May 2020. Pevek city of Russia situated on the sea shore. For the first time, a floating nuclear plant was deployed in the sea. Through this, electricity started being supplied to the entire city. After this, the coal power generation plant here was closed.
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Like Russia, now India will also build a small modular reactor nuclear plant floating in the sea. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced this in the budget presented on July 23.
In Bhaskar Explainer, you will know the complete story of this floating nuclear plant, how it will generate electricity without coal and water…
Question 1: What has Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said about building small reactors or floating nuclear plants in the sea? answer: In the budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, Nuclear energy will play an important role in developed India, the government is taking three important decisions in this regard…
1. India will work with private companies to build small modular reactors. Countries like Russia are sharing technology for small modular nuclear reactors with India.
2. The government will spend Rs 1 lakh crore to promote research and development in the field of nuclear energy.
3. The government will work on the goal of generating maximum electricity through nuclear energy.
Question 2: What is small nuclear power plant? answer: There are generally three types of nuclear power plants around the world…
- micro reactor
- Small Modular Reactor
- normal nuclear reactor
Small modular reactor nuclear plant is also called floating nuclear power plant in common language, because it can be easily moved from one place to another. The modular used in it is usually much smaller than the modular of big nuclear power plants. Understand from the example of Russia…
Question 3: How many countries in the world have been able to build such nuclear plants? answer: There are only two countries in the world where such nuclear power plants are operational. First- Lomonosov of Russia. Second- China’s HTR-PM nuclear plant. Russia’s plant produces 300 MW of electricity daily while China’s produces 210 MW of electricity daily.
Apart from this, Argentina, South Korea and America are such countries where work on this technology is going on. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the US Department of Energy has said in its report that work is underway on its licensing process. There is every possibility that America will prepare this reactor by 2035.
Question 4: Why will the small modular reactor power plant built in India be special? answer: The cost of building the small nuclear reactor that has been announced to be built in India is about 8 times less than that of a large nuclear reactor. Along with this, this nuclear power plant can work continuously for 24 hours.
It can also be deployed in hilly areas along the sea shore. Even today, electricity is supplied from generators in the islands of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the southernmost part of India.
The Indian Army has the only three-tier command in Andaman. He also has to resort to generators for electricity. Such power plants will prove to be very helpful for providing electricity at these places.
The small modular reactor that Russia is using consists of many small micro reactors. Many micro reactors will also be used in the small reactors to be built in India.
Question 5: How will electricity be generated in Small Modular Reactor Power Plant? answer: Till now the four most important means of generating electricity in India are…
1. Coal 2. Big water dams 3. Solar energy 4. Wind energy
The cost of generating electricity through all these means is very high. Electricity generated in this way also releases more carbon into our environment.
The specialty of small nuclear power plant is that electricity is generated through a chemical process using uranium. In this way, the cost of generating electricity is less and the production is more.
Uranium is so powerful that if it passes through a water pipe, the water in the pipe starts boiling. Water vapor is formed by boiling water and this water vapor is used to rotate the turbine of the electric power plant. This is how electricity is generated. Such a plant requires refueling once in 30 years.
Question 6: What are the benefits of small nuclear power plants to the Indian government? answer: India wants to set up small nuclear power plants instead of big nuclear power plants for 6 reasons…
- Countries around the world are pressurizing India to have zero carbon emissions and use less coal. After China, coal is used the most in India to generate electricity.
- For this reason, India wants to generate electricity through such small nuclear reactors. It produces 7 times less carbon than a coal reactor.
- SMRs are easy to design and fabricate. It can be connected to the grid of any power plant. There is no need to create a separate power grid for this.
- Land acquisition for nuclear power plants in India is a big challenge. This type of plant can also be installed on a ship or a big vehicle. In this way it will be possible to set up a small nuclear plant in the shortest possible time.
- Russia has announced to provide advanced technology to India for such a plant.
- The demand for electricity in India is expected to increase by 80%-150% by 2050. SMR is a plant through which every city or any company can generate its own electricity.
Question 7: Despite there being large nuclear reactors in the world, why was there a need for a small reactor power plant? answer: Generally, power plants with larger reactors are likely to release more radioactive material uranium. It becomes very difficult to control it. Whereas the technical shortcomings of small reactor can be easily removed. It can also be controlled easily. Power plants with large reactors can be extremely dangerous. This can be understood from the story of Chernobyl…
Testing was to take place at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant on 26 April 1986. Before the accident, there were four nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl Power Station. Work was going on on two reactors when the accident occurred. The test started on the night of 26 April and at around 1:30 in the night the valve controlling the turbine was removed.
The system that keeps the reactor cool in case of emergency and the nuclear fusion taking place inside the reactor were also stopped. Suddenly the process of nuclear fusion inside the reactor went out of control. All eight cooling pumps of the reactor started running at low power, due to which the reactor started heating up and this further intensified the nuclear reaction. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Soviet Union is one of the world’s largest industrial accidents.
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Soviet Union is one of the world’s largest industrial accidents. This is a picture after that tragic accident.
After the blast, there was chaos in the nuclear plant and while efforts were being made to shut down the reactor, a massive explosion occurred. The explosion was so powerful that the roof of the reactor was blown off. 40 people working there died in that accident. The radioactive radiation released from this blast was 400 times more than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
For the next several days, radiation continued to emanate from the Chernobyl power plant, which spread through the air to Northern and Eastern Europe. Due to the spread of radiation, 50 lakh people of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus got affected by it. Due to the spread of radiation, 4 thousand people died from serious diseases like cancer. There was a loss of Rs 2.5 lakh crore due to this accident. In 2000, the last operating reactor at Chernobyl was also shut down.