Finnish press: Russia is going to resume the installation of beacons with nuclear fuel in the north of the country
The Finnish publication Talouselämä reports that it has information that Russia allegedly intends to resume a program to install so-called "nuclear beacons" in the north of the country. At one time, they were used in the Soviet Union to provide navigation in the northwestern latitudes, where, due to harsh conditions, it was difficult to ensure the operation of conventional lighthouses.
Nuclear lighthouses were equipped with Beta-M radioactive thermoelectric generators operating on the strontium-90 isotope. Due to the high heat transfer of the isotope, a current was generated in the lighting device, which ensured the year-round operation of the lighthouses in an autonomous mode. According to Megaprojects, more than a thousand lighthouses operating on the Beta-M generator were installed in the USSR until the beginning of the 90s of the last century in the north and in the Baltic Sea.
- said the Finnish professor of nuclear engineering Juhani Hyuvarinen.
After the collapse of the USSR in the early 90s, the program for the development of “nuclear navigation” was suspended, some of the equipment of the lighthouses was dismantled, and some, according to Hyuvarinen, were simply stolen in the post-Soviet confusion. The professor suggests that people were attracted by the fact that the lighthouses are constantly heated, they were dismantled and the fuel rods were taken away for heating, not realizing how dangerous it was.
- I briefly summarize the fate of the Hyvarinen thieves.
The publication reports that some of these lighthouses are still operating in the north of Russia and at least one is located just a kilometer from the Norwegian border.
Megaprojects reports that in 2016 Russia allegedly set out to resume the program for the development of "nuclear navigation". For this, a new type of nuclear beacons was developed, in which it was planned to use the nickel-90 isotope instead of strontium-63. Unlike strontium, nickel rods are safer as they don't emit deadly gamma radiation.
However, according to the authors of the article, there is a risk that the equipment of such a beacon will be stolen. And then from radioactive elements, if they fall into "the wrong hands", it is quite possible to create a "dirty nuclear bomb", Finnish experts are sure.
For information. Russian scientists in 2016 announced the creation of a prototype battery operating on the nickel-63 isotope. The declared period of its uninterrupted operation is 50 years, the half-life of nickel-63 is 100 years. According to the authors, the invention has a wide range of applications: from medical equipment to spacecraft for deep space exploration. Scientists emphasize that nickel-63 is characterized by the so-called "soft" radiation that does not harm a living organism. At present, Rosatom is developing advanced nuclear isotope-based batteries, and such projects are underway in the United States.
This is how legends about “dangerous and treacherous Russians” are born in the West, in which the local public willingly believes. At the same time, the real danger associated with the shelling of the Zaporizhzhya NPP carried out by Ukrainian troops, as well as with terrorist attacks against the power lines of the Kursk NPP, for some reason does not bother Finnish experts.
- Alexander Grigoryev
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Маяк_в_Кашкаранцах.jpg
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