[micks56]

Former steam valve monitoring engineer here.

The motivation for moving from "per valve" to "total for all valves" was cost savings in monitoring. There are thousands of these in plants. Operators didn't want to have to check each one individually, so they got the rule changed to a total measurement.

To actually measure they "randomly" sample their valves, monitor, and then extrapolate to the rest. I say "randomly" because the best ones get checked repeatedly.

The steam valves are designed with pressure relief valves. When pressure exceeds a specified limit, the release is opened to the atmosphere.

Increasing releases is a symptom of other issues in a plant, some very dangerous and some just a reflection on increased utilization.

Example of what happens when steam goes wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_New_York_City_steam_explos...

[oasisbob]

Former steam valve monitoring engineer here.

Out of curiosity, how did you go from nuclear engineer to being a lawyer? Or was the transition the other way around?

Genuinely curious.

[micks56]

I have a BS/MS in Electrical & Computer Engineering. For a while I designed/manufactured sensor systems. Our customers were nuclear plants, oil refineries, chemical plants, etc. My company had a line of products that monitored steam valves, among other systems.

For a bunch of reasons I decided to go back to law school and added that skill.

So now I operate at the intersection of law, management/operations, and engineering for small companies. So far it is working out as a good niche.