Release from the reactor is now down to tenths of curies per day, as an aerosol. Temperatures are now below 300°C in the core. A priority task was to shut down Units 1, 2 and 3 following the accident. Units 1 and 2 have been contaminated and by the year end will be back in operation, the operators rehoused. As for Unit 3: a review is in progress and may permit it to be brought back into use.
The social losses comprise 203 seriously injured, 31 dead, collective doses of 9 million manrem in 1986 and 29 million over the next 50 years. Decontamination of the surrounding land should enable limited economic use to recommence eventually.
The speaker now turned his attention to safety requirements before and after the Chernobyl accident. Beforehand, it was permissible for some control rods to be completely withdrawn: now none may be less than 1.2 meters into the core. The minimum equivalent number of fully-inserted rods must now be eighty: it was thirty. In the future the fuel enrichment will be raised form 2.0% to 2.4% which coupled with the greater amount of control rods permanently in the core will offset the positive void coefficient which was one of the principal design shortcomings. Finally, the reactor protection systems will be more highly automated so as to place less reliance on the operators.
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Some RBMK reactors are still operating and others will be brought back into operation following these changes. training is to be given to their operators.
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