[ RadSafe ] New Russian Power Reactor

[Peter Bossew]

blreider at aol.com writes:
>Wes, et al:
>
>Thanks for posting these pics.  I loved the pic of the wall of gauges.  

They indicate the level of insertion of control elements. 
>
>
>Although not a rector HP, during the course of my career I have been to
>many plants of different kinds in various countries, PWR, BWR, HTGR,
>graphite core, swimming pool, small research...  I believe these are
>graphite block reactors, technology same as Chernobyl as Peter said.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK 

(but there are some inaccuracies in the article, I think. The dangerously
high pos. void coeff. was valid only for low power. To my knowlege the
RBMKs have not been used for mil. Pu production, because the SU had enough
true Pu prod. reactors. In the RBMK, designed as power reactors, this
would be very uneconomical. As to safety, the rudimentary containment,
called confinement, can contain the break of only a few pressure tubes,
like 10 out of around 1670. Further problematic points are lack of
redundancy and lack of separation of vital components. - I would guess
that the few RBMKs (11 reactors in 4 locations; the 4 small units in
Bilibino are rather harmless I think)  contribute some 3/4 of the
cumulated risk of all ca. 400 NPPs; this may have changed after their
refurbishment, however.)


>  I was in a similar nuke plant in Lithuania in about 1990.

This is Ignalina, 2 blocks of 1500 MWe, the largest version so far. It
corresponds ca. generation 2, acc. to OPB-82 standards, but with some
improvements. Block 1 has been closed 2004, block 2 is supposed to close
end of this year. This was a condition of the Eur. Un. that Lithuania can
join.

Peter



>  It was not quite so clean looking as this, I think due to ugly foam
>that looked like after the fact fire added protection or insulation.  I
>didn't see the reactor core area.    Not everyone going into the reactor
>I went into was given individual monitoring, but the Russian scientists
>working there had TLDs.  
>
>The reason the pond has great fishing is probably because it is not
>reserve water but they are releasing their secondary side coolant water
>in the pond.  I had heard from the workers at the plant that I visited
>that the secondary side water was used to heat the town - indeed I found
>it quite warm temperature wise in the hotel!
>
>Would love to see more people's input about pics.
>
>Barbara Reider, CHP
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Peter Bossew <Peter.Bossew at reflex.at>
>To: WesVanPelt at verizon.net; radsafe at radlab.nl
>Sent: Fri, Nov 13, 2009 3:42 am
>Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] New Russian Power Reactor
>
>
>
>Wes
>"fairly new"....   this is a typical RBMK-1000, of which they have 2 of
>eneration 2 (=Chernobyl 3+4)(pic. 1) and one of generation 3 in Smolensk.
>ll definitively obsolete technology.
>he pictures seem to be taken in unit 1 or 2, according to the design,
>hich I know from Chernobyl. On picture 28, panel 1T, you can see the
>in)famous AZ5 button (the red one under the protective cover)(I think at
>east).
>n pic. 40 you can see the flow scheme of the primary loop quite well.
>ote the four drum steam separators; the red lines (labelled "par na TG")
>ead to the turbines. Lower left and right you see the feedwater pumps, of
>hich the engine heads are shown in pics. 16 and 17.
> find pic. 39 particularly interesting, this seems to be a relatively new
>eature (I haven't seen it so far). The curve on the left side seems to be
>he axial power distribution, while the big graph (a layout of the reactor
>ore) seems to display enrichment. 
>ote also the fuel changing machine, pics. 19 and 23, which allows
>efuelling during operation.
>
>eter
>
>"Wes" <WesVanPelt at verizon.net> writes:
>Radsafers,
>I came across this web site with dozens of pictures of a fairly new
>Russian
>nuclear power reactor. The author is clearly not highly skilled in nuclear
>technology, but has taken some spectacular inside pictures.
>
>http://englishrussia.com/?p=2660 
>
>Can the power reactor types on Radsafe compare and contrast this site with
>US and other power reactors? I was impressed with how clean it seems.
>
>Best regards,  Wes
>Wesley R. Van Pelt, PhD, CIH, CHP 
>Wesley R. Van Pelt Associates, Inc.  
> 
>
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