I know, I know. They consume vast quantities of natural resources and give rain a pH of 2 but they're spiffing examples of engineering. And they produces Giga Watts of lovely electricity so we can all play with our gadgets and have romantic lighting and hot showers (not at the same time) and stuff.

This is Drax. One of the big guys.

I'm gonna have a drive down to Widnes to see Fiddlers Ferry at the weekend. It's got a 660ft chimney!

Am I sad?
Should I get a SS and some sandals?
Or are power stations (Kraftwerken) really interesting?

Discuss

DS

Can't beat a nice power station…

Please remember folks – it's steam – NOT SMOKE – coming from those there cooling towers in Elfins second pic.

Why is there a flying pig in the second photo?

Was that taken with a 50mm lens, and not cropped?

Ewan Ewan Ewan…..

Shakes head, yoof of today

well they keep me in a job. I would add there is something about a refinery at night (not mine btw), looks like a metropolis.

what SLR settings for night pics like this btw?

Please remember folks – it's steam – NOT SMOKE – coming from those there cooling towers in Elfins second pic.

(cough)Water vapour, not steam!(cough)

They're actually questionable in terms of engineering TBH, it's all fairly large-scale, and other than the turbines nothing is any more complex than large pipework and basic pumps. They're made that way so they don't fail. They're a mass of tangled tubing and high temps and pressures, but nothing ground breaking inside them.

cough)Water vapour, not steam!(cough)

Steam is a mixture of water vapour and sometimes water droplets, so I don't see the need for the pedantry.

I like them. We deliver a lot of comms kit to the sub stations and we get very close. It's great. Went to Sandwich power staion, now disused and it was real spooky. Stood right inside the disused cooling tower.

God I'm sad.!

Coffeeking – I know where you live. And I 'm bringing my friend.

Nice one Fred Elfin! That's Agecroft.

Anybody who took part in a race that I'm no longer anything to do with a couple of weeks ago went round the valley that Agecroft used to blight.

you can ride along the side of the canal across the back of fiddlers ferry if you want to 🙂

I like them. I might go for a walk around our turbine hall this afternoon 🙂

Why is there a flying pig in the second photo?

Clearly, you DO need an Education. 🙂

I don't see the need for the pedantry.

Are you in the right place?

Ah ha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_%28album%29

Rugeley used to do open days, that was good. Agreed, not really high tech but its the scale of things I like. The new chimney at Rugeley was made by continous pouring of concrete & raising of the shuttering, was on that Richard hammond thing on TV.

Ah ha.

no no, Pink Floyd 😉

IGMC

The other weekend, I visited the acest of the ace power stations. Ben Cruachan, aka the Hollow Mountain. It's hydro, so it's pretty green, it's built inside the mountain (1km bus trip along the tunnel), the turbines can generate 440 Mwatt and the turbine hall is about the size of a cathedral. It's on the side of lach Awe, in itself stunning, but with some ospreys nesting opposite.
Clicky for not very good website

Used to work at Dungeness, best job I've ever had, really interesting stuff. Best bit was the tour of the reactors I went on, Absolutely fascinating and a bit scary at the same time, especially when stood on the pile cap, just 12ft above the fuel rods!

Ben Cruachan turbine hall – doesn't realy get the size though

Heysham nuclear power station, near Morcambe. Such an attractive sight….

pylons to this thread

Is Rugeley the one you can see from the SITS course?

Nuclear FTW, anyway.

Trawsfynydd.

Nice scene spoilt by the dirty great lump of concrete….

True, true. But as power stations go….?

LOL at whippersnapper

Those are pathetic, compared to this bad boy

We need power stations

Big nuclear and coal ones, we have hundreds or years of coal buried under Britain. Because one day Gazprom will introduce rationing to drive up the cost of gas. My favourite was the small coal fired Llynfi Power Station, long gone of course.

ooOOoo …

Yes but thats a fusion reactor, not a fission one 😉

Rannoch hydro power station

What tyres for riding power stations?

I went on a guided tour of Dinorwig power station when I was an apprentice at GEC Traction. Dinorwig is a pump storage hydroelectric station located within a mountain. When demand requires, water from a man made tarn drops down vertical pipes to turn the water turbines and generate electricity that can be injected into the national grid within 10 minutes. At night, the water is pumped back to the tarn using off-peak power. It is an amazing place to visit.

The future of power? Quite possibly…

The National Ignition Facility, experiemntal nuclear fusion reactor. Which sort of looks like a giant pencil sharpner.

Only a matter of time before the first commercial reactors are built

Fusion….fission….whatever you call it, best to keep it a a few million miles away I reckon 😉

I like the Stream Machine. Eco centre down the road uses one.

Fusion is safe 🙂 Fission, not so safe if its badly managed.

Fusion is safe because all the can happen if something goes wrong is the reaction stops and you're just left with an unfused hydrogen isotope.

Fission is bad since it's dirty and emits horrible gamma radiation along with any fission reaction. And is woefully ineffecient for the amount of fuel required.