wikipedia is wrong at that bit - there is impossible to disable the protective mechanism and they tested a different thing (whether the energy output of the turbine at shutdown levels is enough to run the cooling pumps while the diesel generators are starting).
then, as you said, neither the xenon poisoning, nor the neutron level were somehow indicated. the only thing that the operators have seen is a very low reactivity margin. with this information the operators decided that the reactor with that low reactivity margin cannot be operated anymore because if even some negative reactivity occurs it cannot be compensated because all the control rods are already up and the reactor should be shut down. but since the reactor should be shut down anyway when the experiment starts, that would be ok (or so they thought).
I wouldn't call a complete control rod redesign a "minor modification". There were quite major modifications at all existing RBMK power plants. Also, while the upgraded RBMK continue to operate now (except the Ignalina power plant which partially shut down in 2004 and will shut down completely this year) and while they are considered safer than before, they are still lacking a containment and so are unsafe. No new RBMK type reactors will be built.
Even at the Kursk nuclear power plant site, where there are already 5 RBMK reactors (the fifth is still under construction since 1986 and will be the a completely redesigned RBMK version with a containment building), no new RBMK type reactors would be added. Russia has decided to build a second power plant in Kursk with much safer VVER type reactors. The oldest RBMK reactors at this site would be shut down then.
The only reason why RBMK reactors are still in operation is that they provide about 50% of the whole russian nuclear power. RBMK type reactors are huge and have very high output (for example, the Ignalina reactors were the world most powerful nuclear reactors at the time they were built) together with relative cheap operation. Still they will be phased out for safer designs.
There are no RBMK reactors identical to Chernobyl in current operation. Part of them was shut down, others were modified (redesigned control rods, a faster SCRAM system and a number of other upgrades).
There were also some RBMK accidents before the Chernobyl disaster:
- the partial core meltdown at the Leningrad nuclear power plant in 1975 - the problems with the Ignalina nuclear power plant in 1984, nearly right after the start
Uhm, wrong. At the SCRAM moment neither the reactor wasn't too far gone yet nor control rod channels were warped. The SCRAM operation has caused the runaway (the graphite rod tips displaced the water, a far better neutron absorber). Because of that the bottom part of the reactor (a RBMK is very large) went crazy (12 times thermal output of before), after two or three seconds already, and since the SCRAM operation of RBMK was very slow, the control rod channels were warped at exactly this point. Another three seconds later the thermal output was at 30 GW already and it went boom.
The problem with reaction increase after a SCRAM was already known, the Leningrad nuclear power station nearly exploded and the technicians at the Ignalina nuclear power plant also have expirienced this problem a couple of years before the Chernobyl disaster and already proposed modifications of the control rods, but the designer - a well known and respected soviet scientist who worked at the design of nearly all soviet reactors - ignored the warnings.
After the Chernobyl accident the manual was heavily rewritten so that the reactor may not be operated on low power and may not be operated without a number of control rods in it. Also the control rod design was modified, the operating power level was lowered somewhat and the reactor fuel must be more enriched now.
RBMK was inherently unsafe - a SCRAM operation may never ever produce a reactor explosion and this is what happened. also, the reactor was operated within the original design envelope (i read the original manual). after the explosion the manual was heavily rewritten.
i mentioned that my phone is running windows mobile. windows mobile phones are far better at functioning as pdas than cell phones (amongst other things because to make calls they run software which lets them act as a cellphone).
it looks that you can write but you can't read. it is a rather strange constellation.
skype works well enough on my windows mobile phone and umts. 128 kbit/s is plenty for speech, especially if compressed (euro isdn uses an uncompressed 64 kbit/s channel for speech and it is way better than analogue landline).
i had exactly the same difficulty talking in russian to a russian friend (also about firewalls).
here in germany we use the english word for the firewall but german words for pretty much the rest of pc-related vocabulary. russians use english words for pc-related vocabulary, except for the firewall. there they use the german word for an actual real world firewall: brandmauer.
you also can use remote desktop on your windows mobile device. works like a charm. i run firefox that way because the cpu in my desktop is way faster so the pages render faster.
for navigation system, touchscreen control is imho much better and faster to use than normal dials. radio presets can be changed by the controls on the steering wheel.
the problem is, they don't care. if they write back, they write something along the lines of "i am a professional politician, i was elected so i know better than you what's best for the country".
i wouldn't call it "overrun". there are certainly many more suvs out there than 10 years ago and there are by all means too many of them (even one of them is one too many) but they are still a minority and they aren't as large as american ones.
depends on a school. some schools teach taijiquan as some kind of dance to meditative music. some schools teach it as a kung fu style it is (and it hurts).
i mean, some people think baguazhang is only about walking in circles where in fact it has got quite a lot of common with aikido.
in that case you should also enforce the same rigorous driver education and driver tests as in germany. this actually would make a much bigger difference.
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wikipedia is wrong at that bit - there is impossible to disable the protective mechanism and they tested a different thing (whether the energy output of the turbine at shutdown levels is enough to run the cooling pumps while the diesel generators are starting).
then, as you said, neither the xenon poisoning, nor the neutron level were somehow indicated. the only thing that the operators have seen is a very low reactivity margin. with this information the operators decided that the reactor with that low reactivity margin cannot be operated anymore because if even some negative reactivity occurs it cannot be compensated because all the control rods are already up and the reactor should be shut down. but since the reactor should be shut down anyway when the experiment starts, that would be ok (or so they thought).
I wouldn't call a complete control rod redesign a "minor modification". There were quite major modifications at all existing RBMK power plants. Also, while the upgraded RBMK continue to operate now (except the Ignalina power plant which partially shut down in 2004 and will shut down completely this year) and while they are considered safer than before, they are still lacking a containment and so are unsafe. No new RBMK type reactors will be built.
Even at the Kursk nuclear power plant site, where there are already 5 RBMK reactors (the fifth is still under construction since 1986 and will be the a completely redesigned RBMK version with a containment building), no new RBMK type reactors would be added. Russia has decided to build a second power plant in Kursk with much safer VVER type reactors. The oldest RBMK reactors at this site would be shut down then.
The only reason why RBMK reactors are still in operation is that they provide about 50% of the whole russian nuclear power. RBMK type reactors are huge and have very high output (for example, the Ignalina reactors were the world most powerful nuclear reactors at the time they were built) together with relative cheap operation. Still they will be phased out for safer designs.
There are no RBMK reactors identical to Chernobyl in current operation. Part of them was shut down, others were modified (redesigned control rods, a faster SCRAM system and a number of other upgrades).
There were also some RBMK accidents before the Chernobyl disaster:
- the partial core meltdown at the Leningrad nuclear power plant in 1975
- the problems with the Ignalina nuclear power plant in 1984, nearly right after the start
Uhm, wrong.
At the SCRAM moment neither the reactor wasn't too far gone yet nor control rod channels were warped.
The SCRAM operation has caused the runaway (the graphite rod tips displaced the water, a far better neutron absorber). Because of that the bottom part of the reactor (a RBMK is very large) went crazy (12 times thermal output of before), after two or three seconds already, and since the SCRAM operation of RBMK was very slow, the control rod channels were warped at exactly this point. Another three seconds later the thermal output was at 30 GW already and it went boom.
The problem with reaction increase after a SCRAM was already known, the Leningrad nuclear power station nearly exploded and the technicians at the Ignalina nuclear power plant also have expirienced this problem a couple of years before the Chernobyl disaster and already proposed modifications of the control rods, but the designer - a well known and respected soviet scientist who worked at the design of nearly all soviet reactors - ignored the warnings.
After the Chernobyl accident the manual was heavily rewritten so that the reactor may not be operated on low power and may not be operated without a number of control rods in it. Also the control rod design was modified, the operating power level was lowered somewhat and the reactor fuel must be more enriched now.
RBMK was inherently unsafe - a SCRAM operation may never ever produce a reactor explosion and this is what happened. also, the reactor was operated within the original design envelope (i read the original manual). after the explosion the manual was heavily rewritten.
same shit happened in chernobyl - lack of useful information (and of course knowingly stupid design).
i mentioned that my phone is running windows mobile. windows mobile phones are far better at functioning as pdas than cell phones (amongst other things because to make calls they run software which lets them act as a cellphone).
it looks that you can write but you can't read. it is a rather strange constellation.
skype works well enough on my windows mobile phone and umts. 128 kbit/s is plenty for speech, especially if compressed (euro isdn uses an uncompressed 64 kbit/s channel for speech and it is way better than analogue landline).
here you are.
i am russian and i only can repeat what cyberax said: russian keywords look awkward because of the grammatical case problem.
remember that scene of "life of brian" with "people called romanes they go the house?"
exactly the same problem.
i had exactly the same difficulty talking in russian to a russian friend (also about firewalls).
here in germany we use the english word for the firewall but german words for pretty much the rest of pc-related vocabulary.
russians use english words for pc-related vocabulary, except for the firewall. there they use the german word for an actual real world firewall: brandmauer.
unfortunately it doesn't seem to work with pronunciation. english spoken with finnish accent is very difficult to understand.
And its project's code name: Teo & Tea
like this one?
you also can use remote desktop on your windows mobile device. works like a charm. i run firefox that way because the cpu in my desktop is way faster so the pages render faster.
for navigation system, touchscreen control is imho much better and faster to use than normal dials. radio presets can be changed by the controls on the steering wheel.
virgin, virgin :-b
the problem is, they don't care.
if they write back, they write something along the lines of "i am a professional politician, i was elected so i know better than you what's best for the country".
don't believe me? read it up yourself
actually there is no way a strip-search could have happened in a soviet school. only the police had the right to do such a thing.
not worldwide. russian aviation is fully metric.
well, at least it was russian between 1733 and 1867
i wouldn't call it "overrun". there are certainly many more suvs out there than 10 years ago and there are by all means too many of them (even one of them is one too many) but they are still a minority and they aren't as large as american ones.
depends on a school. some schools teach taijiquan as some kind of dance to meditative music.
some schools teach it as a kung fu style it is (and it hurts).
i mean, some people think baguazhang is only about walking in circles where in fact it has got quite a lot of common with aikido.
tomtom's first navigation software came out in 2001.
in that case you should also enforce the same rigorous driver education and driver tests as in germany. this actually would make a much bigger difference.