10-06-2008, 10:50 PM
<b>Russia's Nuclear Shutdown Pads Reactor Orders, Purges Chernobyl </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- ``All zones, fire at the nuclear power plant,'' booms a loudspeaker at 9:00 a.m. near the Volgodonsk station deep in southwest Russia.
<b>Within 3 minutes, emergency personnel known as liquidators spill out of fire trucks wearing rubber boots and gloves to guard against electric shock as flames dance inside. At 9:14 a.m. an armored car rolls up, turret slowly twisting, measuring radiation. The command center receives a reading transmission: Abnormal. </b>
The shutdown, staged over two days each September and involving 800 specialists, is a rehearsal for an event the Russians are trying to show will never happen again 22 years after the Chernobyl disaster. At stake this year is an $80 billion global backlog of orders for Russian reactors and nuclear fuel that underpin the industry's future.
``Moscow, we are in the Ready-for-Emergency mode,'' Volgodonsk director Alexander Palamarchuk reports over a satellite camera to his superiors in the Russian capital 1,200 kilometers (740 miles) north.
Officials from 11 countries, including Iran, South Korea and France, observed the simulation on Sept. 24 and 25. <b>At the event, Russia staged a technical flaw, similar to one that occurred at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania in 1979, the worst nuclear incident in U.S. history. The glitch involved a relief valve failing to close automatically</b>.
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<b>Within 3 minutes, emergency personnel known as liquidators spill out of fire trucks wearing rubber boots and gloves to guard against electric shock as flames dance inside. At 9:14 a.m. an armored car rolls up, turret slowly twisting, measuring radiation. The command center receives a reading transmission: Abnormal. </b>
The shutdown, staged over two days each September and involving 800 specialists, is a rehearsal for an event the Russians are trying to show will never happen again 22 years after the Chernobyl disaster. At stake this year is an $80 billion global backlog of orders for Russian reactors and nuclear fuel that underpin the industry's future.
``Moscow, we are in the Ready-for-Emergency mode,'' Volgodonsk director Alexander Palamarchuk reports over a satellite camera to his superiors in the Russian capital 1,200 kilometers (740 miles) north.
Officials from 11 countries, including Iran, South Korea and France, observed the simulation on Sept. 24 and 25. <b>At the event, Russia staged a technical flaw, similar to one that occurred at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania in 1979, the worst nuclear incident in U.S. history. The glitch involved a relief valve failing to close automatically</b>.
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