Nuclear Reactor Emergency Shutdown In Russia

NPP reactor 2 at Leningradskaya nuclear power plant near St. Petersburg, Russia, was shut down today because of an emergency situation caused by a storm. They say radiation levels at the plant and the surrounding areas are "normal".




I didn't know that a storm could cause an emergency situation at a nuclear power plant. This was not a hurricane, but just a storm. Btw, this storm passed over Denmark and Sweden yesterday. I hope they do tell us the full story this time. They didn't tell the world about Chernobyl until after Sweden detected the radiation and set off the alarm...

Related News Sources:
RIA Novosti: Nuclear power plant in North Russia reports generating unit's emergency shutdown

Related ATS threads:
Sweden was 2 hours from a disaster worse than Chernobyl

They really need a refresher course on Nuclear reactors 101. Chernobyl was just horrible. I hope nothing like that ever happens again.

Here are more details:



And here is an article about the storm just before it passed Sweden. The storm turned out to be weaker than predicted, at least it was when it passed Denmark.

Russian powerplants are notorious for their lack of safety precautions. If the reactor is Scraming by itself, thats not a good sign. It may indicate an unknown problem with the reactor. I would hate to see what condition that reactor is probably in.

Bit of trivia for you guys:

When the do an emergency shutdown of a reactor its called a SCRAM or SCRAM'ing. Anybody know what it standos for?

...................


Super
CRitical
Axe
Man

WHen the US first got a workign reactor going as part of the Manhattan project. Some poor soul had to sit on the top of the thing with an axe to cut the control rod cables to stop the reaction if something went wrong

I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, it means whatever safety measures they had in place worked and there was no catastrophic disaster.

I would still like to know more exactly what did happen to cause this though, I agree a normal storm shouldn't cause a nuclear power plant to shutdown.

Originally posted by FredT
Bit of trivia for you guys:

When the do an emergency shutdown of a reactor its called a SCRAM or SCRAM'ing. Anybody know what it standos for?

...................


Super
CRitical
Axe
Man

WHen the US first got a workign reactor going as part of the Manhattan project. Some poor soul had to sit on the top of the thing with an axe to cut the control rod cables to stop the reaction if something went wrong

thought it was Safety Control Rod Axe Man

This is the Sosnovy Bor Power Plant I am guessing.

This particular nuclear power plant is using the same reactors and the same basic systems as were used in Chernobyl. I believe this is the only active nuclear power plant in Russia still using those unreliable systems. There has been much talk and protest recently to shut it down or at least replace the reactors. Sosnovy Bor power plant is considered the one of the most dangerous and unreliable in the world I heard. But they have some of the highest ranked specialists in Russia working there, so I am hoping they have made improvements to safety.


In 1992 there was a major radiation leak there (nothing compared to Chernobyl though), and just in 2005 3 people were badly injured when a pipe ruptured due to high pressure.

Article on the 2005 accident:

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Originally posted by ewan

Originally posted by FredT
Bit of trivia for you guys:

When the do an emergency shutdown of a reactor its called a SCRAM or SCRAM'ing. Anybody know what it standos for?

...................


Super
CRitical
Axe
Man

WHen the US first got a workign reactor going as part of the Manhattan project. Some poor soul had to sit on the top of the thing with an axe to cut the control rod cables to stop the reaction if something went wrong

thought it was Safety Control Rod Axe Man

Or Safety Cut Rope Axe Man, depending on who's acronym you ascribe to