Question on available sensor... "metal on metal"

If the water's at 1,800ºF and a pressure seal fails, it'll 'clear' pretty quick.

It'll clear the whole BUILDING into a smoking crater.

That might be entertaining to watch, from a safe distance. do you think the 'hyper-steam⁽¹⁾' would form a mushroom cloud as it rises?

Notes:

1. I picked up the term from an old British 'Crack-pot inventor and various children go off on an adventure in one of his inventions' movie. I forget the name of the movie, but the term stuck, I use it for referring to 'superheated/high-pressure steam,' anything above 212ºF and/or 1 atmosphere of pressure⁽²⁾.
2. Fun fact, kids, you can make hypersteam at home⁽³⁾! just fill a heat-resistant glass container with water, put it in the microwave, and 'nuke' until all the water boils away. The steam inside the microwave is hotter than normal steam, since it could not get out and get away from the microwave radiation, so after the water boiled it just kept getting hotter, and hotter, and hotter...
3. Please note: you should NOT try this at home! No! Not under any circumstances, there is an extremely high risk of severe burns. Just because something CAN be done does not mean it SHOULD be done. It's like mixing ammonia and bleach; yes it is POSSIBLE to bring these two household chemicals together, but it should NEVER be done, it can KILL people.
   

I love this.

Why do we all feel compelled to tell how to do something very dangerous, and immediately say "NEVER do this"? That is definitely a common human trait. There must be a psychoanalysis term for this.

I mean, you KNOW someone is definitely going to try that, don't you?

Don't feel bad - I do the same thing.

Yes, I believe a mushroom cloud would form. That is not unique to A bombs. Many explosions create one, just not as long lasting or impressive as an A bomb.

As to the 'why I said that,' it was A) a case of my Mad Scientist side peaking out to sow chaos (ineffectively, I might add, this is not a site where I would EXPECT impressionable young kids to visit), and B) I've made microwaved hypersteam by accident several times, and in fact, it's likely that there are 'tv dinners' that end up producing 250-300ºF hypersteam by following the directions on the package, typically the ones that have PRODUCT WILL BE HOT as part of the cooking instructions.

As to the mushroom cloud comment, I'm well aware that any explosion with enough energy to create a thermal updraft will form the mushroom cloud shape. I was bringing that up just to lighten the mood. I've seen the Mythbusters episode on exploding water heaters⁽¹⁾, and when they had their thermocouple failure and had to abort the first test, with the water at a 'mere, 250-300 degrees, their exhaust pipe nearly rips off the rig from the force of the flash steam. Knowing that, and trying to visualize how much energy would be contained in water at 1,500 degrees and under such pressure that it's still liquid, and what would happen if there were a leak that allowed it to flash into steam, that was simply horrible to imagine, so I had to step back and make a snarky joke out of it, to protect what I jokingly call my sanity.

Notes:

1. A topic I took as common knowledge, before the invention of the T&P valve, defective water heaters in Chicago would rocket through a 2 story Brownstone⁽²⁾ and land several blocks away.
2. Built to Chicago Building Code, unlike the 'rickety shacks' the Mythbusters built according to CA codes for their show.

Yes, but I still wonder what that "Mad Scientist" tendency is called? I'm sure, since so many of us have that side to us, the shrinks have a term for it. I found a term for the questionable tendencies so many seem to have to build or stay in obvious disaster prone areas that came about from a post by Fredski showing houses on the edge of a cliff about to nose dive into the water. If that has a name, so does the mad scientist thing. Google hasn't found it for me yet.

I'm into these strange mental quirks, as I have a number of them and have found named diseases to describe all of them. My worst is misophonia. Check it out. And everyone thought I was just nuts when I told them to be quiet.

You need to figure how many cubic feet a known quantity of water will expand to when it becomes steam to get a grasp on the damage to be done if 1500 degree water lost containment. High pressure liquid doesn't scare me - high pressure gas does.

"Yes, but I still wonder what that "Mad Scientist" tendency is called?"

One description I've heard is SRMD: Science-Related Memetic Disorder. Symptoms can include:

• Maniacal laughter
• Excessive hand wringing
• Stylized and dramatic poses
• Poor volume control when excited
• Excessive use of bad puns and dark humor
• Altered mental states:
• Delusions of Grandeur
• Delusions of Competence
• Delusions of Schizophrenia When you think you're crazier than you really are.)
• Delusions of Sanity (When you THINK you're not crazy, but you really are.)

Of course, all this may be due to 'pop cultural osmosis.' After all, who in this country HASN'T seen at least one of the laughably bad B-list horror movies of the 60's, where Science! is the solution to, and the cause of, all of life's problems. Don't we all dream of being able to limb into a giant robot, and crush the boss' car underfoot? or tapdance on the local DMV until it is nothing but a pile of rubble? or pick up the entire home office of the IR and throw it into the ocean, then pick up that ocean and throw it into a star, then take that star and throw it into a black hole?

That's a perfect description of how John Astin played Dr. Gangrene. So the question we are asking is did the disorder precede the bad sci fi or did the bad sci fi create classic symptoms for the disorder. (chicken or the egg?) If the disorder was first, what real life scientist did the first sci fi writer, to use these traits for his fictional character, emulate? I always thought they were fictional.Very difficult to imagine someone being that way without the sci fi prompting.

I think I can add one more to my list now - Delusions of sanity.

I took the SRMD test on the internet - I'm infected. HA HA HA HA HA!

"or pick up the entire home office of the IR and throw it into the ocean, then pick up that ocean and throw it into a star, then take that star and throw it into a black hole?"

Pardon my typo, that was supposed to be IRS, not IR. then again, there are so few agencies that would warrant the level of reflexive, instinctual HATE needed for that type of response, that everyone who read it said to themselves, "Nobody would deserve that, except the Tax Man."

There's a reason the Senior Engineer suggested it: it works, and has withstood the test of time.

If he did not suggest any alternates, then that means that all viable 'alternates' are simply minor variations on the theme.

I can also see why you decided to ask anonymously: you didn't want him to know that you were polling semi-random yahoos, such as us, instead of trusting his judgement and experience. A person does not get the title of Senior Engineer without a few years and hundreds of projects under his belt. Such people need to be respected for the wisdom they bring to the plant, not second-guessed.