POSTED BY

AT 9:00 AM
Wednesday March 18, 2009

nuclear • nukes • power plants • retro • russia • soviet • ussr

Have Atoms, Will Travel: Mobile Soviet nuclear power plants

Before Chernobyl, Russian engineers deployed autonomous nuclear power plants to remote locations, many of which rode on self-powered tank treads. [via Red Ferret]

Previously:

18 Comments

yri

#1 – 10:16 AM March 18, 2009

Now that's cool, and very handy for Mars exploration. :-)

Trent Hawkins

#2 – 10:35 AM March 18, 2009

Does it come with an optional death-ray attachment?

artbot

#3 – 11:46 AM March 18, 2009

Amazing how mobile these things are when you remove all shielding and extraneous safety features.

Anonymous Anonymous

#4 – 12:52 PM March 18, 2009

In Soviet Russia, nuclear power comes to you!

spazzm

#5 – 2:42 PM March 18, 2009

That looks incredibly cool.
Russian nuclear power does not have a great reputation, but it might be possible to make these things quite safe.
Enclose the thing in 5-10 cm of lead, and that should stop everything but some of the gamma radiation. I reckon it would be safe to operate as long as one doesn't lean on the thing for extended periods of time.

Scuba SM

#6 – 2:49 PM March 18, 2009

Trent,

Yes it does. All you have to do is open the door in the reactor shielding.

Mindpowered

#7 – 3:36 PM March 18, 2009

You know, that could revolutionise mining and mineral exploration as we know it.

redlemons

#8 – 3:46 PM March 18, 2009

I believe the US is considering developing something similarly portable, though not quite as cool. I might have even read it on here! The general idea is: a small disposable reactor that remains the property of the US, who also handle desposal. To sell to countries who aren't allowed nukes.

Anonymous Anonymous

#9 – 12:47 AM March 19, 2009

The US has lots of mobile nuclear power plants. However, they are being used by the US Navy for submarines and aircraft carriers.

Anonymous Anonymous

#10 – 3:08 AM March 19, 2009

Needs more jawas.

theLadyfingers

#11 – 3:53 AM March 19, 2009

I believe the US fitted nuclear-powered taps to Russian undersea cables during the Cold War. Simple, self-contained nuclear reactors designed to be dropped into the deeps and forgotten.

Anonymous Anonymous

#12 – 4:33 AM March 19, 2009

#9 Actually, those were powered by Radioisotope Thermal Generators (RTGs) rather than reactors. Similar to the RTGs used for deep space probes, they do NOT contain a critical mass of fissile material. Rather they function like one of those portable electric coolers (eg coolmax) in reverse.

dole

#13 – 9:48 AM March 19, 2009

Might be a bit thick of me to ask, but anyone know how these were autonomously driven? Was there similar GPS tech back then? To think about Russia using nuclear power on small beacons, in lighthouses and in a mobile aspect is cool enough, but being autonomous and that long ago? How how?

urshrew

#14 – 10:26 AM March 19, 2009

Wasn't this in a RTS game?

Downpressor

#15 – 11:17 AM March 20, 2009

Was getting assigned to crew one of these the same kinda death sentence as crewing a Soviet sub?

KevinC

#16 – 7:56 PM March 20, 2009

@Dole, I believe the author misspoke by calling them autonomous. Or I need to look up the word autonomous in the dictionary.
Best,
-KevinC

astronautgo

#17 – 6:48 PM March 22, 2009

That's no reactor. There's a shoggoth in there.