Snowmageddon in Texas

[Michel Jeanneau]

I'm not saying accidents won't happen or there isn't nuclear waste to deal with; what I said is nuclear power is way more reliable than the renewable options available today, especially during 40-yr weather events. I heard about gas plants shutting down because of the cold but not the nuke plant. Why did it shut down? Transmission lines go down? Cooling towers freeze up? Or was it on a scheduled down period?

I worked in and out of nuclear plants all over the country for 20 years along with coal, gas and oil plants; by far the cleanest and the ones with most built-in failsafe features (and the most regulated). There has only been one "chernobyl"; TMI was not a meltdown and Fukishima fell victim to a tsunami. And we can't say that wind and solar aren't pollution free either: we face a bit of crisis with what to do with wind turbine blades that exceeded their lifespan (currently filling landfills at an alarming rate) or the rare minerals needed to manufacture solar panels or tesla batteries or where they are being built (China, mostly)...Yet every day it seems we use more and more electricity; we all want to drive electric cars, but we have to plug them in at night (when we have no solar energy and wind is too unreliable), so in effect we went from driving somewhat dirty gasoline cars to driving coal powered cars...brilliant

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[GregM]

I am sooo sorry for my friends in TX! I am absolutely in shock that the so called leaders of TX let this happen. I know that states that don’t often get weather like that often, but in this day in age, horrible. I like live in Pennsylvania where we are little more prepared for this type of thing. PPL (Pa Power & Light ) has invested MILLIONS in infrastructure in last 10 years. We can send a rover to Mars - GO PERCY! but can’t supply power to one of the largest states in the union. God bless you all! BTW my morning at 15 degrees

She looks so cold Jon ?

 

[db_tanker]

So we got lucky compared to alot of my co-workers...we had our hot water heater spring a small leak. Fittings were a nightmare to find but doable.

Also heard our Gov mention going forward with expansion on the nuc plants here...not sure if he has that ability or if it requires a fedral touch but more power (lol) to him.

Our wind turbines were not winterized properly...go figure...we live way down south.

But after all the yelling and finger-pointing and partisan politicking I'm sure the same crap will happen again. :|

 

[Motorpsychology]

I'm not saying accidents won't happen or there isn't nuclear waste to deal with; what I said is nuclear power is way more reliable than the renewable options available today, especially during 40-yr weather events. I heard about gas plants shutting down because of the cold but not the nuke plant. Why did it shut down? Transmission lines go down? Cooling towers freeze up? Or was it on a scheduled down period?

France derive 70% of their electrical power from nuclear reactors currently. They have a goal to reduce that to 50% by 2030, through adding more renewable-fueled plants and conservation. The US generates about 19% of its electricity from nuclear, 23% coal.

Lots more on the subject here.

 

[1911tex]

So we got lucky compared to alot of my co-workers...we had our hot water heater spring a small leak. Fittings were a nightmare to find but doable.

Also heard our Gov mention going forward with expansion on the nuc plants here...not sure if he has that ability or if it requires a fedral touch but more power (lol) to him.

Our wind turbines were not winterized properly...go figure...we live way down south.

But after all the yelling and finger-pointing and partisan politicking I'm sure the same crap will happen again. :|

The Federal Energy Commission recommended our Texas Government (as well as every states' energy systems), 5 weeks ago, to winterize ERCOT. Recommendation was totally ignored. Last night our Governor recommended that we winterize ERCOT as well as our state water systems. Timely don't you think? It was the coal and oil plants that needed winterization at ERCOT and close supervision plus investment... instead of ignoring the obvious for the past 30 years!
I worked for ERCOT until retirement last year...what a disaster by our state government!
And now we are begging the Federal Government to help bail us out...oh my!

 

[ISUACE]

Yea... we didn't have power for 48 hours... and no running water!! We all piled in the truck to get warm and charged all our electronic devices...

 

[Leftcoast]

Absolutely correct...as long as texas doesn't come looking for federal emergency relief money. (Again.)


Maybe you should find some sort of security blanket to keep you safe from your boogeyman?

Libs crack me up. More regulation is their only solutuon

 

[Leftcoast]

know what cracks me up?
the USA has 328 million population with 328 million different views

and they can all be categorized into a few political categories even though only 62% of them voted.

thats hilarious to me.

I know a few people from BC. I'm sure you love Quebec preaching to you as much as they do.

 

[DukeCanBuildit]

I think the last time I was in Canada was 1991 for a terrible ice storm. Was only there 2 weeks after we were in north east New York state for 2 weeks. I felt bad when we left as they were still in bad shape. Many of the main towers were down.

This is the brilliance of the North American grid - crews that respond to emergencies in either of our countries, are familiar with the processes and the equipment. A lineman from Maine, who was helping out on PEI after Hurricane Dorian, told me it was no different than fixing downed power lines back home. If our two countries hadn’t come together on this important infrastructure pact, we wouldn’t be able to reach across the border as easily or quickly as we currently do. Thanks for the help you provided Bret.

 

[Jon S.]

Let’s not make this a politics forum. You can do that on other sites. Let’s keep it about our trucks please.... here is something to lighten it up today.

 

[Cape Cruiser]

This is the brilliance of the North American grid - crews that respond to emergencies in either of our countries, are familiar with the processes and the equipment. A lineman from Maine, who was helping out on PEI after Hurricane Dorian, told me it was no different than fixing downed power lines back home. If our two countries hadn’t come together on this important infrastructure pact, we wouldn’t be able to reach across the border as easily or quickly as we currently do. Thanks for the help you provided Bret.

Thanks Duke. I did edit my post above as I said 1991 but it was 1998 was the bad one for the northeast and Canada. The 1991 storm was further west in New York (old brain ) . But yeah, its pretty well all the same just some areas use some different voltages. I know a lot of people get pissed at electric utilities for costs and reliability but I can attest when people are hurtin and out of power these crews give 110 percent. I only had a small role in keeping bucket trucks running and in the air. The hardest part in the cold northeast was we didnt have places to plug our trucks in at the end of the shift so we kept them running 24/7 for a month. The national gaurd would fill them with fuel over night and provide security. The trucks never shut off except once per day to check oil. After 1 week of this the trucks started loosing power and would only do 25 mph. We had to take exhaust down every week or so to bang out about a gallon container of soot out of the exhaust. Soutern boys aren't use to that type of cold . LOLt

 

[Leftcoast]

its not preaching if you unplug their mic.

i know ignoring them wont make them go away, but it makes my life better not caring

It's easy to hit the ignore button if you don't agree with somebody on the net. It's harder to ignore others in meat space when their hands are in your pocket.
I'm like most here. I don't know the intricacies of the Texas power, gas and water systems. I follow the clickbait news like most here I suspect. I'm not going to sit back in my chair and bash Texas just because it's become chic. I'll save that for the weaker.

 

[VAMike]

I'm not saying accidents won't happen or there isn't nuclear waste to deal with; what I said is nuclear power is way more reliable than the renewable options available today, especially during 40-yr weather events. I heard about gas plants shutting down because of the cold but not the nuke plant. Why did it shut down? Transmission lines go down? Cooling towers freeze up? Or was it on a scheduled down period?

Feed water froze.

 

[egilbe]

Feed water froze..

No water is a killer for most industries. I guess Texas is going to have to learn something from the Yankees up north and insulate their shit.

 

[Apples]

How come Texans park their pickups outdoors? Haven't you guys discovered garages yet?

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