (per se) of the movie *You seem a bit idealistic regarding the pressures on a manager like Jack in this scenario. The cigar smoking bosses is surely exaggerated, but he would nevertheless be under intense pressure from all around him that he was panicking for no reason. *The exact scenario of the movie wasn't perfectly technically sound, but it was essentially quite similar to the TMI accident. * Also, your video glosses over the uncanny parallels between the film and TMI, and that certainly amplified TMI's effect on the nuclear power industry.
@mcdermic 2 жыл бұрын
I've been hoping you'd do this movie, and to this I say... "WAY TO GO, DALLAS!"
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
haha that scene gives me chills every time
@DrkEnigma 2 жыл бұрын
Nice !....love the Red October reference 👌...that actor years later on played the prosecutor in Law & Order , Criminal Intent
@MichaelVLang Жыл бұрын
What about...The Pepsi Syndrome? SNL did a pretty funny spoof of TMI, including Jimmy Carter and Rodney Dangerfield.
@Providence83 5 ай бұрын
Not only _can_ people report safety concerns to the NRC but often employees in the nuclear industry are legally obligated to with 10 CFR Part 21.
@eriknervik9003 Жыл бұрын
2:40 You have the core, this is where we put spicy rocks. And the Spicey rocks boil water
@seanmckinnon4612 Жыл бұрын
You’re allowed to run for x amount of hours without high pressure injection in order for surveillance and such. A BWR also has Low pressure injection and RCIC or ISO Condenser cooling.
@TheAtomicAgeCM Жыл бұрын
Oh ok, great to know, thank you. What is being surveilled in that time?
@rickhicks6833 Жыл бұрын
There are always 3 or 4 instruments showing any safety related parameters. Operators are also trained to look at other parameters to verify indications. ECCS has high head, medium head, and low head pumps. If the high head fails, there are actions Operators can take steps to get medium head and low head injection to occur.
@TheAtomicAgeCM Жыл бұрын
Thanks for the insights! Yeah now that you mention it, it does seem insufficient that they're only looking at two gauges.
@gnome53 11 ай бұрын
@@TheAtomicAgeCM There may now be "3 or 4 instruments showing any safety related parameters", but at the time of the TMI-2 incident, not so. Remember that *no* gauge showed whether the pilot-operated/power-operated relief valve, e.g., was open/closed in that incident, only that the signal had been sent to close it. Better (and costly) instrumentation was added only _as a result of_ TMI. NRC NUREG-0578 Section 2.1, esp. 2.1.3.a The "other parameters to verify indications" came from "[o]ther instruments available to plant staff [that] provided inadequate or misleading information" (from "Backgrounder on the Three Mile Island Accident").
@amp771 2 жыл бұрын
The TV trope of digging straight down through the Earth from the US to China always confused me as it’s obvious nothing in the US is the antipode of anything in China, although interestingly it seems that people in China also seem to say they’ll end up in the US. Appears it’s to do with historically being difficult to go between the two countries rather than geography, so mystery solved I suppose.
@beardedgaming3741 2 ай бұрын
im going to go watch this movie. never seen it. you know what i notice though... its not hand holding you through everything. movies today spend so much time explaining every little word, concept, plot point. i miss this style of movie
@VincesPaintingAdventure Жыл бұрын
Great Video, Kind of a strange question, but if Reactor 4 at Chernobyl had a containment dome, base on what happened, would the dome have been able to (or are the designed to) survive large explosions?
@josebarranco-dh3ft 2 жыл бұрын
Here in Georgia near macon, there’s a new nuclear plant that will be online next year in 2023
@ronaldgarrison8478 Жыл бұрын
6:10 When someone calls it a turb-in, I want to wrap it around their head.
@richardscathouse 2 жыл бұрын
The emergency manual cooling system at Fukushima was unused. The operators weren't trained in it's use. All was lost. USNRC FOIA May 2011
@sleepingbee5748 Жыл бұрын
Could do one on the hulk who is supposed to have been exposed to serious amounts of gamma radiation could it make mutants
@egvijayanand 10 ай бұрын
Not all reactors operate over a long period of time without refueling. Reactors like RBMK and CANDU support online refueling. Allows to push new fuel rods and pull spent fuel rods while the reactor is live.
@kentclark6420 Жыл бұрын
Did anyone die in the accident? Nobody died or was injured in the initial incident at Three Mile Island, the partial meltdown of the nuclear reactor. However, the meltdown released radiation, which scientific studies have linked to cancer cases that cropped up in the years following the accident.
@Whatever_works Жыл бұрын
Thanks!
@TheAtomicAgeCM Жыл бұрын
thanks so much for your support, lexinthewest!
@tudogeo7061 2 жыл бұрын
~27:30 "that coolant will still be radioactive" - I think that statement needs to be expanded on. Nowadays at least fuel manufacturers boast approaching "zero defect" fuel elements that are supposed to reliably encase the fuel and reaction products and not let them leak into the coolant. On the other hand there's the issue of neutron activation of whatever impurities are there in the coolant along with tritium generation.
@Darth_Meow 2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the excellent content. How about another Bond film? Dr. No for example…
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
You're welcome! That could be a good one to look at
@markhodgson2348 2 жыл бұрын
Question how much does it cost to decommission a reactor
@MatthewSuffidy 2 ай бұрын
Yes the fuel can form something very hot, but it burns stuff and spreads fuel as smoke, so it isn't going further than probably 600 meters.
@ronaldgarrison8478 Жыл бұрын
17:08 Saw The China Syndrome when it came out. I had actually known the term. Summer 1978, I read The Curve Of Binding Energy, by John McPhee. Not sure why, at that particular time. Probably just something on the cover caught my eye. Often the case. It actually made much more of an impression on me much later.
@1Patriot2020 2 жыл бұрын
Nice videos. You should do one on the demon core.
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
thank you! it's definitely on the list of accidents I want to cover.
@Rockman_Halo 5 ай бұрын
Crazy to think that when this came out the "green" viewpoint was no nuclear power lol
@Krismooney2023 6 ай бұрын
I’m curious does every reactor have some sort of button to shut it all down?
@Wokefolksuck 2 жыл бұрын
Scram came from Hanford’s “ b” reactor. The last two letters stand for AX MAN who was a guy with an axe who if told to would cut a rope which used a heavy weight to push the control rods in.
@burtoncampbell4457 2 жыл бұрын
I had one non related question. What is the background music in your videos? I would love to know!
@TheAtomicAgeCM 2 жыл бұрын
hello! the intro and outro music is Digifunk by DivKid and the music during my explanations is Six Seasons by Unicorn Heads. Found them royalty free in KZfaq's music library - they're quite good considering!
@burtoncampbell4457 2 жыл бұрын
@@TheAtomicAgeCM thank you so much!
@StopCappingMan Жыл бұрын
Hi! I design piping systems for Nuclear plants. You said no new reactors have come online since the 70s-80s. That isn't 100% accurate... Back in 2016, we finished the Watts Bar Unit 2 NPP down in Spring City, TN. It was very expensive to complete. Cheers!
@TheAtomicAgeCM Жыл бұрын
Good call on that, thank you!
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