This morning I got up early and flew to the Trojan power plant site, to watch the demolition of the 500' cooling tower. The FAA set up a TFR of 1 mile radius, so I flew about 2 miles out. There were a number of other planes and helicopters around, but not as many as I would have thought. Maybe the 0700 time had something to do with that. As I was approaching the site, I listened to ATC, and they said there was something like "18 flying vehicles" near Trojan, but I only counted six besides me. There were dozens of boats on the river, but the river was closed about two miles up and down stream.


The pictures I posted in my album are pretty crappy, but they show the before and after of it. What I did not catch on film was the bright red flashes of the charges as they were sequenced. The paper said there were 3000 charges set. I could see they were set in circles around the tower at several different heights. Also, some vertical columns were apparent. The paper predicted the tower would fall in about fourteen seconds, but I bet it didn't last 5. The tower disappeared in dust very quickly. The demolition started right on time.

tom

Tom-

That is funny, I was just reading cnn.com about the tower demolition, and then you posted your photos. Your photos are fine.

1 mi TFR seems pretty tame. I guess they just don't want people flying really close to get some fantastic shots and then get taken out by shrapnel.

Saw the demo on the TV news this morning. Pretty impressive results. I was able to see the sequncing of the exposives charges as they went off.
Was that plant ever in operation (unlike it's "woops" kinfolk to the north)? I understand that the woops nuclear plant site at Elma was finally turned into a business park &/or manufacturing center a couple years ago.
For those that don't know, "woops" as used above is actually WPPSS (or something similar), abbreviated from Washington Public Power something something. These were several powerplants that were partially built back about 20 years ago, but never completed &/or put into operation due to being only partially funded by construction bonds. This was all before I moved to the pacific northwest, so I may not have the details right, but let's just say it was another publicly-funded government boondoggle.

Eric

Yes, Trojan was in operation. It was run by Portland General Electric. After it was decomissioned, the reactor core was shipped up the Columbia by barge to be stored at Hanford.

I wonder why the plant was decommissioned? I guess it's maybe a controversial subject (oh no!), but it seems to me that nuclear powerplants are probably the way to go. No air pollution/ozone degradation or non-renewable resource issues like oil/coal burning plants, no habitat issues (salmon migration, etc) like hydro plants aka dams. Only the small matter of safety: contaminated water/soil, etc.
California 's had nuclear powerplants for years with few problems that I'm aware of.

Eric

I don't remember the reasons. It was decomissioned in about 1993 or 94. I think it might have been partially for public relations and partially for business reasons. It is all a matter of risk. Granted, I can only really think of two nuclear accidents (or incidents): Chernobl and 3-mile Island. So, they don't have many problems but when they do....it's not a small thing.