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1 view fromn the top ai Darî-l'igton Station Photos By Jennifer Garland. Orono Weekly Tirnes, Wednesday, Auguost l4th, 1985-7 Darlin"jgtod-n site - Big place to pay visit inas is tne view from he tme fDarlîngton Nuclear Darlington Information 0f- Generating Plant. It is fice of the construction site estimated that ail four of the below currently underway at reactors wi111 be in service by 1992. By that time, about 72,000 cubic metres of con- crete, will, have been used to construct the walls and Thrl-e beginning of down under Lake Ontario The above openinig leads to operating over 34,000 gallons and 30 feet in diameter and intaire tunnel and the the cooling water intake tun- per second of Lake Ontario travels under the bottom of discharge tunnel were built by nel out to Lake Ontario. water wvill be pumped the lake, for 5/8 of a mile and Spino Construction, the samie When the Darlingtoni Nuclear through this channel. The then opens at the lake's bot- company that buiît the sub- Genierating station is channel is 5/8 of a muile long tom. Both the cooling water way system in Montreal. Museum's ABC list of visi*ting localities Admirable people from Ayr, Ajax.and ani adveni- turous couple from Atlanita, Georgia arrived. Burnt River, Buckhorn plus Beaconsfield and Beaudry Quebec blessed us with a visit. Citizens of Cambridge, Cobourg and Calgary, Alber- ta conscientiously viewed Clarke. Delegates from Dearborn, Michigan and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia were dandy guests. Espanola, Etobico)ke, Eni n ore, Eniterprise, Edmnon SAlberta anid Ediniburgh, Scotland enideared us wýith their coîmmensts. Fans fromt Fraserville found us, as did... Guests from Grafton and Giold River, B.C-ý Hearty Hamiltonians, Hamptonians, Hastingers and Haydoners had a look. Inquisitive Israelies insisted on a visit. Jovial Jordainians and jokers from Janetville joined US. Kind couples from Kampen, Holland came as did keen kmn from Keene, Kendal and Kirby. Mississauga must have a municipal projeet to move tJteir mass of Mississaugians to the Museum plus the folks from Midland, Mount Forest and Mlford, Con.îcticnt Notables of Newcastlc anc1 Net:ýoniIe had notiois nouih 1ns of Itheir prse have the... One of a kind people from Omneemnee, Orono, Oshawva and Ottawa. Plenty of people payed us a caîl from Port Hope, Portage La Prairie, Maitoba, Port- smouth, lowýa and Palms, Michigan. Queenstonians haven't queried us as of yet. Resourceful Rosenieathers and Rexdalers lbave ret ureit, 11o our resource room Stately folks fromn Spaini, Shelbourne, St. Cadherines and Scolttsville New YOrk stayed for a w ic. ThIoughI'flthinkeýrs from Tyrone Tornto anid Tescel, HuIanîUtinikered ýwith the hands-on artifacts. Unfotunaelyno o'le has visitCd us <rom1Uru1uayor Vibrnt inland anid Vic- toria, B.C. hiave sent the MVuseum v\arious isiLors. Wi-e folks of Whitby, Wallaceburg, Windsor and Winnipeg, Manitoba were here. Exceptional gËuests from the mythical Xaniadau of Kubla Chun wve have not hiad. Yellowkiife bas yet to visit us from over yonder and we have had Zero folkçs from Zurich, Switzerland. Po'rt Hope wants VIA stop Armeid \ith a 900 namew pettion and the bamckinig oi Port Hopeconi tie1 arc seeking ai, dditional cs bound stop ior ,the 4-130 1tain. At the lpiCeseni lime VI A westfbound stoi- at P'oi Hope at 6 and 8:30)an whietees"îdsoca 8:30 and 1Io3 i By Jennifer Garland. Visit the Darlington Nuclear Gerierating Station and the first thing to impress you wHil be i t ss iC. Everything is big. By participating in a tour offered by Darlington Infor- mnation Centre staff, onie becomecs quickly aware of the overwh\Ieling s- -ize of this $1 I-billion projeet. *Accocring to Sue Stickley, Ontario Hydrho spokesmian, the informration' centre had approximatejy 2000 visitors in July alone.' "That's a big record for us."- Stickley says, adding, "Since January, we have had 5,804 people isit."I Anyon)ie who drops into the information centre is, offered a guided tour of the construc- tion site byv anI. Fact, figuires and in- teresting, anecdotes relatingL to the construction of' the sta- tion which began in 1977 miake the tour an interesting way to spend a few hours. For example, site prepara- tiQn for the construction pro- ject included remnoving the cliffs along- the lakeshore which ranged fromn 45 - 95 feet in height to allow the plant to be built on the fiat bedrock belowý. -It was about 8'A million cubic mnetres of earth that had to be remnovedi," says Hydro guide KarI Holliday, "That's the equiN alent of two football fields deep."- Hollida dlaimis that nmost tourists are concernied about thec saflet y in nuclear generating stations. "Many people have the at- titude that reactors explode", says Holliday, addîng, "Reactors can't explode. Ph ysically it's- impossible." A reactor explosion similar to that of an atomic bomb is niot a possible event, Holliday further explains. The station is fueled by natural uranium, the same as the natural u r a ni um found in the ground. In an atomic bomb, almost pure uranium is used, it must be of a precise shape and mutst be held together to formi a critical masýs. Neither of these conditions exist in a nuclear reactor, therefore, a reactor cannot explode like a bomlb. The second w ortcncerni people have is the risýk of a meltdown in a Canidu reac- tor, Holliday, says. "lt's %virualIv impossible to have a ieltdown," says Holliday, ,adding, "A imeltdown occurs when uraniuim heats up and melts together in a mass. This mass suiperhieats and begins to melt through e verything." For this to happen, ail coolinig agents would have to brecak down, buit the system is dcesignied to prevent tbis from haippenjingi," hie concluded. Thie worst thing that could happen is a radioactive steamn leak, but of course, we have a solution to that as wel"Holliday says. The site hias a vacuum con- tainmient building designied to mieet a hypothesized massive failure in the cooling piping circuit which would result in the release of high pressure steam. The increased pressure in the reactor buildings would cause the pressure relief valves, to open, thuis permit- ting the vacuumn to act on the reactor buildings. -Ontario Hydro is the only comipany in the world to build a vacuumn building," says Holliday, "The top) of the tank bias aý water tank and sprinkler system-. The falling water cools the stearn that turnis into water. lt's a reuseable safety device." The site is also the homne of the world's largest mobile crane. According to Holli- day, thlie crane was transported by ship to Canada. Upon its arrivai at Oshawa Harbour, it took over 60 tractor trailer loads to transport the crane to the Darlington site. Four mon- ths later, the crane was reass,,emblecd. It takes- 3 V2 miles of1 cable to run the crane that is used to lift the 400 ton boilers' into place. Just to mrake sure the crane doesn't tip over in thie-pro- cess, 800 tons of concrete are attached to the rear of the crane for stabilization. The information centre also has displays showing the progress of construction, what the station wiIl look like and how it will work, the uranium core of the four reactors, tritiumn, heavy water, work safety, and the history of hiydro.,These are ail available to the public dur- ing the Centre's hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Anyone who drops into the information centre is offered a guided tour of the construction site by v an. J 'MeFSIN 25% oOFF Regular Priced SUMMER STOCK Manufacturer's Clearance of WooI*- Bagged GREAT PRICES FLAVOURED Reg ular $1.95 2 oz. Now $1.00 2 oz.1