If undetected, such abnormalities can lead to process downtime and in the worst case, accidents.
These designs are usually related to phenomena such as unfavorable switches in the flow regime, associated with extreme unsymmetrical pressure distributions around the silo wall, oscillations of the load, etc., which may cause failures or instabilities of silo structures, involving then high costs for the industry and, in the worst cases, accidents where human life may be endangered.
The worst-case accident would be enormous releases of radioactivity.
Why wouldn't a worst-case accident here merit the same caution?
Something approaching a worst-case accident at a nuclear plant, especially one in a highly populated area, would make the Deepwater Horizon disaster look like a walk in the park.
A nuclear core meltdown is considered the worst-case accident in a nuclear power plant.
Nuclear energy can be produced safely, as the technology is enough to minimize the risk of even the worst-case accident.
In "the worst-case accident scenarios" in which the control rods are missing without any damage in the reflector, the reactors became supercritical even in cases when thick reflectors are used.
The proposed analytic approach provides a conservative estimate of the worst-case accident scenario involving an instantaneous explosion of a large hydrogen mass leading to the formation of a shock wave.
But their predicted worst-case accident, called the "China Syndrome", did not eventuate.
Paul Blanch, a nuclear engineer who worked in the industry for 40 years as well as with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRCC), thinks a worst-case accident at Indian Point could make the region, including parts of Connecticut, uninhabitable for generations.
