An excerpt from an NRC document (
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/teachers/04.pdf ) describing Boiling Water Reactors:
"The major components of a reactor coolant pump (page 4-16) are the motor, the hydraulic section, and the seal package.
The motor is a large, air cooled, electric motor. The horsepower rating of the motor will be from 6,000 to 10,000 horsepower. This large amount of power is needed in order to provide the necessary flow of coolant for heat removal (approximately 100,000 gallons per minute per pump)."
Does anyone know how much water a fire truck can pump per minute? Because, I'm guessing that fire trucks are what they are using to pour sea water into the reactors.
Of course, they can just let the sea water boil. Under normal circumstances, the pumps circulate the coolant to a heat exchanger in a closed cycle.
But, wow, that's a shitload of cooling required. Also, not clear how many coolant pumps per reactor. (The document makes a point of saying "per pump".)
no wonder they're over heating,thats some scary shit
