Word: pump
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What triggered the accident was the failure of a pump in the secondary loop that transports hot water from the reactor. When this happened, the auxiliary pumps switched on as they were supposed to do. But, with their valves shut, they could not pump water. Their failure backed up water in the secondary loop and sent pressure inside the reactor soaring. This pressure rise, in turn, caused a relief valve to pop open. It stuck. Pressure then dropped so rapidly that the emergency core cooling system, designed to keep the core from overheating, was automatically activated. That started a reactor...
...risks. Though economists are willing enough to guess, none can say with confidence what the ultimate inflationary impact of decontrol will be. Nor is it entirely clear just how much decontrol will increase domestic oil production. By Administration reckoning, the gradual phase-out of controls should encourage companies to pump more and more oil from their wells until, by 1982, production reaches an additional 700,000 to 800,000 bbl. daily (the U.S. now uses about 19 million bbl. per day). That would displace an equivalent amount of imported oil, but energy demand throughout the economy would itself be growing...
...Friday all of the sanguine assurances were blown away by additional releases of radioactivity into the skies above the plant. According to NRC spokesmen, early morning workers had been trying to remove some radioactive water from the pump building. As the water flowed into a storage tank, the temperature and pressure rose. A valve automatically opened, letting some of the gas escape. The building's ventilation system sucked up the gas and blew it out a stack. At that moment, a state and federal monitoring crew flying over the stack recorded an alarming increase in radiation...
...from the containment building in controlled steps. This meant that low-level radiation was still being released from the plant. But it also caused the bubble to shrink slightly. When it became small enough, the engineers hoped that it could be siphoned into a tank in the pump building. Since the gas in the bubble was highly radioactive, a wall of lead bricks had to be built around the tank...
...serious problem is gasohol's high price. The pure, 200-proof alcohol used in the mixture costs $1.49 per gal. wholesale, while unleaded gas is about 47?. Even in Iowa, where the state has removed the tax on gasohol, the fuel costs 76.5? at the pump, about 2? more than unleaded. In other states, where the fuel tax is imposed, the spread between gasohol and gasoline can range...