The RBMK was proclaimed by some as the national reactor of the Soviet Union, probably due to nationalism because of its unique design, large size and power output and especially since the VVER was called the American reactor by its detractors in the Soviet Union, since its design is more similar to that of western PWR reactors. No prototypes of the RBMK were built it was put directly into mass production. Similarly to CANDU reactors it could be produced without the specialized industry required by the large and thick-walled reactor pressure vessels such as those used by VVER reactors, thus increasing the number of factories capable of manufacturing RBMK reactor components. The VVER (an earlier Soviet PWR reactor design) in power output and physical size, being 20 times larger by volume than contemporary western reactors. At that time it was the world's largest nuclear reactor design, surpassing western designs and The RBMK-1000's design was finalized in 1968. For comparison, the EPR has a net electric nameplate capacity of 1600 MW (4500 MW thermal) and is among the most powerful reactor types ever built. For example, the RBMK reactors at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania were rated at 1500 MWe each, a very large size for the time and even for the early 21st century. The initial 1000 MWe design also left room for development into yet more powerful reactors. This allowed for an extraordinarily large and powerful reactor that could be built rapidly, largely out of parts fabricated on-site instead of by specialized factories. Subsequent prototypes were the AMB-100 reactor and AMB-200 reactor both at Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station.īy using a minimalist design that used regular (light) water for cooling and graphite for moderation, it was possible to use fuel with a lower enrichment (1.8% enriched uranium instead of considerably more expensive 4% enrichment). The first of these, Obninsk AM-1 ("Атом Мирный", Atom Mirny, Russian for "peaceful atom," analogous to the American Atoms for Peace) generated 5 MW of electricity from 30 MW thermal power, and supplied Obninsk from 1954 until 1959. The RBMK was the culmination of the Soviet nuclear power program to produce a water-cooled power reactor with dual-use potential based on their graphite-moderated plutonium production military reactors. Only two RBMK blocks were started after 1986: Ignalina-2 and Smolensk-3. All have been retrofitted with a number of safety updates. ![]() ![]() As of December 2021 there were still 8 RBMK reactors and three small EGP-6 graphite moderated light-water reactors operating in Russia. ![]() Nine RBMK blocks under construction were cancelled after the Chernobyl disaster, and the last of three remaining RBMK blocks at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was shut down in 2000. Most of the flaws in the design of RBMK-1000 reactors were corrected after the Chernobyl accident and a dozen reactors have since been operating without any serious incidents for over thirty years. The disaster prompted worldwide calls for the reactors to be completely decommissioned however, there is still considerable reliance on RBMK facilities for power in Russia. Radioactivity was released over a large portion of Europe. Certain aspects of the original RBMK reactor design, such as the large positive void coefficient, the 'positive scram effect' of the control rods and instability at low power levels, contributed to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, in which an RBMK experienced an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction, leading to a steam and hydrogen explosion, large fire, and subsequent core meltdown. The RBMK is an early Generation II reactor and the oldest commercial reactor design still in wide operation. The channels also contain the coolant, and are surrounded by graphite. The name refers to its design where, instead of a large steel pressure vessel surrounding the entire core, the core is surrounded by a cylindrical annular steel tank inside a concrete vault and each fuel assembly is enclosed in an individual 8 cm (inner) diameter pipe (called a "technological channel"). The RBMK ( Russian: реа́ктор большо́й мо́щности кана́льный, РБМК reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalnyy, "high-power channel-type reactor") is a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor designed and built by the Soviet Union.
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