Bag's Rants

Russia making floating Nuclear Power Plant.

My mind was going overtime when I read this. First of all I had visions of a big smokey oil platform type ship which would make Chernobyl look like a school experiment gone wrong. A meltdown in the ocean could be disastrous.

Thinking about it though. We have many sea going vehicles which are powered by nuclear reactors. Many have also been lost. The Soviets, who were not known for their safety record have changed significantly since the Cold War. Seems that most people do not want to waste their lives because the State wants to save a few roubles.

Although, a ship? How does that work? It sounds like they are going to make it almost a permanent site. So I can only guess that it must be cheaper to build a casing around the reactor similar to a Typhoon than a hardened facility like Chernobyl. Also disposal should be easier as they can simply move it to some obscure dumping ground and ground it for decommissioning like they have done with their old nuclear boats.

Can it really be made as secure though? In today's world of terrorists can these things be really safe?

posted by Bag @ 12:38 pm