ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Generators?

On the farm where I spend my summers they've got a big generator, driven by the tractor. It's hooked up via transfer switch and a wall-mount male CEE connector and feeds the entire system of the house (3ph). It was supposed to feed the 2nd building (garage, workshop and holiday apartment) as well,m but this didn't work out too well, all I got was a faint glow from the light bulbs, barely noticeable.
Otherwise I've never seen generators being used for anything but temporary power at market stands or whatever. I once used one on a red-cross training to power the fog machine. (We simulated an earthquake with fire and everything else, train accident, explosion at a chemiocal plant, I had to act injured along with many other young people from Junior Red Cross)

With the power crisis now almost reality here, there is talk of Alternative forms of energy, with the Hydro schemes being too unreliable, due to the changing weather patterns.
Some people are even suggesting that New Zealand build a couple of Nuclear reactors,
I would personally live in the dark than have one of them things just down the road.
And you can bet that they wouldn't want them to be sited in the North Island!.
Just how safe is Nuclear Power Generation and the associated Radio-active material?.
Am I over-reacting?(sorry about the pun!)

Actually a well designed and maintained nuke plant is quite safe.
The maintence costs here are very high primarly because of the excessive NRC B/S.
When I first worked in a nuke plant, it took 4 months for my security clearance to go thru. I have had to wait for several hours for the Quality Assurance people to ckeck a hole that I drilled before I was allowed to drill the next one. Because of this it took a bout 3 days to do the work I normally do in 2 hours.
A dental xray when I forgot that my radiation badge was in my pocket almost got me a LIFETIME ban from futher work in a plant.
If your regulators are reasonable a nuke plant might just be a good thing. JUst figure out what you are going to do with the old fuel rods.

nesparky,
That's my biggest concern, the waste that comes out of these things.
I always wondered if they had security checks on people that worked in Nuclear Power plants, it's the last place you'd want a person, with terrorist leanings!.

Trumpy
Well 90% of the waste generated is classified as low level. Tool, clothes, paperwork, badges, and anything else that was exposed or could have been exposed to raditation. It does not matter how much exposure was actually recieved. I have had to throw tools and test equipment into low level bins for disposal 20 minutes after unpacking it from the factory wrapping just because I used it in a exposure area. The only change occurs if the item wasted recieves enough exposure to register high enough to be classified as medium or high level waste.
You do not take your personel tools into a nuke plant and work around the reactor if you want them after that job. Security/safety will consficate them for disposal.
As far as disposal of high level waste, politics and the many panic mongers that sorid politics attracts have thoughly muddied up the debate. I do not believe those jerks will ever allow a rational political answer. Returning the uranium to the earth is the only realistic answer.
And yes they do security checks on all the people who work there. Also a taking something out of the plants is not that easy unless you are authorized. Even then you get checked on.

If it is any comfort: It is very hard to cause a serious nuclear accident. The Chernobyl (however it is spelled) disaster in Ukraine was caused not by a fault, but by deliberate mishandling of the reactor. All safety systems were shut down to carry out experiments with the reactor. The control room staff saw what was coming, but were not authorised to act. Or at least nobody dared until it was too late. The fact the reactor was was made of flammable graphite and lacked real walls around the reactor allowed the spread of contamination.

There are nuclear reactors which are even less safe than Chernobyl even closer to home, which I find somewhat disturbing. The only good news which came out of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was that radiation is not as dangerous as previously thought. The predicted long term deaths (cancer etc.) have not happened. The deathtoll remain at a few hundred, mostly firefighters and rescueworkers.

Nesparky is right in that a well kept reactor is very safe. Accidents can happen in a nuclear powerplant in the western world too, but not a disaster. It can be noted that the Chernobyl accident only became known to the world when the contamination set off the detection system at the Swedish Forsmark plant, a thousand miles away.

Just as a sideline,
If a generator is going to be hooked up to a TN-C-S house, how on earth do you ensure that the protection will operate on occurence of a fault?.

Trumpy,
3-phase Gen sets should have their star points connected to earth. 1p sets should have one pole connected to earth. The connection should not exceed 10ohms. Wiring then proceeds as standard with the gen set earth connected to the installations earth terminal. Some people use the smaller sets without reference earth but these should generally be restricted to single circuit applications.

lyledunn,
Thanks a lot for your answer.
It seems like pretty basic stuff, but, it's not something I've really had a lot to do with, in the past.
I think that this may change in the years to come.