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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:09:35 PM EDT
[#1]
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:13:11 PM EDT
[#2]
I seen a pull start generator run low on oil once.
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:14:49 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Sorry, you have to be a power plant operator to know of these upsets of which I speak. Every now and then I see a thread where a number of operators chime in, so I know they're out there. Another little one, trash plant, electrician has his meter in an electrical box and trips the feed pump, the steam turbine driven feed pump is valved out, both boilers showed red to the bottom of the eye-hyes...barely saved from a trip that time. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:15:01 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I seen a pull start generator run low on oil once.  |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:16:16 PM EDT
[#5]
Ran out of gas several times, always in the middle of the night when I am tactically sleeping. Have to get up and fill it up, and since I have sleep apnea and it makes me grumpy the next day
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:25:07 PM EDT
[#6]
Coal mill trips off, started another one, boiler puffs (goes positive pressure) and blows up the first mill.
So many tube ruptures I can't remember then all. Feed control valve controller shorts out, boiler trips on high level, taking the turbine with it. HP turbine stage disintegrates at full coal load and trips unit. Boiler circ water pump line ruptures, SO LOUD, filled South end of plant with steam from 1st floor to 5th floor. Torrential rain causes electrostatic precipitators to short out, emergency shut down due to opacity. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:25:11 PM EDT
[#7]
Nothing boiler related
Some monster clinkers falling off the tube wall at a coal plant scared the crap outta me Belt rollers breaking and dropping 40-50 feet Boiler went positive when we had a port door open during testing was like a dragon. Changed our procedures from then on. Couple of steam pipes with leaks but nothing super heated Nothing catastrophic but I'm still not a fan of working on the boiler or turbine decks. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:25:15 PM EDT
[#8]
Black start.
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:28:38 PM EDT
[#9]
I missed this one by a couple of minutes, a cylinder of ...something...made it to the corner of the feed table and exploded. It seperated the water wall sections at the corner so that I could look into the firebox from the outside, no rupture though, held water while we took it down.
At three years, about, on new contruction, one of the boilers blew 11 bull nose tubes. they UT'd the rest and between that unit and the other they replaced 130 bull nose tubes. they tried to blame the operators for insufficient over fire air and allowing flame impingment. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:30:29 PM EDT
[#10]
God damn quagga and zebra mussels!!!
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:32:18 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
God damn quagga and zebra mussels!!! Day one after transferring to our sister plant was an outage and punching condenser tubes, nasty river/pond water and all the goodness that goes with it. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:32:50 PM EDT
[#12]
Squirrel taking a nuke plant offline.
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:33:23 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Sorry, you have to be a power plant operator to know of these upsets of which I speak. Every now and then I see a thread where a number of operators chime in, so I know they're out there. Another little one, trash plant, electrician has his meter in an electrical box and trips the feed pump, the steam turbine driven feed pump is valved out, both boilers showed red to the bottom of the eye-hyes...barely saved from a trip that time. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Sorry, you have to be a power plant operator to know of these upsets of which I speak. Every now and then I see a thread where a number of operators chime in, so I know they're out there. Another little one, trash plant, electrician has his meter in an electrical box and trips the feed pump, the steam turbine driven feed pump is valved out, both boilers showed red to the bottom of the eye-hyes...barely saved from a trip that time. Still down. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:35:56 PM EDT
[#14]
I&C tech here. I've seen a lot of what you wrote OP. Pumps/valves letting loose, transformers light up, fire on the outside of the boiler walls... The one I remember is I got to witness the aftermath of a main steam control valve let loose on a super critical boiler (3600psi). The valve was on the 13 floor. We headed up to 8th floor check something out after the unit tripped. When we stepped off the elevator there was so much steam (water vapor) we couldn't see 2 feet in front of us. The valve plug was driven through the seat.
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:36:03 PM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Squirrel taking a nuke plant offline. What happened? |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:38:14 PM EDT
[#16]
a lot of the villages around here run their hydro dry. not very environmentally friendly.
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:39:41 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What happened? Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Squirrel taking a nuke plant offline. What happened? |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:41:41 PM EDT
[#18]
Not an upset, but a truly fucked up practice at the time.
I was newly licensed but 3 levels short of being able to operate the control room. It was a mass burn trash plant. The stoker would trip out if the FD fan couldn't deliver at least 16". We had a steam coil air heater that was getting plugged and it needed a douching. New guy, me, got ready with a fire hose, they killed the FD fan breaker, an access door to in-between the air heater sections was opened and in I went to blow the fins clear to get FD discharge pressure up again...on a running boiler, at 850psi, that *could* have blown a tube and blasted all that lovely flue gas backwards to where I was....the days where you did what needed to be done....just before L.O.T.O. became the order of the day....lot of lost money to take a unit off, even for a short bit. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:43:58 PM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
What happened? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Squirrel taking a nuke plant offline. What happened? If I remember correctly it took a reliability must run generator next to the nuke plant offline and thus took the nuke plant offline. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:46:24 PM EDT
[#20]
Seen a boom truck swing into the overhead primary on a substation.
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:46:30 PM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
If I remember correctly it took a reliability must run generator next to the nuke plant offline and thus took the nuke plant offline. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Squirrel taking a nuke plant offline. What happened? If I remember correctly it took a reliability must run generator next to the nuke plant offline and thus took the nuke plant offline. I take it the generator was there to scram the reactor in case of Chernobyl or some such. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:46:43 PM EDT
[#22]
 Oh, you were talking about other kinds of "upsets".
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:47:13 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I take it the generator was there to scram the reactor in case of Chernobyl or some such. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Squirrel taking a nuke plant offline. What happened? If I remember correctly it took a reliability must run generator next to the nuke plant offline and thus took the nuke plant offline. I take it the generator was there to scram the reactor in case of Chernobyl or some such. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:47:36 PM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
He didn't make it. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Squirrel taking a nuke plant offline. What happened? Somewhere I have a picture of a squirrel that bridged across a 26.4kV insulator. It was like a carbon replica of a squirrel. All of the water in its body instantly went away. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:48:37 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I take it the generator was there to scram the reactor in case of Chernobyl or some such. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Squirrel taking a nuke plant offline. What happened? If I remember correctly it took a reliability must run generator next to the nuke plant offline and thus took the nuke plant offline. I take it the generator was there to scram the reactor in case of Chernobyl or some such. That is it. It was also the black start facility for the plant. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:49:09 PM EDT
[#26]
Been through the Usual stuff, lighting strikes, X critters in the switchyard, grid failures, trips due to high / low line voltage, mechanical failures etc. Usually the station service will waver giving a heads up every alarm in the place is going to go off. It all sucks because most of the time it happens at o dark 30/ weekend or on a holiday but hat is part of the job.
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:50:46 PM EDT
[#27]
I think I understand about half of what you're talking about. But it sounds like working on an operating power plant is a good way to have a bad day.
When was the last time a boiler blew at one of the larger power plants? Sounds like burst tubes aren't uncommon and those sound bad enough, but do the pressure vessels let go very often? I realize these aren't like the old fashioned scotch boilers and the like... |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:51:06 PM EDT
[#28]
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:51:37 PM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
No, it was to run the operators massage chair in case the plant went offline. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Squirrel taking a nuke plant offline. What happened? If I remember correctly it took a reliability must run generator next to the nuke plant offline and thus took the nuke plant offline. I take it the generator was there to scram the reactor in case of Chernobyl or some such. Dude, I sit ALL DAY staring at the electric plant. If my chair gets a wheel out of round, I expect the 24hr facility people to spring into action. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:51:40 PM EDT
[#30]
I beat off with a fly sticker on my sack once. Frog kept licking my balls.
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:55:20 PM EDT
[#31]
I've had a full blockage of the system before. Added lots of beans, wait, boom,......BOOM BOOM!
System was hurting for a while. BOOOOM! After that everthing was good. Wife was not happy |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:56:05 PM EDT
[#32]
My best two were having two out of four pulverizers puff and trip at almost the same time, shit got hard. The second time was when the shadfish clogged our intake screens and Absolute pressure went fucking nuts. Glad I am in Dispatch now.
Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:56:55 PM EDT
[#33]
I no longer work at ANO but someone I knew was out there when they had the horrible crane accident Easter Day 2013. He says it should not and would not have happened if the people overseeing that had followed the rules and not trying to do the changeout as quick as possible, to save money.
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Posted: 10/25/2014 10:58:22 PM EDT
[#34]
Our burner management system, a Bailey net 90, was giving them just too much trouble, so they installed light switches. We would bring the boiler up on #6 oil before transitioning over to refuse derived fuel.
One operator would hang out at the back of the burner management cabinet, the other made his way to the burner deck. He'd radio down to launch the oil gun, I'd flip a light switch to send the gun in. Open the steam valve, I'd flip another light switch. Open the oil valve, I'd flip another light switch. No working igniter, light it off with a disolved oxy-actylene tank and wand. No working fire-eye, just plunk the laborer on the burner deck and show him which valve to shut if one of the guns goes out. One time we hear screeming. we run to the burner deck, one of the guns went out, the laborer forgot what valve to shut, and my grates and water wall were burning nasty un-atomized oil.....safety first! |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 11:01:48 PM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Our burner management system, a Bailey net 90, was giving them just too much trouble, so they installed light switches. We would bring the boiler up on #6 oil before transitioning over to refuse derived fuel. One operator would hang out at the back of the burner management cabinet, the other made his way to the burner deck. He'd radio down to launch the oil gun, I'd flip a light switch to send the gun in. Open the steam valve, I'd flip another light switch. Open the oil valve, I'd flip another light switch. No working igniter, light it off with a disolved oxy-actylene tank and wand. No working fire-eye, just plunk the laborer on the burner deck and show him which valve to shut if one of the guns goes out. One time we hear screeming. we run to the burner deck, one of the guns went out, the laborer forgot what valve to shut, and my grates and water wall were burning nasty un-atomized oil.....safety first! We had a good one after the techies put in a software upgrade, they implemented it and on it's own volition all the oil guns went in and started up. With Boilermakers inside. They were fucking pissed. The techies disappeared immediately. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 11:03:22 PM EDT
[#36]
I have a few potato pics...
Cooling tower decided to cave the fuck in, on its own. 
Superheat Spray valve actuator with cancer. 
Plant electricians not bothering to check which way a motor is phased on a brand new Limitorque. 
It took a shit. 
HP steam drum replacement. This crane was pretty badass. 
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Posted: 10/25/2014 11:08:05 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I think I understand about half of what you're talking about. But it sounds like working on an operating power plant is a good way to have a bad day.
When was the last time a boiler blew at one of the larger power plants? Sounds like burst tubes aren't uncommon and those sound bad enough, but do the pressure vessels let go very often? I realize these aren't like the old fashioned scotch boilers and the like... I burn natural gas now, two baby boilers and two gas turbine generator sets....sweet sweet natural gas. I started in trash to energy though, and trash is nasty. Trash is erosive. We'd start a clean boiler up after an outage and the trash is, more or less, slow motion sand blasting the tubes from then on out, they get thin, then boom! fish lips. I'd look into the view port at the super heater inlet, 3 passes after the firebox where there isn't any light from the fire, and all you see is a river of embers going by. The boiler also progressively plugs from this, no amount of soot blowing will stop it, just delay it. I transfered from a mass burn plant to an RDF plant, still trash, and in 5 years I saw the rear generating bank get changed out, the front generating bank the next year, the super heater twice and going for a third time before the shuttered the plant and tossed us all out. And a cool thing. We used to use a water wash crew to clear the pluggage, but for the last couple of years we went with an explosives crew. They ran det cord and also used placed charges to blow the plugs apart and clear the lanes....cooler than shit. |
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Posted: 10/25/2014 11:37:02 PM EDT
[#38]
saw a power plant fall over once
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Posted: 10/25/2014 11:46:39 PM EDT
[#39]
21 yrs on the board seen a little of everything
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Posted: 10/26/2014 12:14:43 AM EDT
[#40]
My father ran a boiler room in combat for the USN.
Was issued a 1911, told to shoot the first bastard that ran up the gangway. He was 23. Did you ever have to shoot somebody? |
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Posted: 10/26/2014 12:20:37 AM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
My father ran a boiler room in combat for the USN. Was issued a 1911, told to shoot the first bastard that ran up the gangway. He was 23. Did you ever have to shoot somebody? Shoot somebody? heavens, no....I get my excitement by living vicariously through the stories told right here on this forum.
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Posted: 10/26/2014 1:12:59 AM EDT
[#42]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I no longer work at ANO but someone I knew was out there when they had the horrible crane accident Easter Day 2013. He says it should not and would not have happened if the people overseeing that had followed the rules and not trying to do the changeout as quick as possible, to save money. There was a thread about that and what may have cause it. I never did see the results of the investigation.
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Posted: 10/26/2014 1:15:24 AM EDT
[#43]
Best I can claim is watching a string of transformers on poles pop one after another. It was beautiful. The fucking mothership landing man…
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Posted: 10/26/2014 1:28:44 AM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Day one after transferring to our sister plant was an outage and punching condenser tubes, nasty river/pond water and all the goodness that goes with it. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
God damn quagga and zebra mussels!!! Day one after transferring to our sister plant was an outage and punching condenser tubes, nasty river/pond water and all the goodness that goes with it. I hated shooting the condensers. It sucked big time. Dead fish and freaking slime all over the place. Saw the wall of a super heater section blow out once, asbestos every where. Started a 2400v FD fan which blew up like a bomb one night. Tripped the turbine once when a gov valve fucked up and blew the seals out of the condenser housing, that sucked. Those lead seals are a bitch to put back in on a hot condenser. Heard a 138KV breaker blow up in the switch yard. Killed everything in the plant when the turbine tripped. What a bitch that day was. |
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Posted: 10/26/2014 1:34:50 AM EDT
[#45]
I just feed them, what they do with our coal is up to them...
now if you wan t to hear about the SHTF in a mine we can talk.....
I have seen roof falls that would make a grown man scream in terror..nothing like a section of your roof that is 18ft wide 100ft long and 20 or 30ft high go snap crackle and BOOM... I have seen rocks the size of a car fall out of the roof, mine equipment catch on fire, underground 12470/7200 volt transformers let out their magic smoke along with a loud pop and very bright flash of blue light...mine high voltage cables blow in two, power lines above ground get so hot they glow, switch gears blow. even had a guy trip out the high voltage at the mine with a bush hog..he brushed up against the power pole with it and caught the ground wire with the bush hog, pulling the wire until it sling shotted up and over the high voltage wires causing another one of those big blue flashes followed by a loud bang and all the lights going off. |
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Posted: 10/26/2014 1:39:50 AM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
You aren't alone in your bewilderment. 
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Posted: 10/26/2014 1:47:42 AM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Sorry, you have to be a power plant operator to know of these upsets of which I speak. Every now and then I see a thread where a number of operators chime in, so I know they're out there. Another little one, trash plant, electrician has his meter in an electrical box and trips the feed pump, the steam turbine driven feed pump is valved out, both boilers showed red to the bottom of the eye-hyes...barely saved from a trip that time. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Sorry, you have to be a power plant operator to know of these upsets of which I speak. Every now and then I see a thread where a number of operators chime in, so I know they're out there. Another little one, trash plant, electrician has his meter in an electrical box and trips the feed pump, the steam turbine driven feed pump is valved out, both boilers showed red to the bottom of the eye-hyes...barely saved from a trip that time. Are you Ironman |
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Posted: 10/26/2014 2:04:24 AM EDT
[#48]
Sounds like you've worked in some shitty places. I haven't seen anything crazy at the Co-gen plant I work at. I've only been here a year but I work with guys who have been here since commissioning and they don't have any stories like yours. All of our steam is superheated.
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Posted: 10/26/2014 2:09:33 AM EDT
[#49]
I'll tag this for when I'm not quite so drunk. I've seen a lot
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Posted: 10/26/2014 2:46:23 AM EDT
[#50]
I was doing a contract at North Anna Nuclear Power Station when the earthquake hit. I was actually in the control room (me = I&C dude) when it happened...
I have a whole new respect for those operators!!! They had their ducks in a row and got the job DONE!!! On the other hand, an I&C pair working on that pressure transmitter on the secondary steam loop... While they were doing a loop calibration work order, one of the guys started yelling "PUT THE WIRE BACK ON!!!" Just as the earthquake hit 
Talk about pucker factor... 
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