A great deal of talk about Japan and nuclear threat have suddenly reminded me where I had been living since I was born. Near a nuclear reactor!This is The high-Beam Reactor PIK, situated in Gatchina town, 40 km from Saint-Petersbourg.
My grandmather and grandfather and many grandparent and parents of my friends are working there.
The city itself began developing since the reactor was build in 1978.
PIC is Russia's only really advanced neutron source of constant actionin. It is research reactor (the maximum neutron flux with the flow "n/sm2Chs 1015, the number of positions on the beams).
It is sad that experimental possibilities PIK reactor are unique, and in coming years anywhere in the world such reactors would not be created.
The reactor is still working these days descpite it had exceeded its limits years ago. The second ractor was built and officially was opened 2 years ago.
Only officially though.
It is still under constraction and I could not find any person from Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (owns the reactor) who could surely tell me what is the future of this project.This reactor is about 5 km from my home. My grandms along with hundreds of engineers spends there every working day for last 50 years.
"We were one of the first to know about Chernobyl explosion, - she says. - When the morning shift came, all of them must be checked for radiation level, you know, so all the team members were passing through checking gates and were ringing. Then everybody undertood that the level of radiation is too high from normal. Then we got the message to increse security level on the reactor. We got to know what happened miles away in Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant".
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| Chernobyl Power Plant, Ukraine |
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| Neutron reactor PIK, Gatchina, Russia |
The people who worked in Ukraine, so-called liquidators (reported 600 000 people) didn't know WHAT KIND of aftereffect it could be. They didn't know the level of radiation and the size of the peril.
Today people in Japan know a lot. Though, as i can pretend, neither they nor we people in fornt of TV screens get the full and reliable information.
I was 3 month old when Chernobyl happened. I am 25 now. I know, when I'll be 50, there still shall be those people who will be suffering from Chernobyl disaster, and thosse who will be suffering from Fukushima disaster. Pray for them.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/photogalleries/chernobyl/photo3.html
http://www.chernobyl.info/Default.aspx?tabid=120
http://www.pnpi.spb.ru/index.html.en
http://wikimapia.org/14830435/The-high-Beam-Reactor-PIK
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
In italy, after the japan tragedy, members of the government have said that the 'nuclear project' must go ahead and that nothing can stop the project. While all the european country are talking about the possibility to close the nuclear or reduce those, italy want to make nuclear and disinvest on renewable energies
ReplyDeleteYes, I understand what you are trying to say.
ReplyDeleteBut you see, take Germany. Yesterday green party (which is against nuclear development) won the election in one of the states. And thousands of people went in the streets to protest again nuclear projects
But look from the economic point of view. Look at your electricity bill. If Europe stops nuclear plants, it has to buy oil and coal (from Russia, Middle east and Africa). Can you imagine the increasing of your own bill? do these people think about it when they go into the streets?
Or eberybody earns so much to pay for electricity 2-3 times more?