"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 19 Jan 2020 14:50:11 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 19/01/2020 13:37, Chris Hogg wrote:

To power the UK for a day, just on electricity, in winter, takes about
24 hours at an average of 35Gw

= 840GWh

In terms of nuclear warheads, that is 722 kilotons. 50 Hiroshimas.


Would you rather live:

(a) near a nuclear power station that cannot explode, only melt down
inside a safe containment vessel?
(b) near a megaton explosion capable hydrogen store?

Note: a megaton explosion takes out about 100 sq km absolutely.

The explosive hazard of hydrogen is often advanced as a reason for not
going down that route, the Hindenburg disaster being often quoted.
Personally, I think the danger of such an explosion is grossly
exaggerated - all forms of flammable gas are explosive when mixed with
air in the appropriate proportions. OK, so the range of explosive
mixtures of hydrogen with air (18 - 60%, or so I read) is greater than
for most other flammable gasses, but hydrogen is lighter than air and
rises quite fast when released. The burning hydrogen from the
Hindenburg went upwards and there was no actual explosion as such. You
might get a massive and very hot fire from a hydrogen storage
facility, but I doubt there would be an explosion. But I'm no expert;
how many of the old 'gasometers' actually exploded?

I'd be much more worried by a massive Li-based battery nearby, than a
hydrogen storage facility.

Those don't explode either, just burn and are hard to put out.