Where I Work: Chernobyl.

[NNadir]

10. This is not really true. The RBMK, which was very similar to design of the Hanford "N Reactor..."

Last edited Wed Jul 14, 2021, 10:44 PM - Edit history (1)

...was designed to make it possible to extract weapons grade plutonium as well as to produce electricity. This much is clear.

The United States similarly used this design at a weapons plant to produce electricity as a side product of the manufacture of weapons grade plutonium, which cannot be realistically produced in the BWR and PWR reactors that dominate the US nuclear fleet.

President Kennedy participates in ground-breaking ceremonies for construction of N Reactor at Hanford on September 26, 1963.

A few years back, I attended an excellent lecture on the rationale for building RBMK's at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. (The speaker was clearly an opponent of nuclear power. She was one of the social scientists at the University of Virginia that produced anti-nukes like the very amusing, if not extremely dangerous, anti-nuke fool Benjamin Sovacool.) She pointed out that while the reactor was a potential dual use, weapons/power, design, the chief motivation of the design was cost. The construction and (disastrous) operation of the plant was driven by a need for the workers to obtain bonuses for meeting timelimes.

Like any technology, electricity can be and is diverted to military ends. The RBMK design was not primarily devoted to weapons. There were excellent reasons connected with the ease of and low costs of construction involved. This is reflected in the lack of a containment structure.