4 ms·

China seems to be building next gen reactors in reasonable amounts of time.

whatshisface 3y ago
Let's check again in 50 years, after the safety systems have had time to deteriorate, and we've had Chinese Glasnost for a look into the archives from 2056. (The Soviet Union would have kept Chernobyl a secret if Sweden hadn't detected the radiation. If the accident had been limited to the boundaries of Ukraine, it might never have been revealed as long as the regime lasted.)
- rsynnott 3y ago
  Virtually all plants being built in China today are third-gen evolutions of proven second-gen PWRs, themselves very safe. Hiding a Chernobyl-scale nuclear disaster would be far more difficult today; even in China, total news blackouts are a lot more difficult to pull off than they used to be. And the designs in use are inherently a lot safer and more conservative than the RBMK type (which was really pretty innovative and impressive for the time, if you ignore the unfortunate tendency to explode, but certainly _not_ conservative).
  - YetAnotherNick 3y ago
    It doesn't have to be Chernobyl level which are unlikely. It could just be radioactive waste contamination in ground water or things like that.
- _visgean 3y ago
  > The Soviet Union would have kept Chernobyl a secret if Sweden hadn't detected the radiation they would try but it would leak one way or another. Simply too many people involved...
- pdonis 3y ago
  Chernobyl was not a result of safety systems deteriorating over a long period of operation. We have plenty of reactors in the world that have operated for decades and their safety systems still work just fine. Chernobyl was the result of an insane reactor design (positive void coefficient of reactivity and no secondary containment) which then had uncontrolled experiments run on it during operation. Nobody is going to repeat that bonehead move.
  - arcticbull 3y ago
    Fun fact, there were four reactors at Chernobyl. Only one - Unit 4 - was destroyed in the flagship incident. The other three were retrofitted after the incident and continued to produce power (relatively) safely for many years. Unit 2 was shut down in 1991 after a turbine fire. Unit 1 was decommissioned in 1996. Unit 3 was decommission in 2000 after the international community forced their hand in exchange for funding the New Safe Containment sarcophagus over Unit 4. I believe there are still 7 (retrofitted) RBMK reactors in use today. Kursk-3 and 4, Leningrad-3 and 4, and Smolensk 1-3. Last one won't be shut down until 2034.
  - carlmr 3y ago
    >Nobody is going to repeat that bonehead move. Maybe not that exact one, but curious humans continue to do boneheaded stuff.

Let's check again in 50 years, after the safety systems have had time to deteriorate, and we've had Chinese Glasnost for a look into the archives from 2056. (The Soviet Union would have kept Chernobyl a secret if Sweden hadn't detected the radiation. If the accident had been limited to the boundaries of Ukraine, it might never have been revealed as long as the regime lasted.)

rsynnott 3y ago
Virtually all plants being built in China today are third-gen evolutions of proven second-gen PWRs, themselves very safe. Hiding a Chernobyl-scale nuclear disaster would be far more difficult today; even in China, total news blackouts are a lot more difficult to pull off than they used to be. And the designs in use are inherently a lot safer and more conservative than the RBMK type (which was really pretty innovative and impressive for the time, if you ignore the unfortunate tendency to explode, but certainly _not_ conservative).
- YetAnotherNick 3y ago
  It doesn't have to be Chernobyl level which are unlikely. It could just be radioactive waste contamination in ground water or things like that.
_visgean 3y ago
> The Soviet Union would have kept Chernobyl a secret if Sweden hadn't detected the radiation they would try but it would leak one way or another. Simply too many people involved...
pdonis 3y ago
Chernobyl was not a result of safety systems deteriorating over a long period of operation. We have plenty of reactors in the world that have operated for decades and their safety systems still work just fine. Chernobyl was the result of an insane reactor design (positive void coefficient of reactivity and no secondary containment) which then had uncontrolled experiments run on it during operation. Nobody is going to repeat that bonehead move.
- arcticbull 3y ago
  Fun fact, there were four reactors at Chernobyl. Only one - Unit 4 - was destroyed in the flagship incident. The other three were retrofitted after the incident and continued to produce power (relatively) safely for many years. Unit 2 was shut down in 1991 after a turbine fire. Unit 1 was decommissioned in 1996. Unit 3 was decommission in 2000 after the international community forced their hand in exchange for funding the New Safe Containment sarcophagus over Unit 4. I believe there are still 7 (retrofitted) RBMK reactors in use today. Kursk-3 and 4, Leningrad-3 and 4, and Smolensk 1-3. Last one won't be shut down until 2034.
- carlmr 3y ago
  >Nobody is going to repeat that bonehead move. Maybe not that exact one, but curious humans continue to do boneheaded stuff.