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How do you test diesel generators which back up a nuclear reactor? I understand you do it during the plant downtime, but don’t you require something at the othe

How do you test diesel generators which back up a nuclear reactor? I understand you do it during the plant downtime, but don’t you require something at the other end of the network that consumes the 1GW you generate?

solstice 6y ago
Naive idea: Putting a big copper rod in whatever body of water the plant uses for cooling and connecting power to it should do it no?
- Scoundreller 6y ago
  Not copper. You want resistance to be highest at your heat dump. Otherwise all your wires melt.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
a9h74j 6y ago
The diesel generators can back up power to safety systems, so closer to MWs than GWs. Some run with left-handed and right-handed engines coupled face-to-face for redundancy; thus you might AFAIK shut down fuel injection to one to prove the other is supplying torque.
gh02t 6y ago
A combination of routing the power elsewhere in the grid when possible and banks of gigantic (shipping container sized) dummy loads. As other people have noted, you don't need to dissipate the full amount of power all at once, you test the generators individually. http://resistive-loadbank.sell.everychina.com/p-109417602-3546kva-inductive-power-banks-for-generator-testing-dummy-load-bank.html http://resistive-loadbank.sell.everychina.com/p-109417602-35... is the first example I pulled up, and there are bigger ones.
bluGill 6y ago
You test them live: someone turns off the outside power switch and you watch them start and take over automatically. Everyone is watching the gauges and if there is a sign of trouble you reengage mains power, then fix the problem and retry. This test is done monthly. I don't have actual knowledge of nuclear power plants, that is classified beyond the public. However hospitals do the above, because if thing dont work on a bright sunny day how do you think they will work when a tornado has not only taken out power, but also filled the er with server trauma cases.

solstice 6y ago

Naive idea: Putting a big copper rod in whatever body of water the plant uses for cooling and connecting power to it should do it no?

Scoundreller 6y ago
Not copper. You want resistance to be highest at your heat dump. Otherwise all your wires melt.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

a9h74j 6y ago

The diesel generators can back up power to safety systems, so closer to MWs than GWs. Some run with left-handed and right-handed engines coupled face-to-face for redundancy; thus you might AFAIK shut down fuel injection to one to prove the other is supplying torque.

gh02t 6y ago

A combination of routing the power elsewhere in the grid when possible and banks of gigantic (shipping container sized) dummy loads. As other people have noted, you don't need to dissipate the full amount of power all at once, you test the generators individually. http://resistive-loadbank.sell.everychina.com/p-109417602-3546kva-inductive-power-banks-for-generator-testing-dummy-load-bank.html http://resistive-loadbank.sell.everychina.com/p-109417602-35... is the first example I pulled up, and there are bigger ones.

bluGill 6y ago

You test them live: someone turns off the outside power switch and you watch them start and take over automatically. Everyone is watching the gauges and if there is a sign of trouble you reengage mains power, then fix the problem and retry. This test is done monthly. I don't have actual knowledge of nuclear power plants, that is classified beyond the public. However hospitals do the above, because if thing dont work on a bright sunny day how do you think they will work when a tornado has not only taken out power, but also filled the er with server trauma cases.