[time-nuts] Re: Power line timing -- setting a clock

[Peter Reilley]

On 3/24/2024 2:01 PM, Hal Murray via time-nuts wrote:
>
> GEO Badger said:
>> People were happy to have power. Though as was stated before, very
>> out-of-sync- will destroy a generator.
> I can picture that sort of disaster, probably because somebody told me about
> it when I was young and had a good imagination.  The idea stuck in my head has
> the housing, including the concrete pad, neatly turned sideways, rotating 90
> degrees around the main shaft connecting the turbine to the generator.
>
> When was the last recorded disaster of that nature?  Any writeup?  (or photos
> or video
I was part of the crew that worked on the wreck of the turbine at the
first nuclear plant at Shippingport Pa back in 1974.   One of the turbine
disks split in half while the turbine was running at speed.   The turbine
casing held but the bolts that stitched the two casing halves together
stretched and some broke.   The reactor was not affected.

Large steam turbines and their generators are mounted on a steel structure
that is separate from the power plant building.   There is generally about
an inch gap in the floor between the turbine support and the building
structure.   This is to separate the vibrations of the turbine from the 
building.
Shippingport was completed in 1957 and the turbine support was made
using rivets and steel beams like old bridges.

When the turbine let loose it shook the mounting structure so hard that
the rivets moved around so much that they pealed off 1/4 inch of the paint
around them.   I was impressed!