Light water graphite moderated reactor

RBMK Reactor Class
View of the Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant site, where four RBMK-1000 reactors have been built – the fourth reactor was however cancelled before completion.
Generation	Generation II reactor
Reactor concept	Graphite-moderated boiling water reactor
Reactor line	RBMK (Reaktor Bolshoy Moshchnosti Kanalniy)
Reactor types	RBMK-1000 RBMK-1500 RBMKP-2400
Status	26 blocks: 11 operational 1 destroyed 9 cancelled 5 decommissioned (as of 2013)
Main parameters of the reactor core
Fuel (fissile material)	235U (NU/SEU/LEU)
Fuel state	Solid
Neutron energy spectrum	Thermal
Primary control method	Control rods
Primary moderator	Graphite
Primary coolant	Liquid (light water)
Reactor usage
Primary use	Generation of electricity
Power (thermal)	RBMK-1000: 3,200 MWth RBMK-1500: 4,800 MWth RBMKP-2400: 6,500 MWth
Power (electric)	RBMK-1000: 1,000 MWe RBMK-1500: 1,500 MWe RBMKP-2400: 2,400 MWe

26 blocks:

The RBMK (Russian: Реактор Большой Мощности Канальный Reaktor Bolshoy Moshchnosti Kanalnyy, “High Power Channel-type Reactor”) is a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor designed and built by the Soviet Union.

The RBMK is an early Generation II reactor and the oldest commercial reactor design still in wide operation. Certain aspects of the RBMK reactor design, such as the active removal of decay heat, the positive void coefficient properties, the graphite-tipped control rods and instability at low power levels, contributed to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, in which an RBMK exploded during a mishandled test, and radioactivity was released over a large portion of Europe. The disaster prompted worldwide calls for the reactors to be completely decommissioned. However, there is still considerable reliance on RBMK facilities for power in Russia. The imperfections in the design of RBMK-1000 reactors were eliminated soon after the Chernobyl accident, and for more than twenty years a dozen of RBMK reactors have been operating without noteworthy accidents. While nine RBMK blocks under construction were cancelled after the Chernobyl disaster, and the last of three remaining RBMK blocks at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was finally shut down in 2000, as of 2013 there were still 11 RBMK reactors operating in Russia – though all 11 have been retrofitted with a number of safety updates.

EU membership in Eastern Europe is contingent on Lithuania closing down its RBMK reactors.

The RBMK was the culmination of the Soviet nuclear power program to produce a water-cooled power reactor based on their graphite-moderated plutonium production military reactors. The first of these, Obninsk AM-1 (“Атом Мирный”, Atom Mirny, Russian for "Atoms for Peace") generated 5 MW of electricity from 30 MW thermal power, and supplied Obninsk from 1954 until 1959.