31/03/2020
- Big shoals of acetes, which are just a few centimetres long, crippled the water pumping stations and caused a unit to go into automatic safe shutdown
- The same thing happened the next day with all units powered down, but the safety regulator says they are now in a ‘safe and controllable condition’
The Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station in Guangdong province is about 235km from Hong Kong. Photo: Handout
The power-generating units of a nuclear plant in southern China were shut down twice last week after its water filters were blocked by masses of small shrimp, the safety regulator said.
Big shoals of the tiny acetes – krill-like shrimp that are just a few centimetres long – flooded the seawater diversion channel and circulating water pumping stations of the Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station in Guangdong on March 24, the National Nuclear Safety Administration said in a statement.
They crippled the water pumping stations and caused one of the nuclear plant’s six power-generating units to go into automatic safe shutdown, while the other five units ran at 80 per cent of capacity.
The unit that shut down was powered up again the next day after station staff cleared the acetes and cleaned the filters.
But soon after on March 25, the same thing happened, with large shoals of acetes again finding their way into the pumping stations and causing four power-generating units to shut down automatically. The station shut off the other two units for safety reasons.
Big shoals of acetes found their way into the nuclear plant’s pumping stations. Photo: Handout
The incident on March 25 was rated a Level 1 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, meaning it was an “anomaly” that had no safety or health consequences. Only two nuclear events have been rated at the top of the scale as Level 7 “major accidents” – the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011.
China’s nuclear safety regulator said the situation at the Yangjiang plant was under control.
“At present, all six units … are in a safe and controllable condition,” the statement said. “Staff at the scene are taking measures such as fishing out the acetes and cleaning the filters, before reactivating the units and bringing them back to normal operation in accordance with the relevant procedures.”
Nearly a decade after tsunami, clean-up continues at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant
Pan Chin, head and chair professor of nuclear engineering at City University of Hong Kong, said the two incidents were “operational events with no radiation leak”.
“The shutdown … is also an indication that the protection system of the power plant is functioning as designed,” he said.
“This incident is not unexpected,” Pan said. “The power plant uses seawater as a coolant for the condenser and occasionally aquatic animals may get close to the intake and cause such incidents.”
The Hong Kong Nuclear Society also noted that similar incidents had happened before.
“Similar events have occurred at nuclear power plants using seawater as a coolant for their power-generating units [including non-nuclear ones] throughout the world, including China,” said Luk Bing-lam, chairman of the society.
New Wufengshan power line across China’s Yangtze River completed
In 2016, a generating unit at the Lingao Nuclear Power Plant in Shenzhen was guided to a safe shutdown by an automatic reactor protection signal after its seawater intake was inundated with tiny marine crustaceans, according to Hong Kong’s Security Bureau. They blocked the filtering screen drum at the intake and tripped two seawater intake pumps.
China tech giants wake up to renewable energy, but fossil fuels still dominate as electricity source
17 Feb 2020
China’s nuclear safety regulator said it had asked all nuclear power station operators to use marine life detection systems in light of incidents such as those at Yangjiang last week.
But Pan from CityU said the acetes could be too small to be detected by a marine life warning system.
“If a system can detect the approach of marine life, large or small, early enough, leaving enough time to take some action to prevent them from approaching further … there will be no such incident,” he said, adding that the systems needed to be improved.
The Yangjiang nuclear plant in Guangdong is about 235km from Hong Kong. It is owned by the China General Nuclear Power Corporation, which operates over 20 nuclear power stations in China. CLP, one of Hong Kong’s two power companies, acquired a 17 per cent stake in the plant in 2017.
Source: SCMP
Posted in automatic safe shutdown, Chernobyl, China General Nuclear Power Corporation, City University of Hong Kong, CityU, CLP, crippled, Fukushima, Guangdong, guangdong province, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Nuclear Society, International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, Lingao Nuclear Power Plant, Masses, National Nuclear Safety Administration, power line, Security Bureau, Shenzhen, tiny shrimp, Uncategorized, water pumping stations, Wufengshan, Yangjiang nuclear plant, Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station, Yangtze River |
Leave a Comment »
08/07/2019
- Settlements along the route linking Europe and Asia thrived by providing accommodation and services for countless traders
- Formally established during the Han dynasty, it was a 19th-century German geographer who coined the term Silk Road
The ruins of a fortified gatehouse and customs post at Yunmenguan Pass, in China’s Gansu province. Photo: Alamy
We have a German geographer, cartographer and explorer to thank for the name of the world’s most famous network of transcontinental trade routes.
Formally established during the Han dynasty, in the first and second centuries BC, it wasn’t until 1877 that Ferdinand von Richthofen coined the term Silk Road (historians increasingly favour the collective term Silk Routes).
The movement of merchandise between China and Europe had been taking place long before the Han arrived on the scene but it was they who employed troops to keep the roads safe from marauding nomads.
Commerce flourished and goods as varied as carpets and camels, glassware and gold, spices and slaves were traded; as were horses, weapons and armour.
Merchants also moved medicines but they were no match for the bubonic plague, which worked its way west along the Silk Road before devastating huge swathes of 14th century Europe.
What follows are some of the countless kingdoms, territories, (modern-day) nations and cities that grew rich on the proceeds of trade, taxes and tolls.
China
A watchtower made of rammed earth at Dunhuang, a desert outpost at the crossroads of two major Silk Road routes in China’s northwestern Gansu province. Photo: Alamy
Marco Polo worked in the Mongol capital, Khanbaliq (today’s Beijing), and was struck by the level of mercantile activity.
The Venetian gap-year pioneer wrote, “Every day more than a thousand carts loaded with silk enter the city, for a great deal of cloth of gold and silk is woven here.”
Light, easy to transport items such as paper and tea provided Silk Road traders with rich pickings, but it was China’s monopoly on the luxurious shimmering fabric that guaranteed huge profits.
So much so that sneaking silk worms out of the empire was punishable by death.
The desert outpost of Dunhuang found itself at the crossroads of two major Silk Road trade arteries, one leading west through the Pamir Mountains to Central Asia and another south to India.
Built into the Great Wall at nearby Yunmenguan are the ruins of a fortified gatehouse and customs post, which controlled the movement of Silk Road caravans.
Also near Dunhuang, the Mogao Caves contain one of the richest collections of Buddhist art treasures anywhere in the world, a legacy of the route to and from the subcontinent.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s mountainous terrain was an inescapable part of the Silk Road, until maritime technologies would become the area’s undoing. Photo: Shutterstock
For merchants and middlemen hauling goods through Central Asia, there was no way of bypassing the mountainous lands we know today as Afghanistan.
Evidence of trade can be traced back to long before the Silk Road – locally mined lapis lazuli stones somehow found their way to ancient Egypt, and into Tutankhamun’s funeral mask, created in 1323BC.
Jagged peaks, rough roads in Tajikistan, roof of the world
Besides mercantile exchange, the caravan routes were responsible for the sharing of ideas and Afghanistan was a major beneficiary. Art, philosophy, language, science, food, architecture and technology were all exchanged, along with commercial goods.
In fact, maritime technology would eventually be the area’s undoing. By the 15th century, it had become cheaper and more convenient to transport cargo by sea – a far from ideal development for a landlocked region.
Iran
The Ganjali Khan Complex, in Iran. Photo: Shutterstock
Thanks to the Silk Road and the routes that preceded it, the northern Mesopotamian region (present-day Iran) became China’s closest trading partner. Traders rarely journeyed the entire length of the trail, however.
Merchandise was passed along by middlemen who each travelled part of the way and overnighted in caravanserai, fortified inns that provided accommodation, storerooms for goods and space for pack animals.
The good, bad and ugly sides to visiting Chernobyl and Kiev
With so many wheeler-dealers gathering in one place, the hostelries developed into ad hoc marketplaces.
Marco Polo writes of the Persian kingdom of Kerman, where craftsmen made saddles, bridles, spurs and “arms of every kind”.
Today, in the centre of Kerman, the former caravanserai building forms part of the Ganjali Khan Complex, which incorporates a bazaar, bathhouse and mosque.
Uzbekistan
A fort in Khiva, Uzbekistan. Photo: Alamy
The double-landlocked country boasts some of the Silk Road’s most fabled destinations. Forts, such as the one still standing at Khiva, were built to protect traders from bandits; in fact, the city is so well-preserved, it is known as the Museum under the Sky.
The name Samarkand is also deeply entangled with the history of the Silk Road.
The earliest evidence of silk being used outside China can be traced to Bactria, now part of modern Uzbekistan, where four graves from around 1500BC-1200BC contained skeletons wrapped in garments made from the fabric.
Three thousand years later, silk weaving and the production and trade of textiles remain one of Samarkand’s major industries.
Georgia
A street in old town of Tbilisi, Georgia. Photo: Alamy
Security issues in Persia led to the opening up of another branch of the legendary trade route and the first caravan loaded with silk made its way across Georgia in AD568.
Marco Polo referred to the weaving of raw silk in “a very large and fine city called Tbilisi”.
Today, the capital has shaken off the Soviet shackles and is on the cusp of going viral.
Travellers lap up the city’s monasteries, walled fortresses and 1,000-year-old churches before heading up the Georgian Military Highway to stay in villages nestling in the soaring Caucasus Mountains.
Public minibuses known as marshrutka labour into the foothills and although the vehicles can get cramped and uncomfortable, they beat travelling by camel.
Jordan
Petra, in Jordan. Photo: Alamy
The location of the Nabataean capital, Petra, wasn’t chosen by chance.
Savvy nomadic herders realised the site would make the perfect pit-stop at the confluence of several caravan trails, including a route to the north through Palmyra (in modern-day Syria), the Arabian peninsula to the south and Mediterranean ports to the west.
Huge payments in the form of taxes and protection money were collected – no wonder the most magnificent of the sandstone city’s hand-carved buildings is called the Treasury.
The Red Rose City is still a gold mine – today’s tourists pay a hefty
. The Nabataeans would no doubt approve.
Venice
Tourists crowd onto Venice’s Rialto Bridge. Photo: Alamy
Trade enriched Venice beyond measure, helping shape the Adriatic entrepot into the floating marvel we see today.
Besides the well-documented flow of goods heading west, consignments of cotton, ivory, animal furs, grapevines and other goods passed through the strategically sited port on their way east.
Ironically, for a city built on trade and taxes, the biggest problem Venice faces today is visitors who don’t contribute enough to the local economy.
A lack of spending by millions of day-tripping tourists and cruise passengers who aren’t liable for nightly hotel taxes has prompted authorities to introduce a citywide access fee from January 2020.
Two thousand years ago, tariffs and tolls helped Venice develop and prosper. Now they’re needed to prevent its demise.
Source: SCMP
Posted in accommodation, Adriatic, Afghanistan, architecture, armour, arms, Art, Asia, Bactria, bandits, bathhouse, bazaar, Beijing, bridles, bubonic plague, Buddhist art treasures, camels, caravanserai, caravans, carpets, Caucasus Mountains, Chernobyl, cloth of gold, commercial goods, craftsmen, Death, Dunhuang, Egypt, Europe, exchanged, Ferdinand von Richthofen, floating marvel, Food, fort, from China to Italy, funeral mask, Ganjali Khan Complex, Gansu Province, garments, Georgia, Georgian Military Highway, German geographer, glassware, Gold, goods, Great Wall, grew rich, Han Dynasty, horses, hostelries, iran, Jordan, Kerman, Khanbaliq, Khiva, Kiev, languages, lapis lazuli, Marco Polo, maritime technology, marketplaces, marshrutka, medicines, Merchandise, Mesopotamian region, Mogao Caves, Mongol capital, Mosque, Museum under the Sky, Nabataean capital, pack animals, Palmyra, Pamir Mountains, paper, Persian kingdom, Petra, philosophy, punishable, Red Rose City, Rialto Bridge, saddles, Samarkand, Science, Silk Road, Silk Road destinations, silk worms, skeletons, slaves, sneaking, Space, spices, spurs, storerooms, Syria, Tajikistan, Tbilisi, Tea, Technology, towns, Trade, traders, Tutankhamun, Uncategorized, Uzbekistan, Venetian gap-year pioneer, Venice, weapons, Yunmenguan Pass |
Leave a Comment »
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 