Electric Vehicles

#580
#580
Tesla is recalling about 130,000 vehicles across its US model lineup because their touch screens can overheat and go blank.

Documents posted Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say that during the fast-charging process, the central processing computers may not cool sufficiently. That can cause the computer to lag or restart, making the center screen run slowly or appear blank.

Without the center screen, the cars can lose rear view camera displays, settings that control windshield defrosters and indicators that say whether the cars are in drive, neutral and reverse. That can increase the risk of a crash.

Tesla recalls another 130K vehicles over touch screen issues
 
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#581
#581
Septic said:
I watched a mini docu-series on TMI yesterday on Netflix. I think its top ten trending show right now. It's terrifying how close the east coast of the U.S. was to being uninhabitable due to government corruption and corporate greed. How the public was lied to about the seriousness of the events and how after all of it was exposed, regulators at the NRC just shrugged and allowed these criminals to restart TMI 1 without thinking twice,
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TMI was serious without doubt, but I have absolutely no idea how they could come to those conclusions.
 
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#582
#582
EasternVol said:
Sorry if the question is redundant, but what's the long term solution for disposal of the waste?
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At this point I don't know other than just put it in the ground somewhere. Other countries were reprocessing spent fuel, but Carter put an end to that here. I've been away from the industry for years and haven't kept up, but onsite storage of fuel seemed to be one of the later trends. Eventually you really do have to do something. A lot of radioactive waste is very low level - but still radioactive as far as disposal. For example, workers going into contaminated areas wear protective clothing - a lot of disposable overalls, gloves, shoe covers, etc. It's obviously not highly radioactive, but it can't go out in the trash either. Trainers used to bring in Coleman lamp mantles to demonstrate how you check yourself for radiation with a frisker; you could buy them at Walmart, but in a nuclear plant they have to go in contaminated waste.

I just realized you may have been talking TMI waste, and again I don't really know. The fuel did partially melt inside the reactor, so it couldn't be removed as individual fuel bundles. The immediate concern while I was still around was cooling the fuel. After shutdown when the fission process is stopped, the fuel still produces a lot of residual or decay heat, so cooling is necessary. At TMI the reactor scrammed almost immediately, and most fuel damage would have happened after shutdown while coolant flow was still interrupted. I do know that during the summer equipment was set up for long term cooling and to cleanup the water used in the process. I left B&W in the fall and worked a lot in Japan during the summer, so except for a few trips to TMI over the summer, I didn't keep up that much after things were under control.
 
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#584
#584
hog88 said:
And just what are you? A nuclear engineer that was actually at TMI? 😉
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Yep. I worked for Babcock and Wilcox (the manufacturer) - based in Lynchburg, VA. I was at TMI the next day to try and help determine what the plant condition was and how to keep it stable. As the days passed, more and more people came in - guys I knew at Oak Ridge and elsewhere. There were a lot of good minds involved in the analysis, and we learned a lot about expanding our bag of diagnostic tricks. My BS and MS from UT are nuclear engineering, but most of my career was more diagnostics of the mechanical and sometimes electrical systems rather than dealing with strictly nuclear issues like fuel or radiation issues.
 
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#585
#585
AM64 said:
Yep. I worked for Babcock and Wilcox (the manufacturer) - based in Lynchburg, VA. I was at TMI the next day to try and help determine what the plant condition was and how to keep it stable. As the days passed, more and more people came in - guys I knew at Oak Ridge and elsewhere. There were a lot of good minds involved in the analysis, and we learned a lot about expanding our bag of diagnostic tricks. My BS and MS from UT are nuclear engineering, but most of my career was more diagnostics of the mechanical and sometimes electrical systems rather than dealing with strictly nuclear issues like fuel or radiation issues.
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I remember you discussing this in a thread a wile back.

Hope you caught the smartass in my post….
 
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#586
#586
AM64 said:
At this point I don't know other than just put it in the ground somewhere. Other countries were reprocessing spent fuel, but Carter put an end to that here. I've been away from the industry for years and haven't kept up, but onsite storage of fuel seemed to be one of the later trends. Eventually you really do have to do something. A lot of radioactive waste is very low level - but still radioactive as far as disposal. For example, workers going into contaminated areas wear protective clothing - a lot of disposable overalls, gloves, shoe covers, etc. It's obviously not highly radioactive, but it can't go out in the trash either. Trainers used to bring in Coleman lamp mantles to demonstrate how you check yourself for radiation with a frisker; you could buy them at Walmart, but in a nuclear plant they have to go in contaminated waste.

I just realized you may have been talking TMI waste, and again I don't really know. The fuel did partially melt inside the reactor, so it couldn't be removed as individual fuel bundles. The immediate concern while I was still around was cooling the fuel. After shutdown when the fission process is stopped, the fuel still produces a lot of residual or decay heat, so cooling is necessary. At TMI the reactor scrammed almost immediately, and most fuel damage would have happened after shutdown while coolant flow was still interrupted. I do know that during the summer equipment was set up for long term cooling and to cleanup the water used in the process. I left B&W in the fall and worked a lot in Japan during the summer, so except for a few trips to TMI over the summer, I didn't keep up that much after things were under control.
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The TMI 2 core was complete rubble. Since I was in the industry at the time, I saw video that they filmed through a head penetration. That rubble was totally removed and is stored dry in special casks above ground in Idaho at one of the facilities at INL.
 
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#587
#587
hog88 said:
I remember you discussing this in a thread a wile back.

Hope you caught the smartass in my post….
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I was pretty sure I did and that it was probably related to Septic's earlier comment, too.
 
#588
#588
AM64 said:
Yep. I worked for Babcock and Wilcox (the manufacturer) - based in Lynchburg, VA. I was at TMI the next day to try and help determine what the plant condition was and how to keep it stable. As the days passed, more and more people came in - guys I knew at Oak Ridge and elsewhere. There were a lot of good minds involved in the analysis, and we learned a lot about expanding our bag of diagnostic tricks. My BS and MS from UT are nuclear engineering, but most of my career was more diagnostics of the mechanical and sometimes electrical systems rather than dealing with strictly nuclear issues like fuel or radiation issues.
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Sorry...AM64 was at fault for the demise of the nuclear industry. Guilty by association and Sticking to it.
You recover from those AR-15 wounds yet? Did Saigon Jane come to your hospital room?


Questions my friend...questions.
 
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#589
#589
Orangeburst said:
Sorry...AM64 was at fault for the demise of the nuclear industry. Guilty by association and Sticking to it.
You recover from those AR-15 wounds yet? Did Saigon Jane come to your hospital room?


Questions my friend...questions.
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Nah, but Carter came to the plant, and I didn't bother to line up to meet him.
 
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#592
#592
Franklin Pierce said:
Tesla is recalling about 130,000 vehicles across its US model lineup because their touch screens can overheat and go blank.

Documents posted Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say that during the fast-charging process, the central processing computers may not cool sufficiently. That can cause the computer to lag or restart, making the center screen run slowly or appear blank.

Without the center screen, the cars can lose rear view camera displays, settings that control windshield defrosters and indicators that say whether the cars are in drive, neutral and reverse. That can increase the risk of a crash.

Tesla recalls another 130K vehicles over touch screen issues
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The most interesting thing about this is that Tesla is attempting to handle this via a software update - if they pull that off it's huge from a capital requirement stand point and validates the limited to no dealership model.
 
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#593
#593
AM64 said:
Nah, but Carter came to the plant, and I didn't bother to line up to meet him.
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I did almost see a real disaster there firsthand, though. TMI really is an island, and at the time had two bridges - one for most use, and a second for construction. There's a road, then a railroad, and the river. In that compressed space there was a guard gate before the bridge, and almost no parking space while people were cleared. One morning a semi was parked at the entrance to the bridge waiting to be cleared across - the end of the trailer was partially blocking the RR track - no gates or warning signals as I recall. It seems like less than a minute after the tuck moved a train came through - probably at lest 30 MPH maybe more. I'd hate to think what would have happened with everybody waiting for transportation onto the island and to the truck and train.
 
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#594
#594
AM64 said:
I did almost see a real disaster there firsthand, though. TMI really is an island, and at the time had two bridges - one for most use, and a second for construction. There's a road, then a railroad, and the river. In that compressed space there was a guard gate before the bridge, and almost no parking space while people were cleared. One morning a semi was parked at the entrance to the bridge waiting to be cleared across - the end of the trailer was partially blocking the RR track - no gates or warning signals as I recall. It seems like less than a minute after the tuck moved a train came through - probably at lest 30 MPH maybe more. I'd hate to think what would have happened with everybody waiting for transportation onto the island and to the truck and train.
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If some TMI happens again, can one evacuate in their EV that needs recharging by the offline facility?
 
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#595
#595
AM64 said:
TMI was serious without doubt, but I have absolutely no idea how they could come to those conclusions.
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It's explained in the series but much of it was likely due to speculation about the condition of the polar crane failing when they lifted the cap off the reactor.

Much of it was likely due to dramatic effect but it was concerning enough for the NRC to shut down the lift.
 
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#596
#596
Septic said:
It's explained in the series but much of it was likely due to speculation about the condition of the polar crane failing when they lifted the cap off the reactor.

Much of it was likely due to dramatic effect but it was concerning enough for the NRC to shut down the lift.
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Interesting. I found a couple of articles and an IAEA abstract that led to the EG&G report. Nothing in the report would lead one to imagine them even thinking about operating the crane without a lot of maintenance and testing considering damage, the idle time span, and conditions - unfathomable. The reactor head is massive by itself, and I don't remember if the control rod drive mechanism that sits on top of the head is removed separately or as a unit. It would be a big mess should it fail, but I have a problem figuring out how it would cause massive contamination.

These excerpts from the report clearly state the crane was inoperable, and had to be completely refurbished and tested, so I'm not sure how the guy could make a claim that anyone would have tried to use the crane in the damaged condition.

Polar Crane Refurbishment. Following nearly a year of inspections, analyses, repairs, replacements, and no-load operational testing, the polar crane at TMI-2 is structurally, mechanically, and electrically ready to undergo load testing. The 500-ton Whiting polar crane installed in the TMI-2 Reactor Building was rendered inoperable as a result of the March 1979 accident. Figure 16 provides a schematic of the crane's main components.
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Once recovery of the electrical and mechanical components of the bridge, trolley, and main hoist was complete, they were tested without a load to verify their operating capabilities. The remaining effort in the polar crane recovery project is full load testing of the polar crane. Scheduled for spring of 1984, the test calls for the hoist to lift about 210 tons so it may be certified to 170 tons-the approximate weight of the reactor vessel head. A frame holding five missile shields, with an approximate total weight of 192 tons, as well as cables and associated lifting equipment will provide the weight. The test load will be lowered, stopped and held by the heist brakes, and finally lowered to the floor. Then it will be transported 3 m out and back by the trolley and at least 3 m from side to side by the bridge. The load will be lifted again after rotating the bridge 180 degrees, completing recertification of the crane for reactor vessel head removal.
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TMI-2 Technical Information and Examination Program 1983 annual report (Technical Report) | OSTI.GOV

We wore both pocket dosimeters and film badges, and were mostly in the cable spreading room not far from the containment hatch. Our dosimeters never indicated much radiation at all; I had more in other plants over shorter time spans. I've forgotten what my total dose was, but it was extremely low, and nobody I know that worked inside the plant had any problems later in life. I have never believed that anybody near the plant developed cancer because of the plant - something that would be hard to prove either way - there just wasn't much leaked radiation. The governor and his "experts" did create a lot of hysteria, though; that was probably more unhealthy than the accident itself.
 
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#597
#597
Personal observation

I’m noticing more EVs on the road locally. Took a recent trip to Florida and did not see a single EV on the road there and back.
 
#598
#598
TNVOLNAVY said:
Personal observation

I’m noticing more EVs on the road locally. Took a recent trip to Florida and did not see a single EV on the road there and back.
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There are ev all over Florida. Can't stop at a red light without seeing one. Way more than I see in Knoxville
 
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