ATOM POWER IN RUSSIA

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27733, 10 August 1955, Page 13

ATOM POWER IN RUSSIA

Working Details Of Station ; (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) I (Rec. 11 p.m.) GENEVA, August 9. Soviet scientists revealed today that a Russian atomic power st—tion, which started operating - in June. 1954, had up to now produced about 15,000.000 kilowatt hours of electric energy. Professor D. I. Blokhintsev, a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, i reading a joint paper by himself and iMr N.. A. Nikolayev-, said the cost of one kilowatt hour of electricity produced by an atomic power station was still considerably higher than a similar quantity of electricity produced by a thermal power station. This was due to the small size of the reactor, its large consumption of Uranium 235. and also to a number of ;iecularities in the desian of the station. The heart of the operating atomic power station is a pressurised, watercooled, thermal uranium graphite reactor with a rated heat generating capacity of 30,000 kilowatts, the Soviet paper said. The atomic fuel used is enriched uranium containing 5 per cent, of U 235, the total charge being 550 kilograms. The paper said the station began full operations on June 27 last year, and has an output of 5000 kilowatts. The reactor is encased in a hermetical cylindrical steel jacket mounted on a concrete foundation. The jacket is filled with graphite brickwork pierced by 128 fuel channels.