As it turned out, the chlorine's used to add to water, like they do in swimming pools. The chilled water is part of the cooling system. This is the same kind of accident your local pool guy might have
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Apple's North Carolina Data Center Suffers Chlorine Leak, Injures 5 People
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As it turned out, the chlorine's used to add to water, like they do in swimming pools. The chilled water is part of the cooling system. This is the same kind of accident your local pool guy might have
I think what they both meant to say was that North Carolina is using Chlorine Gas on Apple Employees, at least 5 of them.
The only reason I'm making jokes is this line here:
So you also likely think that if the local branch of your bank burns down all your money is gone. It does not work like that. Data is likely replicated all of the world so even if an entire data center fails you can still get at your data.
In fact this is an example of how a company like Apple (or Amazon or Google) can be better at keeping data than most people. How many people would loose all their data if there was a house fire?
The data center isn't supposed to emit chlorine gas. You could also add that the fire emitted carbon dioxide.
So you know what Apple is using inside their data centres?
Since Apple uses fuel cells for energy storage, it seems very unlikely that they would use any zinc batteries. It doesn't make sense. You'd have solar power and a line to the normal power grid, supplying the primary fuel cells with energy, then you'd have a small set of fuel cells in case the connection to the primary cells breaks for any reason, and then diesel generators.
It would be even better if you spent your time growing fruit and vegetables in your garden, instead of walking to the supermarket for shopping, or heaven forbid, driving in your car to the supermarket!
depends on the severity of the injuries. these guys' lawyers are probably drooling at the prospect of suing the top company in the world.
so, could be more like $40-$50.
you spend a lot of time citing the media-fueled sensationalism in your head and stating them as fact. if you hate apple so much why do you spend most of every day here trying to bother people?
No, I said it's likely since backup batteries are VERY COMMON in data centers... I never said I "know". Geez, I think people here just want to be argumentative about every comment in some kind of competition to prove they are right and the other people are wrong. Obviously not everyone here works in a data center or understands what equipment is common. I was lending some insight since I do. It doesn't really matter if the power comes from the grid or solar panels, there are two types of contingencies in data centers. UPS units and diesel generators. The UPS takes over immediately when power is interrupted and gives the generators time to kick on and start working. The multiple data centers I've worked in have not used solar panels so I will entertain the idea that maybe their setup is different. For someone getting on me about "knowing" what's in Apple's data center, you sure seem to think you do. Clearly my suggestion made more sense than a swimming pool in the data center. And I'm not saying I know every piece of equipment that's out there but I've never heard of a "liquid cooled" data center as was suggested either.
Also, gasses emitted from backup batteries and/or battery explosions are a very real concern in data centers.
The chlorine will be used to kill Legionella bacteria in the cooling tower systems. It'll likely be a routine maintenance procedure they have to do to comply with legislation .
Chlorine gas is usually emitted when the chlorine based disinfectant (bleach) comes into contact with an acid. That's why kids swimming pools smell of chlorine, due the the acidic urine in the water.
There are always a few leaks before WWDC.Or that could just be their new way of marketing the WWDC event next week.
Lol, I wish every time I felt dizzy, I was reported "injured".
I'd spin around SO often for worker's comp. =P
Edit: Not discounting anybody's safety precautions & I'm very glad to hear that nobody was was injured... but it does remind me of when I worked at a Target Distrobution warehouse in Oregon. It was reported that there was a leak & when we evacuated to the parking lot, about a dozen or so people felt woozy enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. About an hour later it was confirmed that actually, the sensor reporting the leak was malfunctioning. There was indeed clean air & no leak whatsoever.
It's amazing what the power of suggestion can do.
I'd spin around SO often for worker's comp. =P
Edit: Not discounting anybody's safety precautions & I'm very glad to hear that nobody was was injured... but it does remind me of when I worked at a Target Distrobution warehouse in Oregon. It was reported that there was a leak & when we evacuated to the parking lot, about a dozen or so people felt woozy enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. About an hour later it was confirmed that actually, the sensor reporting the leak was malfunctioning. There was indeed clean air & no leak whatsoever.
It's amazing what the power of suggestion can do.
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Chlorine gas turns to Hydrochloric acid in your lungs. It's worth treating them as injured until confirmed otherwise. Walking into a cloud of fumes like that is more than just a bit dizzy, it's like being hit in the chest with a baseball bat and is very scary.
Apple has solar power, which obviously doesn't work at night, so they use massive amounts of fuel cells to store energy. That's widely published information. Fuel cells are just a different kind of battery, but one that doesn't use any chlorides. You use a UPS with batteries when you are supposed to get your energy from the outside, in case that energy stops. Apple has massive amounts of batteries in the form of fuel cells. Enough to run the data center all night. Not like a normal data center with UPS to run for five minutes until the Diesel generators kick in, but for 16 hours in the winter. It would be pointless to use another set of batteries using a different technology.
Google's datacentres use water cooling:
Apples datacentre has a bank of cooling towers along it's north side looking on Google earth. I'm obviously guessing, but it's very likely the chlorine was spilled during a sterilisation of part of this system, which is done to prevent Legionella.
I wish our DC had 5 minutes of battery time. They must have huge batteries and spend a fortune on battery backup power. They could probably save a fortune by having standby "warm" generators.
We get 18 seconds. Enough time for the standby generators to kick in and sync power.
Cool! I wasn't denying the existence or anything. Just hadn't heard about that technology. The DCs I've worked in and that I'm currently working in were/are not that advanced or large enough to require something of that magnitude. Always down for some knowledge about the industry.
@ gnasher729:
Not to be argumentative, but can you provide a link to the "widely published" information you're referring to? I'd like to know in more detail about how their DC is set up. I did know that they used solar power and whatnot but have not seen any kind of detailed specs that would actually give any of us an intimate knowledge of what all exactly they are using.
@ unplugme71:
18 seconds sucks... Good lord! Are you guys using the power strip UPS' that are designed for consumers? Our large data center uses 2 UPS units that are roughly the size of a large dumpster and contains about 40+ car sized batteries and each unit will provide about 30-50 mins.
I absolutely COMPLETELY agree.
I just think the the title of the article is sensationalistic, since it turns out they were fine.
Five people were NOT injured. Rather, five people took a reasonable precaution & went to the hospital to confirm lack of injury. The title is quite misleading.