Atom stations. Nuclear power plants of Ukraine. Atomic stations of Russia

Modern needs of mankind in energy are growing at a tremendous pace. Its expenditure is increasing for the illumination of cities, for industrial and other needs of the national economy. Accordingly, more and more soot from burned coal and fuel oil is thrown into the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect is intensified. In addition, there has been more talk about the commissioning of electric vehicles in recent years, which will also contribute to increasing electricity consumption.

Unfortunately, environmentally friendly HPPs can not cover such huge needs, and further increase in the number of TPPs and CHPPs is simply not feasible. What to do in this case? And there is really nothing to choose from: nuclear power plants, when properly operated, are an excellent way out of the energy impasse.

Despite what happened in Chernobyl, even mindful of the recent Japanese failures, scientists around the world recognize that a peaceful atom is the only solution to the approaching energy crisis to date. Widely advertised alternative energy sources do not give even a hundredth part of the amount of electricity that the world needs every day.

In addition, even the explosion of the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl did not cause the environment and a hundredth part of the damage, which is noted even with one crash on the oil production platform. The incident with BP is a vivid confirmation of this.

Principle of operation of a nuclear reactor

The source of heat is fuel elements - TVEL. In fact, it is a tube made of a zirconium alloy, which is weakly subject to degeneration even in the zone of active fission of atoms. Inside, there are tablets of uranium dioxide or grits from the alloy of uranium and molybdenum. Inside the reactor, these tubes are assembled into assemblies, each of which contains 18 fuel elements each.

Total assemblies can be almost two thousand, and they are located in channels inside the graphite masonry. The evolving heat is collected by means of a coolant, and in modern nuclear power plants there are two circulation circuits. In the second one, water does not interact with the reactor core in any way, which significantly increases the safety of the structure as a whole. The reactor itself is located in the shaft, and a special capsule of the same zirconium alloy (30 mm thick) is created for the graphite masonry.

The whole construction is based on an extremely massive base of high-strength concrete, under which the pool is located. It serves to cool nuclear fuel in the event of an accident.

The principle of operation is simple: TVELs are heated, heat from them is transferred to the primary coolant (liquid sodium, deuterium), after which the energy is transferred to the secondary circuit, inside which water circulates under enormous pressure. It immediately boils, and steam spins turbines generators. After that, the steam enters the condensing devices, goes back to the liquid state, and then goes back to the secondary circuit.

History of creation

In the second half of the 1940s, all efforts were made in the USSR to create projects for the peaceful use of atomic energy. The famous academician Kurchatov, speaking at a regular meeting of the CPSU Central Committee, proposed the use of atomic energy in the production of electricity, in which the country, being restored after a terrible war, was in dire need.

In 1950, the construction of a nuclear power plant (the first in the world, by the way) was started, which was laid in the Obninskoye village in the Kaluga region. In four years, this station, which had a capacity of 5 MW, was successfully launched. The uniqueness of the event is also in the fact that our country became the first state in the world that managed to effectively use the atom exclusively for peaceful purposes.

Continuation of work

Already in 1958, work was begun on the design of the Siberian nuclear power plant. The design capacity increased at once 20 times, amounting to 100 MW. But the uniqueness of the situation is not even that. When the station was handed over, its output was 600 MW. Scientists have only managed to improve the project in just a couple of years, and more recently such effectiveness seemed impossible.

However, nuclear power plants on the expanses of the Union then grew no worse than mushrooms. So, a few years after the Siberian, Beloyarsk NPP was launched. Soon a station was built in Voronezh. In 1976, the Kursk nuclear power plant was put into operation, the reactors of which were seriously modernized in 2004.

In general, nuclear power plants were built in a planned manner throughout the post-war period. Only the Chernobyl disaster could slow this process down.

How were things abroad

It should not be considered that such developments were conducted exclusively in our country. The British were well aware of how important nuclear power plants could be, and therefore actively worked in this direction. So, already in 1952 they launched their own project to develop and build nuclear power plants. Four years later the town of Calder Hall became the first English nuclear city with its own 46 MW power plant. In 1955, inaugurated the nuclear power plant in the American city of Shippingport. Its power was equal to 60 MW. Since then, nuclear power plants have begun their triumphal march across the world.

Threats of a peaceful atom

The first euphoria from the taming of the atom was soon replaced by anxiety and fear. Of course, the worst disaster was the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but there was the Mayak plant, nuclear reactor accidents in the nuclear submarine, and other incidents, many of which we will never know. The consequences of these accidents caused people to think about raising the level of the culture of using nuclear energy. In addition, humanity once again realized that it can not withstand the spontaneous forces of nature.

Many luminaries of world science have long discussed how to make nuclear power plants safer. In Moscow in 1989, the World Assembly was assembled, following the results of the meeting, conclusions were drawn on the need to radically tighten control over nuclear energy.

Today, the world community is closely monitoring how all these agreements are being respected. However, no observations and control can not save from natural disasters or banal stupidity. This was confirmed once again by the accident at Fukushima-1, which resulted in hundreds of millions of tons of radioactive water poured into the Pacific Ocean. In general, Japan, the nuclear power plant in which - the only way to ensure the enormous needs of industry and the population of electricity, from the construction program, the NPP has not refused.

Classification

All NPPs can be classified by type of generated energy, and also by the model of their reactor. The degree of safety, type of construction, and other important parameters are also taken into account.

That's how they are divided by the type of energy produced:

• Nuclear power plants. The only energy that is generated on them is electricity.
• Atomic thermal power plants. In addition to electricity, these facilities also produce heat, which makes them especially valuable for accommodation in northern cities. There, the operation of the nuclear power plant can dramatically reduce the region's dependence on fuel supplies from other regions.

Fuel used and other characteristics

The most common are nuclear reactors, as fuel for which enriched uranium is used . Heat carrier - light water. Such reactors are called light water, and they are distinguished by two varieties. In the first case, the steam that serves to rotate the turbines is formed in the core of the reactor.

For the formation of steam in the second case is a heat sink system, through which water does not flow into the core. By the way, to develop this system began already in the 50-ies of the last century, and the basis for it served as the American military development. Around the same time, a reactor of the first type was designed in the USSR, but with a retarding system in the role of which graphite rods were used.

This is how the gas-cooled reactor appeared, which is used by many nuclear power plants in Russia. Rapid acceleration of the construction of stations of this particular model was due to the fact that as a by-product, the reactors produced weapons-grade plutonium. In addition, even conventional natural uranium is suitable as a fuel for such a variety, the deposits of which in our country are very large.

Another type of reactor, which is widely used in the world, is a model with heavy water and natural uranium as fuel. At first, such models were created by almost all countries that had access to nuclear reactors, but today Canada is one of their exploiters, in the depths of which there are the richest deposits of natural uranium.

How did the reactors improve?

First, ordinary steel was used to fabricate the fuel tube envelopes and circulation channels. At that time, it was not yet known about zirconium alloys, which for such purposes are much better. The reactor was cooled by water supplied under a pressure of 10 atmospheres.

The vapors released at this time had a temperature of 280 degrees. All the channels in which TVELs were placed were made removable, as they were required to be replaced relatively often. The fact is that in the area of nuclear fuel activity, materials quickly undergo deformation and destruction. Generally, constructive elements in the core are designed for 30 years, but in such cases, optimism is unacceptable.

TVELS

In this case, the scientists decided to use the version with one-sided tubular cooling. Such a design sharply reduces the chances of getting fission products into the heat exchange circuit even in the event of damage to the fuel element. The very same nuclear fuel is an alloy of uranium and molybdenum. This solution has made it possible to create a relatively inexpensive and reliable equipment that can function stably even under conditions of significantly increased temperature.

Chernobyl

Ironically, the notorious Chernobyl, whose nuclear power station became the symbol of the technogenic catastrophes of the last century, was a real triumph of science. At that time, the most advanced technologies were used in its construction and design. The capacity of the reactor alone reached 3,200 MW. Fuel was also new: for the first time, enriched uranium dioxide of natural uranium was used at Chernobyl. One ton of such fuel contains only 20 kilograms of uranium-235. In total, 180 tons of uranium dioxide were refueled into the reactor. Until now, it is not known exactly who and for what purpose decided to conduct an experiment at the station, which contradicted all conceivable safety rules.

Nuclear power plants in Russia

If it were not for the Chernobyl disaster, in our country (most likely) the program on the widest and most widespread construction of nuclear power plants would still be continued. In any case, such an approach was planned in the USSR.

In general, right after Chernobyl, many programs began to massively curtail, which immediately led to an increase in prices for many "environmentally friendly" grades of heat carriers. In many areas, they were forced to return to the construction of CHP plants, which (including) work even on coal, continuing to monstrously pollute the atmosphere of large cities.

In the middle of the 2000s, the government nevertheless realized the need for the development of the nuclear program, since without this it is simply impossible to provide many areas of our country with the necessary energy.

How many nuclear power plants do we have in the country today? Only ten. Yes, these are all nuclear power plants in Russia. But even this number generates more than 16% of the energy that is consumed by our citizens. The capacity of all 33 power units that work in the structure of these nuclear power plants is 25.2 GW. Almost 37% of the needs of our northern regions in electricity are covered by nuclear power plants.

One of the most famous is the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, built in 1973. At present intensive construction of the second stage continues, which will allow to increase the output capacity (4,000 MW) by at least two times.

Ukrainian NPPs

The Soviet Union did a great deal, including for the development of energy in the Union republics. For example, Lithuania at one time received not only excellent infrastructure and a lot of industrial enterprises, but also Ignalina NPP, which until 2005 was the real "Chicken Ryaba", providing almost all of the Baltic region with cheap (and its!) Energy.

But the main gift was made to Ukraine, which received four power stations at once. Zaporizhzhya NPP in general is the most powerful in Europe, giving out at once 6 GW of energy. In general, Ukraine's nuclear power plants give it the opportunity to self-supply electricity, than they can not boast of in the same Lithuania.

Now all the same four stations are operating: Zaporozhye, Rivne, South-Ukrainian and Khmelnytsky. Contrary to popular belief, the third block of the Chernobyl NPP continued to operate until the year 2000, supplying the region with electricity. At the moment 46% of all Ukrainian electricity is produced by Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

Strange political ambitions of the authorities in the country led to the fact that in 2011 it was decided to replace Russian TVELs with American ones. The experiment completely failed, and the Ukrainian industry suffered damage of almost $ 200 million.

Prospects

Today, throughout the world, they are once again recalling the advantages of a peaceful atom. A whole city can be supplied with energy from a small and primitive nuclear power plant, which spends about 2 tons of fuel per year. How much will you have to burn gas or coal in the same period? So the prospects for the technology are huge: the energy carriers of traditional species are constantly growing in price, and their number is decreasing.