General Discussion
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(29,166 posts)is a very prominent poster about all things "nuclear power"
cilla4progress
(24,589 posts)...
COL Mustard
(5,783 posts)drray23
(7,587 posts)cilla4progress
(24,589 posts)What are you seeing, expecting?
drray23
(7,587 posts)The best course of action would be to unload the fuel cells from the reactors. You do that by inserting boron rods to stop the reaction.
Once that is done, fuel cells can be unloaded and stored in a pool.
They will be housed in containers that are treated with boron to stop a potential nuclear reaction. Boron absorbs neutrons and that is how we control reactors.
Once those rods are in the pool, they will take about 3 months to cool down to a level where they do not generate much heat. At that point, the only danger is radiation yield if you are too close (its still a lot on contact) but no danger of meltdown or anything like that.
I suspect (I dont have the data) that they already have some rods in their containment pools, it's a normal part of the cycle.
The only problem with this plan is that it is a delicate operation to remove rods from the reactor and doing this under fire from rockets is not feasible. Hopefully, they agree to a cease-fire around the plant.
NNadir
(33,368 posts)The fuel is over 20 years old.
It is only a problem if the fuel is still in a cooling pool, as opposed to a dry cask, and even then, as the RBMK was graphite moderated, it is not likely to go critical.
The failed reactor exploded in 1986. It's reasonably stable.
drray23
(7,587 posts)Don't they have other reactors under threat? Those may need to be stopped and eventually unloaded.
If the rods have been in a pool 20 yrs, risk is minimal. I would be surprised that they are still in there. At this point it would have been dry casked.
NNadir
(33,368 posts)My understanding is that the plant that was being shelled by the thugs, has been occupied by them and they have shut the reactors down.
The VVER is a Russian design, and thus Russians know how to handle them. They may be barbarians, but they are educated barbarians.
I think, but do not know, VVERs are better designed to address an LOCA than were the Fukushima BWRs. No one wants another Fukushima, but I'd guess that would be a worst case, that worst case being trivial in comparison to climate change and the massive death toll associated with the routine use of dangerous fossil fuels.
Response to drray23 (Reply #11)
NNadir This message was self-deleted by its author.
NNadir
(33,368 posts)I don't really have time right now. I do understand the political reason for the concern. Nuclear fear is a great attention getter, this at a great cost to humanity because the fear is less than entirely rational.
Of course Chernobyl is a very valuable, albeit unintentional, research laboratory . (One hopes that the barbarians don't destroy valuable data.)
I'm not sure that the radiological hazard is quite what people imagine however.
The bigger concern for me at least, is dangerous fossil fuel based weapons of mass destruction, utilized by uncivilized thugs, to kill people in a highly civilized country.
cilla4progress
(24,589 posts)You provide some helpful clarity.
NNadir
(33,368 posts)I regret that it is somewhat technical, overly long and more than a little angry, but its the best I can do in this case.
It's here: Some comments on the war situation with Chernobyl as well as the operable nuclear plants in Ukraine.
Wingus Dingus
(8,049 posts)according to a relative of one of the workers. Nobody really knows what's going on there, aside from that. Email communication was cut off yesterday, according to Sky News. Hopefully nothing critical is happening that would require attentive operators. Edit to add: I know zip about nuclear matters, but still worried that the human-mistake factor can create a problem.