Power Plant Engineering

2 CO + O
2
⇒
⇒
⇒
⇒
⇒
2 CO
2
2 H
2
 + O
2
⇒
⇒
⇒
⇒
⇒
2 H
2
O
10.28 OTHER, EARLIER, SOVIET NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS
September 1982 — Chernobyl Unit 1, after 5 years service, was shut down for maintenance.
Restarted with some valves closed. Result: no water flow in a few channels. Explosion in core, a few
fuel rods melted. Some radioactivity escaped plant. No radiation survey was done outside plant. Streets
of Pripyat were hosed down. No announcement to population. Emergency core cooling system saved
plant. Chief Engineer, his deputy, and chief operator of the shift were all demoted and transferred.
1980 Kursh power station. RBMK-1000 plant had a power outage.
Reactor damaged because control rods and circulation driven by electric motors/pumps failed.
Time delay to start diesel generators was 40 seconds During which, power surge damaged some fuel
rods. Solution : design a special generator to tap turbine power as it spun down during shutdown, to
power emergency equipment.
Oct. 1982. Armyansk nuclear power station. Explosion. Subsequent fire destroyed turbine
building.
Fall 1983 Chernobyl Unit 4 startup. Certification team saw anomalous power surge when
control rod insertion starts. Considered minor, had been seen in another reactor. No explanation,
not documented.

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POWER PLANT ENGINEERING
June 1985 Balakovsky PWR power station, Valve burst, release of 300 degree C. steam, cooked
14 workmen. Safety regulations viewed as guidelines, chief engineer regularly made exceptions.
EXERCISES
1. What is a chain reaction ? How it is controlled ?
2. What is a nuclear reactor ? Describe the various parts of a nuclear reactor.