Aqtau nuclear power plant
| Aqtau nuclear power plant | ||
|---|---|---|
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| location | ||
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| Coordinates | 43 ° 36 ′ 24 ″ N , 51 ° 17 ′ 0 ″ E | |
| Country: |
 Kazakhstan
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| Data | ||
| Owner: | Kazatomprom | |
| Operator: | Kazatomprom | |
| Commercial operation: | July 16, 1973 | |
| Shutdown: | April 22, 1999 | |
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Decommissioned reactors (gross): |
1 (90 MW) | |
| Energy fed in since commissioning: | 1,853 GWh | |
| The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation . | ||
The switched-off nuclear power plant Aqtau (formerly nuclear power plant Shevchenko ) with a fast breeder reactor of type BN-350 is in Aqtau in Kazakhstan . The city was called Shevchenko from 1964 to 1992 , which is why the reactor is often mentioned under this name.
The sodium-cooled reactor used had a net electrical output of 52 MW and a gross output of 90 MW.
history
Construction began on January 10, 1964. The block was synchronized with the power grid for the first time on July 16, 1973 and went into commercial operation on the same day. It was finally shut down on April 22, 1999. During its operating time, it fed 1853 GWh into the power grid .
In 1997 the governments of the USA and Kazakhstan agreed on a joint program to improve the safety of the plutonium storage facility, in which the spent fuel elements from the nuclear power plant are stored. Until 2001 this program was carried out under the supervision of the IAEA. The new, specially developed storage casks are large and heavy, making the fuel assemblies much more difficult to steal than before. The United States and Kazakhstan agreed to store the fuel elements in these containers on the area of the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan. In 2007 the transport to Semipalatinsk was completed. The two states had also worked together to shut down the reactor.
There was also a risk of proliferation for nuclear weapons: the spent fuel elements from the nuclear power plant contained almost three tons of plutonium. With a content of over 90% 239 Pu, this plutonium is regarded as weapons plutonium and is suitable for the construction of nuclear weapons , although it is embedded in around 300 tons of spent fuel.
The reactor and its spent fuel are located on the shores of the Caspian Sea, on the opposite bank to Iran. Iran has close ties with the city of Aktau, where the reactor is located.
A second reactor at this location, also a breeder reactor, but with an electrical output of 350 MW, is vaguely planned.
Accidents
The worst incident in Aqtau in 1975 was a two-hour sodium fire because the sodium had come into contact with water. The incident was classified on the international rating scale for nuclear incidents at level 1.
At the end of December 1994, according to the OMRI Daily Digest , another fire broke out in the facility because oil leaked from a coolant pump. However, the fire was quickly extinguished and no radiation leaked. The Kazakh Nuclear Safety Authority criticized the mass media reporting on this incident. According to the supervisory authority, the reactor should be shut down for maintenance work in order to change a seal on a coolant pump, because the coolant pressure caused a whistling. This caused a major leak on the main coolant pump. As it was feared that the hot oil would flow to the sodium circuit, the fire brigade was called as a preventive measure . However, no fire broke out. The incident was classified on the international rating scale for nuclear incidents at level 0.
use
A type BN-350 reactor was used in the nuclear power plant . In addition to generating electricity, it provided process heat for a seawater desalination plant and is built in a loop design .
The BN-350 was specially designed for the purpose of power generation (52 MW net or 90 MW gross) and water desalination (120,000 m³ fresh water per day), which corresponds to a total output of 350 MWe. It was the only reactor in the world that heated a seawater desalination plant.
Experience has shown that the operating and maintenance costs (reliability, availability, capacity factor) for power generation of the BN-350 could compete economically with conventional power plants (fossil fuels or light water reactors), but the capital costs of this plant were high. In June 1994 the reactor had to be shut down due to a lack of funding for new fuel.
Data of the reactor block
The Aqtau nuclear power plant has one power plant block :
| Reactor block | Reactor type | net power |
gross power |
start of building | Network synchronization |
Commercialization of essential operation |
switching off processing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aqtau | BN reactor (BN-350) | 52 MW | 90 MW | 10/01/1964 | 07/16/1973 | 07/16/1973 | 04/22/1999 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA : "Kazakhstan, Republic of: Nuclear Power Reactors - Alphabetic" (English)
- ↑ nti.org - Securing the Bomb: Securing Nuclear Warheads and Materials BN-350 Spent Fuel Security ( Memento of March 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ icjt.org - Kazakhstan Locations - Nuclear Power Plants of the World ( Memento of the original from February 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ icjt.org - AKTAU (Kazakhstan) Information - Nuclear Power Plants of the World ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ INSP: Beloyarsk Operating History (English)
- ↑ NTI - Nuclear Facilities Kazakhstan ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ EARLY SOVIET FAST REACTORS - BN View Graphs ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ INSC: Database - Overview of Fast Reactors in Russia and the Former Soviet Union ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
