Plant protection from weather conditions

The transportation and delivery of the hot mix asphalts from the plant to the paver are carried out with haul trucks, which should be insulated and sheeted (use of tarps) to prevent heat loss and to protect the hot asphalt from bad weather conditions (mainly rain, winds and low air temperatures). Additionally, the floor and the walls of the haul trucks must always be clean and free of foreign materials to avoid intermingling and contamination, and flat and free of dimples. 

The enclosure or casing of the machine needs to withstand the ingress of liquids and dust that become present at oil industry sites. For outdoor locations the enviromnent can range from cold and stormy marine conditions to hot and dry desert conditions. In offshore locations the machines are usually, but not always, placed indoors in a room or module. This protects them from heavy rain and saltwater spray. Even inside the room or module they need to withstand firewater spray, if used, and hosing down with water. The environment in land-based plants can also be hostile and the machine needs protection against ingress from, for example, coastal weather, desert sand storms, smoke pollution. 

This result points out two concerns. First, typically, only one local meteorological tower is in the site vicinity. The initial transport of radioactive material from a site after it is released to the atmosphere will be dominated by local conditions (e.g., hills, valleys, lakes, and precipitation). This single source of weather and wind information cannot give a definitive indication of winds away from the plant. Nuclear power plants are typically located in very complex areas (e.g., in river valleys or on the coast) where wind direction and flows can vary considerably within a short distance of the plant. As an example, a 180 difference in wind direction could result from sea breeze effects at a coastal site. This is the basis for taking protective actions in all directions near (within 2 or 3 miles of the plant). The events that occurred early in the TMI-2 incident, as discussed in Section 5.2.6, further illustrate the problems inherent in taking protective actions only in the downwind direction. 

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