From Plutonium to Power: Russia To Produce Electricity with Former Nukes

[sysop]

Russia is planning to destroy plutonium used in thousands of soon to be decommissioned nuclear warheads by using it as fuel in a special new atomic power plant. The reactor is set to begin operating in one year, but time pressures and a vulnerable cooling system make the project a risky one.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...854318,00.html

[Tom_Blees]

This article was so poorly researched and had such an anti-nuclear bias to it as to be worse than worthless. The mystery man Yevgeny showed barely more technical knowledge than the writer of the piece, who clearly knows nothing about fast reactors. Was Yevgeny a janitor at the power plant?

This article is fear-mongering of the worst kind, rife with loaded phrases and alarmism, such as this doozy: "Following various spectacular breakdowns, nearly every country on Earth considers this technology barely controllable." Utter nonsense! Many countries are working on fast reactors and most nuclear-capable countries see fast reactors as the logical type to which all will transition (as some are doing already). Far from being "barely controllable", decades of experience with fast reactors in Russia, the USA, and France have shown them to be far easier to operate than light-water reactors that are currently in use around the world today.

Or how about this quote from the dubious source, referring to sodium's volatility: "All it takes is one sloppily welded seam, and that's that!" Never mind that the steam generator is in a separate structure from the reactor and that the sodium used in that loop is non-radioactive. And as the one experienced hand who was quoted in the article remarked about sodium fires: ""It turns out the fire goes out on its own," he explains. "There's nothing terrible about it." Indeed, sodium burns with a small fraction of the heat of petrochemicals.

But instead of the facts we get this: "Sodium, a highly reactive liquid metal that corrodes pipes and ignites if it leaks and comes into contact with the air, has proved problematic in many fast breeder reactor projects around the world." Corrodes pipes? One of the reasons sodium is used is because it is completely NON-corrosive, even after 30 years of use at temperatures above 500 degrees C.

This is but a sampling of the inaccuracies in this outrageous mockery of journalism. An embarrassment to Der Spiegel, to be sure.

[bugmenot@trash-mail.com]

Originally Posted by Tom_Blees

This article is fear-mongering of the worst kind, rife with loaded phrases and alarmism, such as this doozy: "Following various spectacular breakdowns, nearly every country on Earth considers this technology barely controllable." Utter nonsense! Many countries are working on fast reactors and most nuclear-capable countries see fast reactors as the logical type to which all will transition (as some are doing already). Far from being "barely controllable", decades of experience with fast reactors in Russia, the USA, and France have shown them to be far easier to operate than light-water reactors that are currently in use around the world today.

Or how about this quote from the dubious source, referring to sodium's volatility: "All it takes is one sloppily welded seam, and that's that!" Never mind that the steam generator is in a separate structure from the reactor and that the sodium used in that loop is non-radioactive. And as the one experienced hand who was quoted in the article remarked about sodium fires: ""It turns out the fire goes out on its own," he explains. "There's nothing terrible about it." Indeed, sodium burns with a small fraction of the heat of petrochemicals.

But instead of the facts we get this: "Sodium, a highly reactive liquid metal that corrodes pipes and ignites if it leaks and comes into contact with the air, has proved problematic in many fast breeder reactor projects around the world." Corrodes pipes? One of the reasons sodium is used is because it is completely NON-corrosive, even after 30 years of use at temperatures above 500 degrees C.

This is but a sampling of the inaccuracies in this outrageous mockery of journalism. An embarrassment to Der Spiegel, to be sure.

THANK YOU TOM for your Prescription of Truth as a remedy for what can only be called the Poison of Lies! This article is written by someone who is scientifically illiterate, yet it is supposed to be taken seriously? Russia has sold the BN-800 reactor to China, and perhaps other nations. China, a nuclear weapons state, ought to know something about the production of weapons-grade plutonium... and its destruction. Why would they buy a BN-800 unless they were interested in the latter? The author of this propaganda piece would not be able to answer that.