looks like the end of low water levels......

CliffA

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2009
4,712
Lake Norman, NC
Boat Info
2001 Sea Ray 340DA
Name: 'Happy Place'
4.5kW West. Generator
Purchased Nov. 2014
Fresh Water Use
Engines
Twin Merc. 6.2L (MPI)
640 hp (Total)
Raw Water Cooled
V-Drive Transmissions
if we get the rain here in the Carolinas they are predicting over the WE we may be close to getting normal lake water levels soon....

cliff
 
I went to the marina this morning to double check my dock lines the reports are calling for 30mph winds. The water level was noticeably higher than a week ago. If we get half the rain that is predicted LKN will be overflowing.
 
Mike I thought your "business" controlled the lake level?

We do, but when the rain stops, we can't be greedy. We are contractually obligated to release water down stream because Catawba NS needs water also!

The last drought we had here in the Carolinas, we were very close to having to shut down both plants because of water levels.
 
LKN is like someone turned on a faucet - the low point this year was 93.6 on 9/24/15 - we were loosing roughly 1inch / day. Guys at my marina said any day they would have to stop launching boats from the dry storage, the lift was already hitting the bottom. Today it's at 94.6. Other than getting close to not being able to get my boat in, the low water didn't really bother me - the regular bad spots were worse and a few new places to watch for, anyone who has spent any time on LKN should know the spots to be careful.

The one good thing is the support pole for my cockpit cover that I lost last summer (non this summer) popped up last week next to the gas dock, must have stuck straight into the bottom. Cleaned it up and good as new! Probably could have gone looking for my daughters iPhone, it's about 200ft north of the shoal marker in the middle of Little Creek (the first cove to the left going into Mountain Creek) I have appropriately renamed it iCove.
 
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The last drought we had here in the Carolinas, we were very close to having to shut down both plants because of water levels.

just curious....How do you shut down a nuclear power plant?..... thought it had to have water flowing through it at all times to keep the core cool....

cliff
 
We are keeping our fingers crossed for the "Godzilla El Niño" weather pattern the experts are predicting for this winter. Our lakes are turning into mud puddles, so we really need a wet winter and spring. If the rain comes, now we will have slide issues since half the state seems to be on fire or already burned...
 
just curious....How do you shut down a nuclear power plant?..... thought it had to have water flowing through it at all times to keep the core cool....

cliff

That I don't know, but the last time the lake was low at under 94ft they started talking about possible shutdowns and we were just at 93.6. I don't know the exact depth of the intakes, but 93ft seems to be close to the minimum operating level.
 
We are keeping our fingers crossed for the "Godzilla El Niño" weather pattern the experts are predicting for this winter. Our lakes are turning into mud puddles, so we really need a wet winter and spring. If the rain comes, now we will have slide issues since half the state seems to be on fire or already burned...

Not looking forward to seeing the aftermath of the fires and impending rains Ken. Good luck to everyone out there in Cali.
 
just curious....How do you shut down a nuclear power plant?..... thought it had to have water flowing through it at all times to keep the core cool....

cliff

You are correct Cliff, in the fact we need to have water flowing at all times to cool the core. Shutting down the plant means opening the breakers (no electric output), Stopping the turbine, and shutting down the reactor. An Operator would better explain the procedure, but basically control rods are inserted into the reactor and the fission process is interrupted, slowed so to speak. Of course the lake level at which the plant needs to be shut down is above low level suction...a level that is determined by a more qualified specialist than I. But and however, we do have a backup source of cooling water to manage cooling if the water level did go below low level.
You'll know we are in trouble if you see water trucks going in and out of the plant....maybe that's a bad joke.

We are all good...here comes the rain!
 
We were at the lake house last week and noticed that lake Murray was down about 2-3 feet from when we were there in mid June. We are are up in the Saluda basin. SCE&G posted yesterday that they were at 359 & we're going to open the gates in anticipation of all the rain. The 360 mark is the high point. Will see when we get back down in a couple of weeks. The toon will not get there until late Oct., can't wait.
 
LKN at 95.6. Not really sure what that means except its better than where we were a week ago. Maybe Mike can enlighten us.
 
Next weekend would be a good one for an overnight raft up. No Panthers game.....
 
I'll most likely still be working my outage Jim. We are wrapping up and beginning the start up process, but we don't have a good startup record. Once we get online, we tend to run breaker to breaker, but we'll have to see how it goes.
 
this morning I looked at the water levels for all the lakes on the Catawba - Wateree river basin and all are back to normal levels for this time of year which is around 97 - 98 feet.....Duke Power did a good job of managing the levels through the hard rains we had over the past few weeks...if the lakes would have been full before the rains we would of had a serious flood concern all up and down the river basin....we were lucky they were down several feet prior to the rains.....

cliff
 

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