Obninsk, the first “peaceful” nuclear power plant
- Obninsk, Soviet Union, 27 June 1954. The nuclear power plant, newly built 110 kilometres from Moscow, was first connected to the grid and was the first nuclear reactor producing industrial energy.
Obninsk was operating successfully until 29 April 2002, when there was no accident at the reactor plant. It has to be said, however, that the reactor produced very small scale energy and, in addition, it spent only four years connected to the public or commercial network; since 1959, the Obninsky reactor was used for the production and research of isotopes.
The construction of the reactor began on 1 January 1951. In a few years they achieved enormous technological development in order to be able to use atomic science for energy production, and not only in the Soviet Union. The Cold War had just erupted and the United States did not want to be left behind in a conflict that was playing at many levels. In 1949, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission acquired a large site in Idaho, where it built a reactors testing station. The STR Mark I reactor was ready for 1953. And yet, the Soviets won competition.
The military component to win this battle of the Cold War was fundamental, or rather, the abandonment of the military component. The US programme was intended to supply power to warships and submarines, while the Soviets would use it to meet civilian needs. They clearly made the decision consciously: The Obninsky power plant was named Atom Mirny or “peaceful atom.”
This atom was a fundamental milestone in the development of civilian nuclear power plants, but its contribution to peace was not very important; since then war and energy have been more united than ever, and not only in the Moscow environment.
I just saw a series from another sad detective. All the plots take place on a remote island in Scotland. You know how these fictions work: many dead, ordinary people but not so many, and the dark green landscape. This time it reminded me of a trip I made to the Scottish... [+]
Japan, 8th century. In the middle of the Nara Era they began to use the term furoshiki, but until the Edo Era (XVII-XIX. the 20th century) did not spread. Furoshiki is the art of collecting objects in ovens, but its etymology makes its origin clear: furo means bath and shiki... [+]
In an Egyptian mummy of 3,300 years ago, traces of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that caused the Justinian plague in the 6th century and the Black Plague in the 14th century, have just been found.
Experts until now believed that at that time the plague had spread only in... [+]
Greenland, the end of the 10th century. The first Scandinavian explorers and settlers arrived on the island. But by the 15th century these settlements had been abandoned and the original Inuit remained. But in 1721, the missionary Hans Egede organized an expedition and the... [+]
Tafallan, nekazal giroko etxe batean sortu zen 1951. urtean. “Neolitikoan bezala bizi ginen, animaliez eta soroez inguratuta”. Nerabe zelarik, 'Luzuriaga’ lantegian hasi zen lanean. Bertan, hogei urtez aritu zen. Lantegian ekintzaile sindikala izan zen;... [+]
