3 ms·
The reactor is difficult to turn off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa-class_submarine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa-class_submarine >The issue was tha
by minikites 7y ago
The reactor is difficult to turn off:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa-class_submarine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa-class_submarine
>The issue was that the lead/bismuth eutectic solution solidifies at 125 °C (257 °F). If it ever hardened, it would be impossible to restart the reactor, since the fuel assemblies would be frozen in the solidified coolant. Thus, whenever the reactor is shut down, the liquid coolant must be heated externally with superheated steam.
- Florin_Andrei 7y agoWell, sounds like it's difficult to restart actually.
- corporate_shi11 7y agoWhich makes it difficult to turn off if you would like to restart it.
- postingFourFast 7y agoWhich doesn't matter in the most important scenario: a crisis.
- makomk 7y agoYeah, those Soviet lead-bismuth reactors were basically single-use devices - once they ran out of fuel, they were useless and had to be replaced with a new reactor. I don't think Russia had any plans on how to safely decommission and dispose of them at the end of their life either.
- mechhacker 7y agoIf you're interested in a more modern Russian lead reactor, check out: https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/49/085/49085788.pdf https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/... They also have a lot of recent experience with sodium fast reactors, of which the BN-600 is still running, BN-800 is running (and was started within the past 2 years), but the BN-1200 is delayed: http://fissilematerials.org/blog/2019/08/the_construction_of_the_b.html http://fissilematerials.org/blog/2019/08/the_construction_of...
- pfdietz 7y agoAnd the presence of bismuth means the coolant becomes contaminated with polonium, a very nasty alpha emitter.