Nuclear power units with a VVER-1200 type reactor, floating
nye power plants (FNPPs) are evolutionary projects.
This means that they use proven, time-tested
change decisions; they are similar to their predecessors. VVER-1200
“Evolved” from the VVER-1000 reactor, and the prototype for the FNPP
served as reactors installed on icebreakers. In the same time
there are promising types of nuclear power plants, in
which proposed fundamentally new approaches to the technology of
the production of electricity by burning nuclear fuel. So
a fundamentally new, innovative project was once a reactor
type BN: indeed, the idea of using it as a heat carrier
the body of molten sodium instead of water seemed 50 years ago very
bold.
Currently, innovative projects can be considered re-
fast neutron actors with a lead coolant (of the type
“BREST”), and thermonuclear reactors. To implement these projects
life requires very high costs – both intellectual,
and financial; but if these technologies are implemented, and from
will turn into traditional ones, then perhaps it is they
will form a new “face” of nuclear power.
Nuclear power plants with a reactor
“BREST”
Nuclear power plants of high safety and efficiency with
fast reactor with lead coolant “BREST” is
face and completely domestic project. The parent organization,
dealing with its development – Research and design
Torso Institute of Power Engineering named after N. A. Dollezhal (NIKIET), one
from the largest domestic nuclear research institutes. The project included
units with a capacity of 300 and 1200 MW have been developed.
The BREST reactor is essentially similar to the BN reactor – however, if the BN
we are dealing with a sodium coolant, then in BREST cooling
the core is carried out by molten lead. Temperature
the melting point of lead is much higher than that of sodium – next
consequently, it is technologically more difficult to fill the circuit and maintain
it contains the required parameters; however, the state of the art
allows you to successfully cope with this task. And since chemical Since the activity of lead is much lower, then the use of lead instead of
sodium will significantly improve safety. Even
the most severe accidents (including sabotage) with the destruction of external
barriers (reactor buildings, vessel lids, etc.) will not lead to
dioactive emissions, requiring the evacuation of the population and
alienation of land.
Fusion reactor
As already mentioned, nuclear energy can be obtained by organizing
fission chain reaction in a material containing 235 U or 239 Pu. Od-
but soon after the creation of the first nuclear reactor and the first nuclear
noise bomb, an alternative was found. It turns out if
take hydrogen isotopes – deuterium (D) and tritium (T), place them in
one chamber and heat this mixture to an enormous temperature (about a hundred
million degrees Celsius), then a nuclear fusion reaction will begin .
Deuterium and tritium merge to form a helium nucleus and release
even more energy is consumed per unit mass of fuel than when
research institutes of uranium or plutonium:
H + H → He + n + 17.6 MeV
The scientists were faced with the question of how to make the installation, work
at such gigantic temperatures, because the incandescent plasma
can not only melt, but simply evaporate any, even the most
refractory material. The way to solve this problem was found with
vet scientists – A.D.Sakharov (1921-1989) and I.E.Tamm (1895-
1971). The essence of the solution was as follows: from conductive cables
carcasses form a toroidal (i.e. annular) chamber and fill
its a mixture of deuterium and tritium. The current passed through the coils creates
toroidal magnetic field. Using an inductor placed in
the center of the ring, form a vortex electric field, which
It causes the flow of current and the ignition of the plasma in the toroidal chamber.
This current, firstly, heats the plasma, and secondly, it also creates a mag-
field (called poloidal ). It turns out a system in which
a swarm of helical magnetic lines literally envelop the plasma, holding
her inside the chamber. To control the plasma ring, the system includes
also poloidal turns (see fig. 4.25).
For the first time, this principle was implemented in 1968 at an installation
ke T-3, built in Novosibirsk. It is called “tokamak” : TO-
S. Slavyanov.Spheroidal satellites measure with MA gnitnymi By Coils (see. Fig. 4.25). After
the successful launch of the T-3 in the world began a real boom: after all, the tokamak –
the key to the energy of the future, the prototype of the reactor, in which the energy is
children are not released due to fission of heavy uranium or plutonium nuclei,
and with thermonuclear fusion of deuterium and tritium.
Figure 4.25 – Tokamak device
The invention of Soviet scientists is the basis for international
the first experimental thermonuclear reactor project (ITER –
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) currently under construction
hour in France (see fig. 4.26).
Figure 4.26 – ITER device
It is believed that ITER will launch a new era – the era of thermonuclear
power plants. If it is possible to solve the existing problems and develop
cheap enough blocks (according to scientists, this will be possible
by 2075-2080), then humanity will receive a truly inexhaustible
fusion energy source, since fusion reactors operate
on hydrogen isotopes that can be obtained from water – at very
their small consumption. The fusion reactor is safer
compared to a uranium-fueled nuclear reactor, practically
does not produce radioactive waste and is not of interest to
terrorists. Estimates show that even the most serious radiation
on-site accidents at such a facility will not lead to the release of radioactive
isotopes into the environment and the need to evacuate the population.