If Mohammed does not go to a nuclear power plant / Mail.Ru Group / Geektimes

Energy is the main resource of mankind. More precisely, electricity. In everyday life it came in by historical standards quite recently, but has already turned into a source of life for us. Too many things depend on it: industry, food production, water supply, transport management systems, urban lighting, a myriad of devices and devices, from elevators and air purification systems and ventilation of buildings to your laptop and mobile phone. If tomorrow the electricity in the outlet ends, chaos and collapse will begin immediately. Even in rural areas, the disappearance of electricity will not be a fatal, but very unpleasant event. And for medium and large cities this is a nightmarish scenario comparable to carpet bombing. Electricity is life.

We have already mentioned more than once that many impressive developments, technologies and objects were created in our country to link information, transport or resourcefully remote territories and settlements. Electricity was not forgotten either. More precisely, its sources. And more precisely, in the USSR there were experimental mobile nuclear power plant.

TES-3

After the war, the USSR desperately needed various deficit metals, oil and gas. The atomic, rocket and space programs, demanding new technologies and productions, were created at a shock rate. So, it was required to find and develop new deposits. Everything is the same: beyond the Urals, in Siberia, beyond the Arctic Circle, in the Far East. These are huge territories stretching thousands of kilometers. The nature here is severe: the construction of roads requires enormous effort and cost, including maintenance.

But we must somehow live. And not just to live, but also to develop uninhabited territories, where there is no infrastructure. But for the life support of geologists and builders, for the creation of industrial and mining objects requires a lot of supplies and materials, and most importantly – energy. Therefore, in 1957, work began on the development of a mobile nuclear power plant. Pay attention to the courage of the idea: only the first Soviet atomic bomb was tested 8 years ago, and now it was necessary to create a compact and mobile nuclear power plant. Although it must be acknowledged that a mobile nuclear power plant would be of primary interest to the military as a source of power for radar and other secret facilities built in bear corners across the country.

The project was based on an atomic reactor developed in Laboratory B “- so until 1960 was called the Physics and Energy Institute in Obninsk. It was a two-loop heterogeneous water-water reactor containing 74 assemblies based on highly enriched uranium. Its power reached 8.8 MW. And the power of energy received from electric generators reached 1.5 MW. The reactor – without taking into account all the rest of the strapping and assemblies – was a cylinder 600 mm high and 650 mm in diameter.

But no matter how compact the reactor was, the entire NPP as a whole was an impressive volume and weight system of units. Put all this on a single chassis was impossible either in size or weight. More precisely, it would be possible, but the resulting monster could crawl only along the flat, steppe-like step. Therefore, the components of nuclear power plants were distributed over several self-propelled units. The chassis of the T-10 heavy tank was taken as follows:

The chassis underwent a major alteration: it was extended to 10 rollers on board instead of 7, and specially designed frames were installed on top , Providing spatial rigidity of self-propelled plants. To reduce the specific pressure on the ground, wider tracks were developed. Also, defensive shields were designed.

In 1961, the light was born TPP-3 – “transportable nuclear power plant”. The nuclear power plant consisted of four separate self-propelled guns, similar to a cross between railroad cars with huts:

The total mass of equipment loaded on self-propelled guns was 210 tons, of which 28.5 tons accounted for “biological protection” – means of protection from radiation. And all together the self-propelled guns were pulled to 310 tons of live weight. The autonomy of the “hike” of the nuclear power plant reached 250 days. Each self-propelled gun was set in motion by the most powerful at that time in the Soviet tank diesel engine V12-6 for 750 hp

Main equipment: 19459003
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1. The first self-propelled gun: a reactor with an air radiator. As a cooler, circulating water was used, and the radiator was used for additional cooling of the reactor.
2. The second self-propelled gun: steam generators, volume compensator, circulation pumps of the first circuit.
3. The third self-propelled gun: a turbogenerator with additional equipment. It was here that electricity was generated.
4. Fourth self-propelled gun: control point, backup diesel generator and batteries.

   

The TPP-3 was to make its way to the place where electricity was required, after which the self-propelled guns lined up in the right order and connected by pipelines and cables. Then it was necessary to fill the lead with water, inside which the reactor itself was located (the lower left self-propelled gun in the previous photograph). Water acted as an additional radiation protection. In addition, around the self-propelled vessels with the reactor and steam generators, boxes of concrete or earth had to be erected (probably easier to dig for them in the ground by a bulldozer with piles on the perimeter). This was also dictated by the protection of personnel from radiation emitted by the reactor itself and circulating water between self-propelled guns. After all the preparations, it was possible to “cut the switch.”

The tests of TPP-3 continued until 1965, when the project was suspended, and in 1969 – completely closed. Obviously, the use of “loitering” nuclear reactors was considered too risky from the point of view of ensuring safety.

Pamir-630D

But TES-3 was not the only experiment of its kind. In 1963, work began on the development of a new mobile nuclear power plant. Development lasted a long time, in the amount of about 22 years. Only in 1985, was finally built a working model.

This time it was decided to abandon the water-water reactor. For his work, it required a quantity of water that was simply impossible to provide in some regions where mobile nuclear power plants are needed – for example, in the tundra or in the arid steppes. Therefore, a compact single-circuit reactor was mounted on the Pamir-630D, in which both the coolant and the working medium were nitrogen tetraoxide. This compound has a high thermal conductivity and heat capacity. But nitrogen tetraoxide is dangerous because when it comes into contact with water, a chemical reaction occurs with the formation of nitric acid. This fact significantly increased the danger of operating the nuclear power plant: if the personnel allowed an oversight and there is water in the circuit (for example, condensate), the acid formed could destroy the circuit elements or even the reactor itself.

The NPP complex consisted of four machines: Two wheeled semi-trailers towed by MAZ-7960 heavy-duty truck tractors, which were the processing of MAZ-537, and two auxiliary vehicles based on KRAZ.

MAZ-357

Composition of the equipment:

1. The first machine (semitrailer): reactor, steam generator with heat exchanger, emergency cooling system, two autonomous diesel generators. At the stern of the semitrailer was a huge cooling fan.
2. The second machine (semitrailer): a turbogenerator (producing electricity)
3. Third machine: NPP control system.
4. The fourth machine: backup diesel generators.

The reactor power is 10 MW, the power of the turbogenerator is 630 kW.

When a string of cars came to the parking lot, the reactor and turbogenerator semi-trailers were installed side by side, they were put on jacks, removed and transported to the safe distance of the wheel. Semitrailers were connected by cables and pipelines, and not less than 150 m from them were installed two other machines of the complex. As you understand, all this was done to protect personnel from radiation. The time with the wheels is not quite clear. The only thing that comes to mind: they needed to be removed so that they did not start fonit because of the induced radioactivity and did not “contaminate” and did not spread radioactive dust on the roads then.

The tests of the Pamir-630D “Continued from November 1985 to August 1986, after which the project was closed. But on April 26, 1986, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, and this tragedy affected many projects in the nuclear power industry and the military-industrial complex. “Pamir-630D” began to be actively criticized (and not without reason) as a technically dangerous design, and in the end in 1988 the project was closed. Information about the fate of machines is contradictory.