RE: Russian lawmakers authorize Putin to use military force outside the country, Part II
08-10-2024, 06:14 PM
08-10-2024, 06:14 PM
I see some people concerned about the thoughts of fighting in the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant
Kursk is an RBMK-type plant, similar to Ignalina in Lithuania or Smolensk.
As it is, the RBMK-type reactor is quite capable of looking after itself in the event of a loss of outside power. This was tested on an RBMK similar to those in Kursk in 1986 and the concept was proven. (Subsequent occurrences being moot to the success of the test )
The station can either power itself using its own reactors at minimum controllable power, or start the emergency diesels and run happily off them until the fuel runs out. The RBMK reactor *may* be able to passively cool at that point once the decay heat drops after a few days but I've not read up on it in a while.
The reactor core itself is protected from three sides by concrete and machinery - and it would take a steep drop with a shell from the top to hit the reactor hall proper, with the reactor itself living beneath. It'd be some bullseye to hit the reactor with anything - and even then, the active-zone proper lives below a 2 meter thick steel and concrete lid - which itself is several meters below the floor deck of the reactor hall.
Even in the event of damage to the reactor steam lines, the auxiliary cooling pumps can pull fresh water up from the bubbler pools beneath the core and run it through the damaged water circuits - with any that doesn't boil off draining back down to the bubbler pools.
Cracking the core lid and opening it to atmosphere can only happen if the steam lines inside the reactor vessel proper rupture - you'd need a somewhere above ten of them to fail to overwhelm the reactor vessel venting system. When that happens it'll lift the lid and crack the remaining steamlines. With the core shut down and the control rods in the stack it'll just boil dry and slag itself into the pools in the basement. But this is unlikely.
An RBMK reactor can't explode. Again
Kursk is an RBMK-type plant, similar to Ignalina in Lithuania or Smolensk.
As it is, the RBMK-type reactor is quite capable of looking after itself in the event of a loss of outside power. This was tested on an RBMK similar to those in Kursk in 1986 and the concept was proven. (Subsequent occurrences being moot to the success of the test )
The station can either power itself using its own reactors at minimum controllable power, or start the emergency diesels and run happily off them until the fuel runs out. The RBMK reactor *may* be able to passively cool at that point once the decay heat drops after a few days but I've not read up on it in a while.
The reactor core itself is protected from three sides by concrete and machinery - and it would take a steep drop with a shell from the top to hit the reactor hall proper, with the reactor itself living beneath. It'd be some bullseye to hit the reactor with anything - and even then, the active-zone proper lives below a 2 meter thick steel and concrete lid - which itself is several meters below the floor deck of the reactor hall.
Even in the event of damage to the reactor steam lines, the auxiliary cooling pumps can pull fresh water up from the bubbler pools beneath the core and run it through the damaged water circuits - with any that doesn't boil off draining back down to the bubbler pools.
Cracking the core lid and opening it to atmosphere can only happen if the steam lines inside the reactor vessel proper rupture - you'd need a somewhere above ten of them to fail to overwhelm the reactor vessel venting system. When that happens it'll lift the lid and crack the remaining steamlines. With the core shut down and the control rods in the stack it'll just boil dry and slag itself into the pools in the basement. But this is unlikely.
An RBMK reactor can't explode. Again
I love the smell of rotaries in the morning. You know one time, I got to work early, before the rush hour. I walked through the empty carpark, I didn't see one bloody Prius or Golf. And that smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole carpark, smelled like.... ....speed.
One day they're going to ban them.