nuclear power+crawfish+grapes

Hi everyone,
What a great day. I had no idea that a presentation on nuclear power could be so interesting. It was fabulous.
Our host, Mikko Kosonen, a Rotarian and host to Kari, picked us up at our host families this morning and took us to Teollisuuden Voima Oyj or as it's friends know it, TVO, a nuclear power plant outside of Rauma. This plant has two reactors, one has been in production since 1978 the other since 1980. There is a third planned to go on line in 2012, which will be twice as big as the other two reactors. In 2007 the two operating reactors provided 14 TWh, which is 16% of the power used in Finland. We heard so many facts and numbers that I will not try to keep them all straight, I will only tell what I found most interesting.
The power plant is owned by several investors. The power is given to the investors net of all operating costs. The risk of operation is borne by the investors, and the possible gains are also owned by them. The power plant has 700 employees, and an additional 3000 during the construction phase of the new reactor. The new reactor, Unit 3, will provide 1600 MWe. It would take an equivilent 6400 wind mills to generate the same amount of electricty provided by this power plant at Rauma. One pellet of fuel ( about the size as a pellet of rabbit food) provides enough energy to provide electricty to 5 homes for one year.
The type of plant in Rauma is called a pressurized water reactor. The reactor takes in 30 cubic meters of sea water per second. When the water comes in, the temerature is 13 degrees C. when it returns to the sea, it is 26 degrees C. None of it is exposed to radiation. There is an area of about 2 k in the sea, about 5 meters deep, that has warmer water than is natural when this water is returned to the sea. TVO is experimenting with this water to see how it might be used. Currently they are farming crawfish, salmon, and rainbow trout. They are also growing a vinyard.
Reactor 3 has new and improved safty features. The most obvious is that it is in two containers, one to enclose an accident from inside the reactor, the second to prevent damage from outside of the reactor, such as a plane crashing into it. In addition, there are redundent power sources, and disposal systems for contaminated material.
We all were interested in the production of uranium, which is used in this reactor. We heard that most uranium is mined in Canada and Australia. ( Another source of uranium was from Russia, from the nuclear weapons that were disarmed years ago.) Yellow cake that is mined is changed to a gas form and then enriched into uranium 285 or 239. The countries that do this work are France, Germany and Russia. One quarter of the fuel is relaced every year. It takes 7 days to replace the spent uranium with new. The old units are stored enclosed in tubes, in water for 5 years and then in another place for 20 years.
Another company owned by the same investors that own TVO, is Posiva. This is a company which is currently researching and developing and will eventually implement a geological disposal site for spent rods in the same area as the reactors. In 1994 the government of Finland passed a law that said that all spent fuel would be buried in Finland. They are planning a cave system that winds round and round, going deeper and deeper until a depth of 520 meters. The cost of this project is expected to be 300 Billion €. It should be competed in 2020 and will be full in 2100.
The visitor center was expertly developed to show both by animation and video how the reactor works. It also is a beauty building, light and set right on the edge of the estuary.
After our visit to TVO we drove Vuojoki Mansion for a delicious 4 course lunch. The mansion is an empire style building now completeöy renovated.
Tonight we are spending time with our families. Mine has invited an exchange student from Grand Marais Minnesota to have dinner with us. We are eating outside tonight, with our jackets on.

by Mary