| ▲ | leonidasrup 4 hours ago |
| Nuclear reactors are regularly maintained, tested and checked. When possible, old plants are upgraded to new safety standards. You can upgrade certain components, and safety systems. However things like the containment structure or pressure vessel can't be changed. You for example can't retrofit a core catcher, but you could improve the turbines, I think Steam Generators as well, replace PLC's, Tsunami proof your site by building a larger tsunami wall / making your backup generators flood proof... |
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| ▲ | Orygin 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Belgium's reactors are really old, and have lots of issues. They have been dragging their feet for decades on the subject and instead of building new reactors 10-20 years ago, they are now un-decomissioning older reactors.. |
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| ▲ | throwaway2037 an hour ago | parent [-] | | > Belgium's reactors are really old, and have lots of issues.
I want to point out that Belgium has the (global) gold standard of nuclear regulation. They have annual reviews, 5 year major reassessments, and 10 year Periodic Safety Review (PSR). The purpose of the PSR is to build a plan to keep all nuclear plants up-to-date with state of the art safety mechanisms. Each PSR has mandatory upgrades. If operators fail or refuse these upgrades, they are forced to shutdown. There is no one other country who does nuclear safety quite like Belgium. |
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| ▲ | cogman10 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Right, and ultimately Japan has decided the safest and I assume cheapest route with these reactors wasn't to rebuild but rather to decommission. These reactors can be made safer, but they all still have a foundational design flaw which means the ultimate goal should be replacing rather than continually spending money reinforcing. |
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| ▲ | leonidasrup 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | On the contrary, Japan is changing it's energy policy and restarting it's nuclear reactors. "Japan’s Energy Plan: New Policy Shifts Nuclear Power Stance from Reduction to Maximization" https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d01195/ https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulat... | | |
| ▲ | cogman10 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Hmm, I may have been too vague. When I stated "these" I was talking specifically about the Fukushima plants and not Japan's policy for reactors nationally. Are they planning on restarting the Fukushima plants? I didn't think they were. | | |
| ▲ | mpweiher 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | The Fukushima plants were completely destroyed by the meltdowns and subsequent Hydrogen explosions that were caused by the Tsunami. There was never any chance of "restarting" them, so not sure why you brought that up. | | |
| ▲ | cogman10 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Because I'm confused at to what the > On the contrary was about. Contrary to what? | | |
| ▲ | mpweiher 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Contrary to your claim Japan is not shutting down its nuclear reactors. It is restarting them. | | |
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| ▲ | pqtyw 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | All nuclear reactors are massively safer than coal power plants though. If you excluded climate change and Co2 emissions entirely and measured harm/deaths adjusted by the amount of power generated the difference would be astronomical. |
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| ▲ | WalterBright 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| ... and add a pipe to vent the hydrogen gases outside instead of accumulating it inside the reactor building! |
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| ▲ | wolvoleo 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Those old reactors in Belgium have already had several issues. |
