OOC: Inspired both by Hearts of Fire and Atomic America, here comes another new sorta-TL about the US in the 21st Century.....
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station
Oak Harbor, Ohio
April 20, 2002
2:20 A.M. EST
John Matheson was working the graveyard shift. Again. He hated these nights, though he had to admit he'd rather be working instead of sleeping at times like this, even though his job was as boring as could be most of the time. A reactor operator whose personal life was sucking the big one at the moment, he reveled in the ability to work at his job, even when it meant being a goddamned zombie, awake in the middle of the night, sitting at an eight-foot-tall control panel which had hundreds of dials and switches on it.
Why do I have to keep allowing myself to screw up? John asked himself, sitting back in his chair. Why can't I do something right......Jasmine needs me. Why can't I just get it right, for once......
"Boss, should we run the pressurization tests now?" This was Alex Tormes, a young guy who was studying to be a reactor operator himself. "We should do it now, while we don't have much in the way of power demand."
God damn it, why did the fucking kid have to break in now? Oh well, he is right about the tests. They do need to be done. "Alright, crank up the electric pumps. Let's check the pressurization." One corner of his mind perked up just then. Cheer up. At least you're not thinking about Mel and Jasmine. Leave that shit for later. It's the least of your problems. That part got through to the front of his head and perked his attitude up a bit. Yeah, those problems can wait.
But his wife and young child were about to be the least of his problems.
Inside the power plant's containment dome, the plant had a major safety problem. A leak, not discovered by employees, was leaking highly-corrosive borated water onto the reactor head, which had over the previous weeks eaten through more than six inches of the carbon steel reactor head and had been working on the small bit of stainless steel left sealing shut the pressurized reactor. This was a massive potential problem, but as the problem was unknown to Matheson and Tormes, and the plant's Chief Engineering Officer was at home in his bed, he had no way of knowing that he was about to face disaster.
"Electric pumps are online, sir."
"Alright then, what does the reactor's pressure gauge say?"
"Normal, perhaps a tad bit low."
"What is the number, Alex?"
"About twenty-four hundred, sir."
That's a tad low, but nothing to worry about. We can fix that now in any case. "OK, disconnect the primary connections and crank the pumps."
Tormes hit the switches needed to kick the power station's pumps into high gear. In moments, the huge electric pumps cranked up to maximum flow and pressure, quickly spooled up by the excess power capacity of the reactor's fairly high power levels and the low power demand. The pumps had no way of knowing they had just caused a disaster, either.
Within moments, the 2400 psi in the reactor swelled to 2700 psi, with the goal of aiming for 2850, the maximum pressure in the reactor. The water level went higher, which caused Matheson to withdraw a few of the control rods, bringing the reactor's power level up to compensate for the higher water level. Looking good..... This was the last rational thought that John Matheson would have in a while.
The remaining 3/16ths of an inch of stainless steel holding the pressure inside the reactor found itself being hit with another 300 pounds per square inch of water pressure, and it simply could handle it. At 2:21:48, it gave way, opening up a hole five inches wide in milliseconds. And when combined with 2700 psi of water pressure, it spelled disaster......
The water roared through the hole, and upon hitting atmospheric conditions, immediately vaporized. But worse still, the pneumatic controls from the control rod assemblies were right in the path of the water blast. They were destroyed instantly. Water, at 2700 psi pressure and with a temperature of over 600 degrees Farhenheit, turned into a huge steam cloud immediately, with an explosion that shook the ground in Toledo, some 35 miles away.
The sound of the blast and its force knocked both Matheson and Tormes from their feet, with Matheson hitting his head hard on the edge of a control panel, knocking him unconscious instantly. Tormes quickly noticed the water level in the reactor drop to zero as the reactor's pressure quickly blew it all out. That was the last thought he had before alarm klaxons went off all around the compound.
Tormes panicked, hammering the emergency button, forcing the control rods to drop all the way into the reactor. But he had no way of knowing that the rod system had been destroyed by the initial steam blast.
At 2:24, the steam pressure had dropped to near zero, and power was lost in the reactor. By this time, the plant supervisor was declaring an emergency and ordered the diesel generators spun up. But mechanical problems with the generators meant they did not have the power to run everything they needed to.
Then it got worse.
Now totally exposed to the elements, the steam began reacting with Zircalloy fuel cladding on the reactor. The result of this reactor was the final destruction of the reactor's control rod systems, but also the release of a huge quantity of radioactive hydrogen gas. With the holes in the reactor both from the lid and the control rods, the cladding burnt off within minutes and produced huge quantities of hydrogen gas.
At 2:32:17, Tormes and his supervisor were just getting a handle on how big of a problem they had when the hydrogen gas, exposed to the immense heat of the facility, ignited. That explosion topped the first by several orders of magnitude, shaking the entire building bad enough that the facility's secondary generators were rocked off their foundations. The blast was contained by the containment dome, though it was cracked in several places by the immense blast. The fiery blast also spat big chunks of highly radioactive material out the steam pipes into the generator hall, which had twenty-three workers in it at the time. Two of them, on a catwalk near the tubes, were blown off of it by the blast and fell seventy feet, killing both instantly. All of the others were exposed to highly radioactive chunks of the reactor, which almost immediately caused them to receive fatal doses of ionizing radiation.
Completely free of the processes controlling it, the bottom half of the reactor quickly ran out of control, and the whole core melted within 30 minutes. By this time, emergency crews were on the scene, and the loss of power had caused crews to use their fire hoses to supply the water tank containing Davis-Besse's spent fuel, which could be exposed to the environment. Temperature in that room, however, quickly topped 125 degrees. One firefighter passed out from heat exhaustion and tumbled into the pool. While his comrades fished him out within 60 seconds, that was still enough that he too had taken a lethal dose of radiation, and that unfortunate firefighter would have his brain die last. He'd spend three weeks in excruciating pain as parts of his body died from under him.
By 3:00 A.M. the NRC had been notified. Upon being told the situation at Davis-Besse, the NRC ordered full emergency measures started, and declared the accident to the IAEA. They declared the accident a Level 5 emergency, which immediately got the IAEA's attention.
At 3:18, the water accumulated at the base of the reactor was hit by the now-molten reactor core. This caused the third explosion in an hour, a third steam explosion which belched yet more radioactive material, and worse still, caused a crack nearly thirty feet in length, which allowed more of the steam and hydrogen gas to leak to the environment. The NRC quickly heard this, and quickly called the Army Corps of Engineers to get to the site and patch the cracks. The Corps of Engineers were moving within an hour.
At 3:44 A.M. The IAEA got another call from the NRC, which moved the Davis-Besse Accident to Level 6. By this point, President Bush and Ohio Governor Bob Taft had been awakened and were being briefed on the situation. But by that point, the mess in Ohio was a big, big one......
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station
Oak Harbor, Ohio
April 20, 2002
2:20 A.M. EST
John Matheson was working the graveyard shift. Again. He hated these nights, though he had to admit he'd rather be working instead of sleeping at times like this, even though his job was as boring as could be most of the time. A reactor operator whose personal life was sucking the big one at the moment, he reveled in the ability to work at his job, even when it meant being a goddamned zombie, awake in the middle of the night, sitting at an eight-foot-tall control panel which had hundreds of dials and switches on it.
Why do I have to keep allowing myself to screw up? John asked himself, sitting back in his chair. Why can't I do something right......Jasmine needs me. Why can't I just get it right, for once......
"Boss, should we run the pressurization tests now?" This was Alex Tormes, a young guy who was studying to be a reactor operator himself. "We should do it now, while we don't have much in the way of power demand."
God damn it, why did the fucking kid have to break in now? Oh well, he is right about the tests. They do need to be done. "Alright, crank up the electric pumps. Let's check the pressurization." One corner of his mind perked up just then. Cheer up. At least you're not thinking about Mel and Jasmine. Leave that shit for later. It's the least of your problems. That part got through to the front of his head and perked his attitude up a bit. Yeah, those problems can wait.
But his wife and young child were about to be the least of his problems.
Inside the power plant's containment dome, the plant had a major safety problem. A leak, not discovered by employees, was leaking highly-corrosive borated water onto the reactor head, which had over the previous weeks eaten through more than six inches of the carbon steel reactor head and had been working on the small bit of stainless steel left sealing shut the pressurized reactor. This was a massive potential problem, but as the problem was unknown to Matheson and Tormes, and the plant's Chief Engineering Officer was at home in his bed, he had no way of knowing that he was about to face disaster.
"Electric pumps are online, sir."
"Alright then, what does the reactor's pressure gauge say?"
"Normal, perhaps a tad bit low."
"What is the number, Alex?"
"About twenty-four hundred, sir."
That's a tad low, but nothing to worry about. We can fix that now in any case. "OK, disconnect the primary connections and crank the pumps."
Tormes hit the switches needed to kick the power station's pumps into high gear. In moments, the huge electric pumps cranked up to maximum flow and pressure, quickly spooled up by the excess power capacity of the reactor's fairly high power levels and the low power demand. The pumps had no way of knowing they had just caused a disaster, either.
Within moments, the 2400 psi in the reactor swelled to 2700 psi, with the goal of aiming for 2850, the maximum pressure in the reactor. The water level went higher, which caused Matheson to withdraw a few of the control rods, bringing the reactor's power level up to compensate for the higher water level. Looking good..... This was the last rational thought that John Matheson would have in a while.
The remaining 3/16ths of an inch of stainless steel holding the pressure inside the reactor found itself being hit with another 300 pounds per square inch of water pressure, and it simply could handle it. At 2:21:48, it gave way, opening up a hole five inches wide in milliseconds. And when combined with 2700 psi of water pressure, it spelled disaster......
The water roared through the hole, and upon hitting atmospheric conditions, immediately vaporized. But worse still, the pneumatic controls from the control rod assemblies were right in the path of the water blast. They were destroyed instantly. Water, at 2700 psi pressure and with a temperature of over 600 degrees Farhenheit, turned into a huge steam cloud immediately, with an explosion that shook the ground in Toledo, some 35 miles away.
The sound of the blast and its force knocked both Matheson and Tormes from their feet, with Matheson hitting his head hard on the edge of a control panel, knocking him unconscious instantly. Tormes quickly noticed the water level in the reactor drop to zero as the reactor's pressure quickly blew it all out. That was the last thought he had before alarm klaxons went off all around the compound.
Tormes panicked, hammering the emergency button, forcing the control rods to drop all the way into the reactor. But he had no way of knowing that the rod system had been destroyed by the initial steam blast.
At 2:24, the steam pressure had dropped to near zero, and power was lost in the reactor. By this time, the plant supervisor was declaring an emergency and ordered the diesel generators spun up. But mechanical problems with the generators meant they did not have the power to run everything they needed to.
Then it got worse.
Now totally exposed to the elements, the steam began reacting with Zircalloy fuel cladding on the reactor. The result of this reactor was the final destruction of the reactor's control rod systems, but also the release of a huge quantity of radioactive hydrogen gas. With the holes in the reactor both from the lid and the control rods, the cladding burnt off within minutes and produced huge quantities of hydrogen gas.
At 2:32:17, Tormes and his supervisor were just getting a handle on how big of a problem they had when the hydrogen gas, exposed to the immense heat of the facility, ignited. That explosion topped the first by several orders of magnitude, shaking the entire building bad enough that the facility's secondary generators were rocked off their foundations. The blast was contained by the containment dome, though it was cracked in several places by the immense blast. The fiery blast also spat big chunks of highly radioactive material out the steam pipes into the generator hall, which had twenty-three workers in it at the time. Two of them, on a catwalk near the tubes, were blown off of it by the blast and fell seventy feet, killing both instantly. All of the others were exposed to highly radioactive chunks of the reactor, which almost immediately caused them to receive fatal doses of ionizing radiation.
Completely free of the processes controlling it, the bottom half of the reactor quickly ran out of control, and the whole core melted within 30 minutes. By this time, emergency crews were on the scene, and the loss of power had caused crews to use their fire hoses to supply the water tank containing Davis-Besse's spent fuel, which could be exposed to the environment. Temperature in that room, however, quickly topped 125 degrees. One firefighter passed out from heat exhaustion and tumbled into the pool. While his comrades fished him out within 60 seconds, that was still enough that he too had taken a lethal dose of radiation, and that unfortunate firefighter would have his brain die last. He'd spend three weeks in excruciating pain as parts of his body died from under him.
By 3:00 A.M. the NRC had been notified. Upon being told the situation at Davis-Besse, the NRC ordered full emergency measures started, and declared the accident to the IAEA. They declared the accident a Level 5 emergency, which immediately got the IAEA's attention.
At 3:18, the water accumulated at the base of the reactor was hit by the now-molten reactor core. This caused the third explosion in an hour, a third steam explosion which belched yet more radioactive material, and worse still, caused a crack nearly thirty feet in length, which allowed more of the steam and hydrogen gas to leak to the environment. The NRC quickly heard this, and quickly called the Army Corps of Engineers to get to the site and patch the cracks. The Corps of Engineers were moving within an hour.
At 3:44 A.M. The IAEA got another call from the NRC, which moved the Davis-Besse Accident to Level 6. By this point, President Bush and Ohio Governor Bob Taft had been awakened and were being briefed on the situation. But by that point, the mess in Ohio was a big, big one......
) But you are correct in thinking that the line would make more sense going to Europe.