April 21, 2011
Another Chernobyl
I am willing to bet that this plant has been gone over with a fine-toothed comb and that the control systems have been massively upgraded and that military officers who know nothing about the operation of a reactor are not allowed to run unscheduled 'tests' but... The reactor at Chernobyl that caught fire was an RBMK-1000 design. Graphite (flammable) core with no containment vessel. It turns out that there are currently eleven RBMK-1000 reactors still operating in Russia -- Saint Petersburg (4 RBMK-1000), Smolensk (3 RBMK-1000) and Kursk (4 RBMK-1000). There is a photo tour of one of the reactors in Kursk at English Russia Here are a few photos:
Miles of dials. How can you read everything in an emergency...
Yes, the reactor core is under these plates.
Crane for loading fuel rods.
Full-body scanner.