18 Facts About RBMK

RBMK is a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor designed and built by the Soviet Union.

RBMK is an early Generation II reactor and the oldest commercial reactor design still in wide operation.

Only two RBMK blocks were started after 1986: Ignalina-2 and Smolensk-3.

RBMK was the culmination of the Soviet nuclear power program to produce a water-cooled power reactor with dual-use potential based on their graphite-moderated plutonium production military reactors.

RBMK was proclaimed by some as the national reactor of the Soviet Union, probably due to nationalism because of its unique design, large size and power output and especially since the VVER was called the American reactor by its detractors in the Soviet Union, since its design is more similar to that of western PWR reactors.

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RBMK was mainly designed at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy and NIKIET, headed by Anatoly Aleksandrov and Nikolai Dollezhal respectively, from 1964 to 1966.

The RBMK was favored over the VVER by the Soviet Union due to its ease of manufacture and its large power output which would allow the Soviet government to easily meet their central economic planning targets.

The flaws in the original RBMK design were recognized by others, including from within the Kurchatov Institute before the first units were built, but the orders for construction of the first RBMK units, which were at Leningrad, had already been issued in 1966 by the Soviet government by the time their concerns reached the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Council of Ministers.

Plutonium production in an RBMK would have been achieved by operating the reactor under special thermal parameters, but this capability was abandoned early on.

Construction of the first RBMK, which was at Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, began in 1970.

The RBMK was considered by some in the Soviet Union to be already obsolete shortly after the commissioning of Chernobyl unit 1.

RBMK design was built primarily to be powerful, quick to build and easy to maintain.

Additionally, RBMK reactors were designed to allow fuel rods to be changed at full power without shutting down, both for refueling and for plutonium production .

Two RBMK-2400s were planned for the Kostroma Nuclear Power Plant.

Some later RBMK designs did include control rods on electromagnetic grapples, thus controlling the reaction speed and, if necessary, stopping the reaction completely.

All RBMK reactors underwent significant changes following the Chernobyl disaster.

Graphite moderator blocks in the RBMK can be repaired and replaced in situ, unlike in the other current large graphite moderated reactor, the Advanced gas-cooled reactor.

Post-Soviet redesign of the RBMK is the MKER, with improved safety and a containment building.