Old nuclear reactor

"6Cylinder" (nickestes) 11/30/2015 at 15:08 • Filed to: None

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I’m in Elma, WA for the next few weeks for laborer training. There is an old nuclear reactor here that they never fueled up and put into service. Thought my fellow oppos might like to see it.

Two cooling towers and you can also see the big concrete building that houses the reactor.

Sam > 6Cylinder 11/30/2015 at 15:13

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E30?

HammerheadFistpunch > 6Cylinder 11/30/2015 at 15:14

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ouch, that sucks to have built something as costly as a reactor complext to never get to turn it on.

6Cylinder > Sam 11/30/2015 at 15:16

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Let me go check!

Future next gen S2000 owner > HammerheadFistpunch 11/30/2015 at 15:18

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Who needs money anyway!

6Cylinder > Sam 11/30/2015 at 15:18

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Good eye!

crowmolly > HammerheadFistpunch 11/30/2015 at 15:19

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Oh baby I want to split your atoms

Snuze: Needs another Swede > 6Cylinder 11/30/2015 at 15:19

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That’s really cool and slightly eerie. I love abandoned industrial places.

Jack Does Cars > 6Cylinder 11/30/2015 at 15:20

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My father used to live in Olympia (now lives on Bainbridge Island), and I thought it was the coolest thing to drive by these two gigantic towers on the way to Ocean Shores.

Up over the hill, to the left of 101.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > HammerheadFistpunch 11/30/2015 at 15:21

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They’re closing one of the three plants in my town. Gonna really hurt when we lose a lot of income and tax revenue from it.

FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 11/30/2015 at 15:25

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Three plants in one town???

Sam > 6Cylinder 11/30/2015 at 15:27

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Neat!

HammerheadFistpunch > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 11/30/2015 at 15:28

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WE MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE! ALSO CLOSE THE CLIMATE FRIENDLY NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS BECAUSE EMOTIONS!

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem 11/30/2015 at 15:33

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Yep, a total of 3 reactors. There is A LOT of power generation in my town it’s insane. Something like 4,000,000+ kw generated.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > HammerheadFistpunch 11/30/2015 at 15:33

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I’m not exactly sure why they’re closing to be honest.

HammerheadFistpunch > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 11/30/2015 at 15:35

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MY guess is economics, If the white house is serious about climate change, we need to be investing in next gen nuclear RIGHT NOW. Seriously, its the smartest use of large funds to get big changes in Carbon emissions down. Also, incentivize older plants to modernize and accelerate research into reusing waste.

Svend > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 11/30/2015 at 15:37

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It’ll still take a several years for decommissioning and even bring in most investment as they retrain current staff and bring in more staff too.

One nuclear reactor not far from me but north of the England/Scotland border has been going through decommissioning for the last 15 years.

Another out west from me started decommissioning one of the reactors about five years ago and they say it’ll take many more.

FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 11/30/2015 at 15:38

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That. Is. A lot. My country (Germany) has only about 12 or so plants in total that are active.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > HammerheadFistpunch 11/30/2015 at 15:39

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I’m pretty sure that’s what it is. NY is being sorta strange with energy lately. We’ve banned hydrofracking, that’s a sorta hot bed topic right now. We seem to be investing more into wind and solar than we probably should because NY isn’t a particularly sunny or windy place for most of the year. We do use hydro and coal a lot too. Though we have about 5 or 6 reactors spread out around the state, which I feel we should be using more but the state seems to not want to continue with nuke. All of our plants are 40+ years old too which doesn’t exactly help.

HammerheadFistpunch > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 11/30/2015 at 15:41

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Pisses me off that Utah is exclusively coal, given that its sunny, can be windy, has large empty spaces and has access to the largest uranium mining in the lower 48...take your pick Utah, anything but shipped in coal please, I’m tired of Bejing quality winter air.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > Svend 11/30/2015 at 15:42

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It will take a while to decommission, which it wouldn’t really start that process for another 18-24 mos if I’m remembering correctly. Sad thing is, these plants are a pretty big economical force in our rather small, economically, county. Some people are saying it’s posturing with the state but I can’t be so sure.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem 11/30/2015 at 15:45

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There’s at least 15 in the Northeastern United States alone. That’s just nuclear plants. My county has quite a few hydroelectric plants along with more traditional oil and coal burning plants. Energy is what my city seems to do pretty well.

deekster_caddy > HammerheadFistpunch 11/30/2015 at 15:45

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Seriously, all of the panic around 40 year old engineering needs to go away so we can invest in some modern electricity infrastructure. Yes, Nuclear has inherent dangers. Want to avoid them? Use less electricity. What’s that, you don’t want to stop using electricity? Okay then...

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > HammerheadFistpunch 11/30/2015 at 15:46

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That stinks. Our air is pretty nice all year round because the big coal plants don’t run a lot because we have so much power from the rivers and from the nuclear plants. I’ve only seen them run when it’s a really cold spell, so mainly late January and most of February.

FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 11/30/2015 at 15:55

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You can’t really compare the two countries size and population wise. We buy our electricity from France. They got plenty of nuclear plants.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem 11/30/2015 at 15:57

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That’s very true. Kinda wish we could build plants like France but they do cost quite a lot of money to manufacture and construct.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > HammerheadFistpunch 11/30/2015 at 16:58

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I’m so glad I don’t live there anymore (moved away almost 10 years ago)... Don’t they also mine most of the coal? I know they have a bunch of oil refineries in the north end of the valley, too. They’ll probably be using fossil fuels until someone outlaws it...

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > 6Cylinder 11/30/2015 at 16:59

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This thing is a major landmark when driving around the south side of the Olympic range.

HammerheadFistpunch > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 11/30/2015 at 17:03

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I love where I live, but im sick of

1. the smog

2. people blaming the smog on commuters trying to get to work and not wood burning/coal power.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > HammerheadFistpunch 11/30/2015 at 17:07

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The mountains are nice and the skiing/boarding can’t be beat... Other than that, I only go there to see my parents. Too hot in the summer, too cold/smoggy in the winter, and the snow isn’t even consistently there.

The funny thing is that they have the most insane regulatory regime for cars I have ever suffered under (I lived in CA and they’re downright kind to car owners in comparison), yet the air where I live now is always better with no checks of any kind.

6Cylinder > Snuze: Needs another Swede 11/30/2015 at 17:08

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Feels like Chernobyl for some reason.

HammerheadFistpunch > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 11/30/2015 at 17:10

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The reason that the air isn’t getting better despite a a tight control of cars? Cars aren’t the problem; They sure are a convenient enemy, but they aren’t the problem. The good news is that if the smog gets bad you just go up and it goes away. Too hot in the summer? not really. we get like a single week at 100 and the rest of the time its a dry 90 with nice 70-80 degree nights. I would rather deal with that that a constant 80 with intermittent haze, but then again I like change.