The coming storm.....

Guit, If you look at the Peer Reviewed Papers by the EggHeads in Academia, You will get the Governments, view. HOWEVER, remember these are Academic Engineers, and NOT Practicing Licensed Professional Engineers, with years of experience in designing, and supervising installation, of the Major Generating and Transmission Systems on our National Grid. These Professors of electrical engineering rarely have a PE Stamp, and have NEVER actually practiced the business of Electrical Engineering. I take my information on this subject, from folks who actually have WORKED in the Field, rather than some Yahoo, who Teaches in an Ivory Tower, and has NEVER gotten his hands "Dirty" in the Field. ...... YMMV....

 

I would not want to bet that the EEs (or any other discipline) in academia don't have PE licenses. PEs are obliged to practice in their own areas of expertise, not to meddle in areas that we know nothing about. (Nothing says we can't expand our expertise if we choose to do so, but we better KNOW what we are doing before using the talent lately acquired.)

The ivory tower occupants are in all probability experts (and licensed) in their narrow areas of interest and practicing appropriately. The whole idea of a pole shift and its results are academic exercises, with little to go on for corrective/preventive design bases. All these post polar shift design studies come from some sort of focused, narrow scope, hypothetical event. If the solution comes with the hypothetical results of the event, one might mitigate the impact from the hypothetical event. Right at that point, practicality enters the picture; who gets to fund building the spare transformers? These things are a mite larger than your 120/6 volt doorbell transformer, so where do you put them and what must the shielded vault look like?

And so on ad absurdum.

 

Nuke Plants have backup Gensets, with the fuel to run them that can produce ALL the Required power to run the Cooling Pumps, should they lose the Grid Connection. This is REQUIRED in the design of the System by the NRC. The issue at Fukashema was, the Gensets were operating normally, and ALL the Operating Reactors were Scrammed. (In Plant Cooling Only Mode) after the Quake, and before the Tsunami hit. When that happened, the Gensets went underwater, with all their associated SwitchGear, which basically destroyed them. The Cooling Pumps were then operating on Battery Backup, which was only designed for a very Limited Runtime. With the Grid Out, (wires, and towers down) and the Gensets DEAD, there was no way to get power to the Cooling Pumps once the Battery Banks died. That is when things went south for the Hot Reactors. Cooling Ponds that were breached by the Earthquake, and subsequent Hydrogen Explosions, are another issue, altogether....

 

Well, they are all diesel, and (IIRC) there is supposed to be enough fuel on site to run them for 30(?) days without resupply to keep various auxiliary cooling pumps (and other stuff like fire pumps) alive and well. I'd guess that if no one can get there for service, there won't be much need for the power, and few left that will care.
FWIW, Fukushima may have had enough battery to run the main coolant pumps (or any other pumps for that matter) but that would be very uncommon. Battery backup is usually reserved for critical instrumentation and to start the gensets only. The generators are sized to supply enough power to get the plant on line (from a cold start) and supply itself absent the grid tie. They are not intended, and cannot supply the power that the commercial plant itself will (obviously.) That said, the gennies are typically big honkin plants themselves. I've worked on some that were 2 Mwe output, and there were 4 of those monsters at the plant. (Any pair to do the work, and two for backup.)

 

Ghrit, I wasn't going to take your bet, either. It has been my experience that Academic Engineering Professors do NOT have PE Stamps. I have asked every one I came across, and the only one I ever found was the Department Head of the Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering School, that I went to as an UnderGrad. He was a reTIRED Chemical Engineer, that did all the Design, and supervised the building, of a Major Oil Companies Refineries, here in the USA, back just before, and during, WWII. None of the MANY Professors of Engineering, I have every run across, were PEs, including my Best Friend, and Partner, George, who has a PHD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington. He has never worked for anyone, but himself, since he graduated. He has never advertised his services. All his Consulting has come to him, thru "Word of Mouth" This is very typical for the very top of the Phd Engineers, from what I see. They consult, and come up with the BrainFarts, that lesser Engineers, turn into Products, and services. George does the Designs, and prototypes, and then turns those over to PE'ed Engineers like my Brother, that then take the basic designs to the Marketplace. He has done this with 5 of the products that my Brothers firm, markets to other Engineering firms, worldwide. My BIL is a PE in AeroNautical Engineering, also from the UofW, and NONE of his Professors were PEs. Professors teach the theory of the designs, and the math that backs up, those theories, but they rarely are called on to actually Certify a Design for Regulators. ..... YMMV.....

 

EMP is defined as a "WideBandwidth Emission" as is a Lightning Strike. A CME, hitting the Magnetic Bubble that surrounds the Earth, causes a totally different influx of energy, into common Electrical Systems. The two, can cause the same results, but by totally different actions, and entry points. This is why when you read, or hear "Talking Heads" that lump the two together, you basically can IGNORE their BS, because they, obviously, do NOT understand the Physics, or Technology, they are talking about. ..... YMMV....

 

OK, gents, I'll defer to your more recent experience with the profs, at least under current regulations. The same will not necessarily be true for MEs and yes, there is time in service (experience under a PE and signed off by him) requirements for us before taking the exams. All of my profs were registered that taught 300 level and above courses at my school.

FWIW, I sat for the exams with a ChemE that was taking the test for the 7th time. Maybe it's genetic ---. Also, my registration is not limited to a discipline, I took the exam for PE, which at the time in that state was not discipline specific, thus I could practice if I was nuts enough, in any for which a seal was required. I ain't now, and wasn't then that stupid. Since some time after that, the state does certify by discipline.

BT, your guys can make a good living as have, but they cannot seal designs without registration. It is quite common for designs to be done by people that know what they are doing and be sealed by a supervisor that knows the subject. There are legal and ethical requirements for sealing designs that can't be met without the license. Typically, you're right, the academics theorize and conceptualize things, and working PEs do the details and seal them.