Tubes

I can't wait for someone who is familiar with this type of machinery to tell us about this. It's very interesting looking.

I was just thinking the same thing, Lynne. There's alway someone who can tell us!

This a condenser unit. After the hot steam blasts through the turbine, its circulated through those tubes and the steam condenses back into water only to be super-heated and turned into steam again. There is a a plate that has been removed from teh front

Cool! Thanks!

Well done, RedDragon!

One small thing of note tho - in actuality the steam would be vented around the tubes - the tubes would carry the cooling water.

Thanks for the info, it helps with these pics.

Yes thanks for the info both of you! :-)

(1043pm) It's really cool to hear how these monster machine work....And nice to see MY initial up there, too.... ; > )

Interesting that there faceplate was removed.

I'm curious as to what precipitated the closure of this plant. Was it mere age (inefficient) or were there significant failures just around the corner. I see several places in the plant where covers to the firechests are removed, this isn't an asbestos abatement issue.

Somewhere in this building the cover to this boiler must be sitting.

Probably nothing at all wrong with this place. No doubt they closed it to build something new.

The fact that the end plate has been removed tells us something of its demise. They probably opened it for maintenance inspection and found that it was time to replace the 1000's of corroded high-pressure steam pipes. After figuring out what that would cost, they just walked away from it without even putting it back together.

This is not a condenser. It is part of the boiler assembly. Those are not tubes sticking out, they are tie rods for the missing plates.The rods supported the plates from bulging outward while under pressure. You can see from the picture titled Cross Sectioned, that this unit sits directly below the turbine. And from the picture titled Scale that this is the backend of the boiler.

These pictures are wonderful. It is rather sad this little piece of history has been allowed to degrade into it's current state.

Its a condensor. River water flowed through all the small holes.(tubes) Steam passed over the tubes and was condensed back into wtare to be put through a boiler. The boiler (not shown) would feed steam to the turbine and as it dropped in pressure it would condense into water.

Only the shadow knows? I'll make a layman's guess. I don't see the facilities for a burner or the entrance for a fuel, nor does it seem to be insulated like a boiler. Plus, it's proximity directly under the turbine would make a boiler location create a living hell in that area. I vote condensor, and a very massive and cool assembly!

I agree that the end plate missing indicates an insepction took place. Givin the facilities age, level of efficiency, and cost to replace or repair such a massive assembly, a closure was likely suggested.

Fantastic photos, thanks Motts! I wish I could see too, I'm jealous! :o)

The "Tubes" are actually condenser tubes. As the steam goes through the turbine, it runs down through the tubes with contain cool water, thereby cooling the steam back to water.

Reminds me of the "flew tubes" in an old steam railroad engine.. Hot gases go through them to produce more heat in the water .... which turns into steam....

Sorry to ruin you're fun but where are the holes in the ends of the tubes? I just see bolts sticking out of the ends of them.

I have to disagree with kevlar. This looks like some sort of condenser or heat exchanger. Cool water (usually river or sea water) would be pumped through those thousands of tubes (they look like holes, but they are actually tubes probably 20' long with another waterbox on the other side like the one you're looking at.) at an astounding rate, probably approaching 1000 gallons a second, while the steam would flow around the tubes and condense back into water. Normally there would be a giant plate on the end with a bunch of hatches in it. (seen in one of the other pictures.) On a regular basis, the condenser would be taken out of service, and workers would climb through the hatches to clean the tubes. They'd be loaded with thousands of little brushes and shot through with high pressure air and water. The reason the whole cover would be taken off is for tube replacements. If one of those tubes carrying sea water leaked and let salt water or debris into the turbine, it could be destroyed.

For everyone asking where the tubes are, that whole inside wall you see with all the holes in it, well all those holes are tubes about 1" in diameter. The big poles sticking out are what the cover would be bolted onto. (notice they are flush with the outside edge.)

This is the condenser. CS is correct.

What you see is part of the condenser or a heat exchanger that is part of the condenser. The boilers themselves would have been further away from the turbine and the generator, with large main steam lines running to the turbine itself, spinning the turbine, and the turbine spinning the generator to create electricity.

Sorry Kevlar but it's a condenser as most people here have stated and it's not normally under pressure.
There is a slight vacuum (not accurate term), slightly less pressure than atmosphere pressure at sea level.
It's like the steam is almost sucked from the turbines Low Pressure final stages.
It's a closed loop system. Most nuclear power stations use the same system today, only the difference is a nuclear reactor boils the water, though there are different ways to make steam from nuclear reactors. And as already stated the water from the condenser is pumped back into the boilers in another part of the building to be converted back into steam to feed the turbine.

I could be wrong, but as far as I know, those pipes would move water through the boiler, and by thew time water had passed all the way threw, it would be heated to steam. I think.

Those tubes are too small to be those of a boiler. They are condenser tubes. What you are seeing here is the waterbox where the cooling water enters or leaves. The steam to be cooled would be on the other side of those tubes and tube sheets.

Hmmmm they opened this to find the entrance to were in this Portal ?

Maybe thats why they closed the Portal so quickly , till the rust opens it again .....

Yes, it is a condenser to draw steam off the turbine. Its unlikely that tube failures would be the cause of shutdown however, the replacing tubes is relatively inexpensive. More than likely the station's low efficiency was no longer worth the expense of staffing, fuel costs, etc. There are newer plants that have been mothballed or shutdown for just those reasons.

Looks like something from "Lost in Space".

It most certainly is a condenser. I was a nuclear mechanic on a submarine, and our steam propulsion and electrical generation worked on the same principle. Steam exhausts from the bottom of the turbine down into the condenser, and yes, there is a slight vacuum in the condenser, due to the steam condensing. What we see in this photo is the interior of one of the condenser heads, and as was stated above, all of those tiny holes in the wall at the back are condenser tubes, and the condensing steam passes around them.

Cs is right , those are stay bolts for the doors on the suface condenser , under the turbine-generator unit. I have worked in a power plant for the last 28 years and hope to be here a few more years before retiring. You are probably looking at the rear of the condenser, and the shot that you saw with the man in it was the front side of this unit.