[ RadSafe ] New Russian Power Reactor

Fri Nov 13 18:57:42 CST 2009

Well, this design must be superior to anything else, because it runs not on 
 weakling U-235, but mighty U-255!

Steve Frey, CHP

In a message dated 11/13/2009 7:09:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
blreider at aol.com writes:

Peter,

Yes it was Ignalina, outside Vilnius.  
http://www.iae.lt/inpp_en.asp?lang=1&subsub=9  Someone pointed out  Belarus across the lake.  

You do seem to know a lot about these  reactors.  I believe you are correct 
about containment although I don't  know much about the later generations 
or the fixes that were made.  I do  remember an article (pre-Chernobyl) in 
Nucleonics Week in which the Russians  said they didn't need containments and 
secondary safety systems as there had  been no bad power reactor accidents.

Barbara Reider,  CHP

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Bossew  <Peter.Bossew at reflex.at>
To: blreider at aol.com;  radsafe at radlab.nl
Cc: WesVanPelt at verizon.net
Sent: Fri, Nov 13, 2009  6:35 pm
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] New Russian Power  Reactor

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.

ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK 
(but there are some  inaccuracies in the article, I think. The dangerously
igh pos. void coeff.  was valid only for low power. To my knowlege the
BMKs have not been used  for mil. Pu production, because the SU had enough
rue Pu prod. reactors. In  the RBMK, designed as power reactors, this
ould be very uneconomical. As to  safety, the rudimentary containment,
alled confinement, can contain the  break of only a few pressure tubes,
ike 10 out of around 1670. Further  problematic points are lack of
edundancy and lack of separation of vital  components. - I would guess
hat the few RBMKs (11 reactors in 4 locations;  the 4 small units in
ilibino are rather harmless I think)  contribute  some 3/4 of the
umulated risk of all ca. 400 NPPs; this may have changed  after their
efurbishment, 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
orresponds ca. generation 2, acc. to OPB-82  standards, but with some
mprovements. Block 1 has been closed 2004, block 2  is supposed to close
nd of this year. This was a condition of the Eur. Un.  that Lithuania can
oin.
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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