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.
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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...
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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?
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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?
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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.
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Nice one [s]Fred[/s] 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?
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.
[url= http://www.visitcruachan.co.uk/about/ ]Clicky for not very good website[/url]
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
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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.
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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
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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
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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...
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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.
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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.
Only a matter of time before the first commercial reactors are built
... just ... holding ... breath ...!
Only a matter of time before the first commercial reactors are built
Only a matter of a bloody long time. You know how long their sustainable reaction is?
Not that long. I know.
They need to create a method of refreshing the fuel. Theoretically using a lithium wall around the reactor to product tritium as the reaction takes place. Thats the ITER method anyway. NIF uses a cartridge system which would be replaced constantly after each reaction.
Within our lifetimes I would say, about 20 years.
[img] http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/research/sccs/capture/Fossil_fuel_power_station.jp g" target="_blank">
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mtb-rossi the national ignition facility is several generations behind J.E.T in terms of sustaining fusion. J.E.T was the first generation of torus reactors and the next iteration of that is the south korean fusion reactor. the national ignition facility needs 'fuel pellets' where as torus reactor use a constant stream of plasma; which is better.
When all this fusion power is available, just think of the weapons we could have.
I'm talking ENORMOUS lasers and shit 😛
They're already fitting lasers to battleships! 😀
Anyway, which ever is the most advanced, its highly exciting.
derek_starship Route 62 THE TRANSPENNINE TRAIL, goes within spitting distance of Fiddlers Ferry Power station at Warrington, along the Canal bank.from Warrington, head towards Runcorn down the Canal, not the ship canal, but the smaller one, follow blue or brown route 62 signs.
Rugely powerstation is the one you can see from Catton Park, (sits)
I used to work inside the powersation boilers during their outages. I can assure you, they are MUCH more interesting from the inside!
Pro nuclear civil engineering student here. Power stations are pretty important, eh? I've got a wee library going on Scottish hydropower beside me here, it's all good stuff.
Of course the real answer is less people and less consumption, but I didn't tell you that. Bad for business you see.
Theres a small Hydro Station near Penmachno, in Wales, called Dolgarrog up a never ending steep tarmaced hill, behind the old smelting works, and you will eventually come upon a huge concrete dam that collapseed many years ago, and flooded the village, to see the size of the dam, and the breach, along with fantastic scenery and a great down hill if on a bike.