Re: OT- Portable Nuclear Power Plants


"azotic" <azotic@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:HbLOi.122598$xZ2.33261@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
An interesting russian concept.

I don't know if is a Russian concept or not, but it certainly is not a new
concept. Some were built back in the 1950's for the US military. One was used
in Antarctica for some ten years. (See below) As I recall, a prototype of one
of these reactors had a grisly accident that left an operator skewered to the
roof of the containment building by a control rod.

Vaughn

(From: http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/SepOct01/MS684.htm)
"The Army Nuclear Power Program"
"The military considered the possibility of using nuclear power plants to
generate alternate fuels almost 50 years ago and actively supported nuclear
energy as a means of reducing logistics requirements for coal, oil, and
gasoline. However, political, technical, and military considerations forced the
closure of the program before a prototype could be built."

"The Army Corps of Engineers ran a Nuclear Power Program from 1952 until
1979, primarily to supply electric power in remote areas. Stationary nuclear
reactors built at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and Fort Greeley, Alaska, were
operated successfully from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Portable nuclear
reactors also were operated at Sundance, Wyoming; Camp Century, Greenland; and
McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. These small nuclear power plants provided
electricity for remote military facilities and could be operated efficiently for
long periods without refueling. The Army also considered using nuclear power
plants overseas to provide uninterrupted power and defense support in the event
that U.S. installations were cut off from their normal logistics supply lines. "

"In November 1963, an Army study submitted to the Department of Defense (DOD)
proposed employing a military compact reactor (MCR) as the power source for a
nuclear-powered energy depot, which was being considered as a means of producing
synthetic fuels in a combat zone for use in military vehicles. MCR studies,
which had begun in 1955, grew out of the Transportation Corps' interest in using
nuclear energy to power heavy, overland cargo haulers in remote areas. These
studies investigated various reactor and vehicle concepts, including a small
liquid-metal-cooled reactor, but ultimately the concept proved impractical. "


Solves the problem of NIMBY, out of sight
out of mind.
No CO2 emmisions to boot. I wonder if these could be built and stored unfueled
for
use in an emergency, say fuel became unavailable for conventional land based
power
stations we could simpley fuel the reactors and start generating power fairly
quickley
until another fuel supplier could provide fuel for the conventional land based
plants.

http://www.upi.com/Energy/Briefing/2007/04/16/interest_in_russian_floating_nuclear_plant/


Best Regards
Tom.









.

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