Power Plant Explosion

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Eight injured in blast at coal generating plant

[for educational purposes only]

ATLANTA (August 14, 1999 8:38 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Eight workers were injured in a coal dust explosion and blaze Saturday at a Georgia Power generating plant outside Atlanta, a utility spokeswoman said.

Three injured mechanics and electricians were in critical condition at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, each with third-degree burns over more than half of his body.

The accident occurred about 1 p.m. Saturday in Unit 2 of the company's coal-burning Plant McDonough-Atkinson in Smyrna, about 10 miles northwest of Atlanta.

Georgia Power spokeswoman Lisa Frederick said the blast occurred minutes after workers restarted a coal pulverizer.

"The pulverizer had been taken off-line for some maintenance work. The mechanics had finished the maintenance and were testing it," she said.

"Several spot fires broke out. We don't know what caused the explosion."

Cobb County Fire Department spokesman Stephen Mize said a worker one floor above the accident "felt an enormous amount of heat."

"All he saw was a wall of dust. He couldn't see the folks he was with," Mize said.

_____ Note, ten days ago: In my area, a coal-fired plant dropped it's ash grate (new, only 5 years old) and will be down for many, many months.

-- dw (y2k@outhere.com), August 15, 1999

Answers

Hey Nikoli,

here's another one of those dang pesky explosions you keep imagining...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 15, 1999.


Robert, add to list

-- if (it@qualifies.?), August 15, 1999.

Dust wasn't compliant!!! Damn, have to get new dust now.

-- Scoot (scooter@y2k.com), August 15, 1999.

While at first glance, this accident has nothing to do with embeded systems. I wish to relate to you all, tht the ball mill area (where coal is crushed untill it is a coal dust). Is highly explosive. The coal, in dust form can equal black powder in volatility...And a spark is all it takes to set it off...My question though, is why the area was not under a spray of water(mist) to prevent such accidents.

The other plant which lost it's grate...now that is a new wrinkle...And will indeed throw the plant out of production for some months (probably into early next year), before it can go on line again

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), August 15, 1999.


What I find instuctive is the shear plethora of " accidents ". Maybe I'm seeing some Red Trucks here, but do any of you remember this many " blowups " in one year?

-- CT (ct@no.yr), August 15, 1999.


I have been invvled with power generation for over 32 of my 36 years in the electrical feild. And I can tell you for certain, that there have never been so many power generation stations or refineries exploding, as there has in the past seven months. That some of them are from embeded systems, others are not. But on matter how it is liced. We are loosing quite a few of them of late.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), August 15, 1999.


Tick... Tock... <:00=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), August 15, 1999.

Whatever the reason, all the explosions/fires/accidents will add up to one certainty:

Higher gas prices and fuel rationing once Y2K failures hit critical mass.

-- h (h@h.h), August 15, 1999.


--dw, interesting article. My first impression was that it was similar to a grain elevator explosion - so much flammable dust in the air needing only a spark. On the other hand, it seems that safety measures were not working to prevent the "wall of dust". I am an ignoramus about the safety measures in those coal plants, so I hope you can post any follow-up stories about the determined cause. Thanks!

-- Margaret (janssm@aol.com), August 15, 1999.

Each Plant that goes off line before the turn, takes us that much "closer to the rim of the canyon" (See Dick Mills for analogy).

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), August 15, 1999.


DW --

Could you post the city and if possible the name of the coal-fired plant this is off line as of 10 days ago because of its dropped grate? I'd like to add it to my list and this is the first cite I've seen about it.

Robert Waldrop pipeline, generating plant, and factory fires/explosions

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), August 15, 1999.


I am most curious about the "testing" phrase. I mean, usually machines aren't "tested" in routine maintenance are they? Isn't the idea of testing that you are checking to see if something will be safe enough to use? In what way were they "testing" this equipment? Usually they just site "equipment malfunction" for catastrophic explosions - nice and tidy for the insurance companies that way.

I can't think of any reason why they would use that phrase at all if they weren't working on Y2k remediation.

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), August 15, 1999.


CT,

To get the frequency of industrial explosions this bad, you would have to go to the 1930's, or perhaps even back to the period just after the CIVIL WAR!



-- K. Stevens (kstevens@It's ALL going away in January.com), August 15, 1999.


The common denominator to these reports seems to be at least as much incompetence as Y2K.

Which perhaps is not surprising. Deregulation and downsizing have led to the destruction of continuity of knowledge about such things as plant operations. Maintenance is now being done by contractors who (arguably) don't have enough site-specific knowledge or site-based supervision. And management are doubtless cutting maintenance to the bone and contracting to the lowest bidder, to squeeze out every last drop of profit in the short-term.

This observation does not make me comfortable about Y2K.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), August 16, 1999.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ