Russia To Produce Electricity with Former Nukes

[xchrom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/energy-from-the-bomb-russia-to-produce-electricity-with-former-nukes-a-854318.html



A billboard with a picture of smiling children heralds the arrival of a new nuclear age. "Zarechny -- Our Nuclear City" is the sign that greets drivers entering this town 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the Russian city of Yekaterinburg along a country road through a wooded landscape.

Flowerbeds line the streets of Zarechny. There is a fresh wreath laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the town square draws children with its moon bounces and carousels. The only major street in this city of 30,000 forms a straight line leading to the premises of Beloyarsk, the nuclear power plant that has been providing crisis-proof jobs for local residents for over half a century.
Russia is proud of Beloyarsk. The plant's third unit is a "fast reactor," a reactor type that's similar to the infamous "fast breeder reactor." Following various spectacular breakdowns, nearly every country on Earth considers this technology barely controllable. Yet this small 600-megawatt reactor in the woods of the Urals has been generating power for 32 years, and has done so largely without event. It's currently the only commercial fast reactor online at full capacity anywhere in the world.

Now a fourth unit is being built in Beloyarsk, also a fast reactor. It's a facility with global political significance: Beloyarsk 4 is being built in the service of global peace. On July 13, 2011, a treaty between Russia and the United States came into effect, one that US President Barack Obama praised as a step toward making the world "safer and more secure." Under the Plutonium Management and Disposition Treaty, the two nuclear superpowers resolved to destroy 68 metric tons of plutonium, enough to fill 17,000 nuclear warheads. Obama declared that the plutonium could be used to generate power for people in both countires.

[FBaggins]

1. Swords to plowshares

Gotta love it... And that 600 MWs is called "small".

[bananas]

8. Wow - people are bugging out

<snip>

Without being asked, he begins to tell stories of defective components, cheap equipment and a schedule that is far too tight. "Purely because of the time shortage, many things are being assembled in a makeshift way," he says. "Launching operations at a nuclear reactor that's been built that way is enough to teach you the true meaning of fear."

<snip>

Yevgeny's mobile phone rings --dinner is ready and they're waiting for him at home. He turns his Toyota around and steps the gas. He then explains that colleagues and superiors of many years have been leaving the BN-800 project in recent weeks. Their vacated positions, he says, are being given to new employees just starting their careers.

"People who have no experience with the difficulties sodium coolant can cause now head our departments," Yevgeny complains. His gaze comes to rest in the rearview mirror, where he watches the concrete hull of the new BN-800 disarmament reactor recede into the distance. "And you know what? I'm going to leave, too. Or, no, I'm going to run."

[FBaggins]

10. "People" is plural.

The story includes a single anonymous person... who in fact is not "bugging out" (if by that you take the normal meaning of "running away&quot .

Is Yevgeny as ignorant of the technology involved as "Fukushima worker" is? Does he even exist?

[bananas]

11. ROFL - "colleagues" and "superiors" are also plural!

"colleagues and superiors of many years have been leaving the BN-800 project in recent weeks."

[FBaggins]

12. Hearsay

An unidentified source is quoted as claiming that senior people are leaving? Heck... it's a translation of a translation of hearsay.

Why is that any more reliable than the nonsense that annonymous sources were making up at Fukushima?

[2on2u]

9. Beat me to it!! My exact first thought..... most excellent. n/t

[joshcryer]

13. Nah, all that nuke material should sit in a warehouse for...

...an epically long time. Duh. So silly to think that it could be used for good.

[AliciaHolliday]

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