The fifties of the twentieth century - the time when people "tamed the peaceful atom." Electricity obtained from the energy of nuclear decay appeared almost simultaneously with us and the Americans. At the same time, bold projects of "large" nuclear power plants, nuclear submarines and icebreakers were born. But today I would like to talk about a really unusual device: TPP-3, or a transportable nuclear power plant of small capacity.
The history of the creation of this amazing machine began in 1955, when Efim Pavlovich Slavsky (head of the atomic industry and one of the leaders of the Soviet nuclear military program) had a conversation with the director of the Kirov plant I. M. Sinev. It was there that the idea was voiced - to make a mobile nuclear power plant that could provide electricity to objects remote from the center - in Siberia and further, to the Far North itself.
Sketches and design drawings of the installation appeared two years later, and two years later, the equipment was designed on which it was planned to make working models.
Model of a mobile nuclear power plant at the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow.
The development was carried out by scientists and engineers of "Laboratory B" (the future Physics and Power Engineering Institute of Obninsk) Yuri Sergeev and Dmitry Broder. It was they who proposed to equip TPP-3 with a caterpillar track, turning the station into an all-terrain vehicle capable of moving almost everywhere.
TPP-3 control panel.
It was proposed to use the chassis of the T-10 tank, having previously lengthened it (bringing the number of road wheels to ten), as well as increasing the width of the tracks in order to maintain the specific pressure on the soil within the required limits. The chassis and all parts of the station were assembled at the Kirov plant. The developers also provided for the ability to transport TPP-3 using railway platforms.
Promotional video:
The station's scheme is double-circuit, using a heterogeneous pressurized water reactor, power: heat - eight thousand eight hundred kilowatts, electric (from generators) - one and a half thousand kilowatts. The reactor operated on highly enriched uranium. The entire station was to be located on four chassis - two were occupied by a reactor and a steam generator plant, and two more were located auxiliary equipment, a turbine generator and a control panel.
Turbine generator TPP-3.
A working prototype of TPP-3 was ready in 1960. The entire installation was delivered to Obninsk, where a year later, after assembly and all kinds of checks, the reactor was launched. To protect against radiation, earthen ramparts were poured around the two installations with the reactor. Tests and tests of this unusual installation continued until 1965.
And in 1967 the project was closed. The reason was, oddly enough, another atomic development - the floating nuclear power plant "Sever". The USSR Ministry of Defense refused to further test the "North", at the same time stopping work on TPP-3, although this station has fully proved its efficiency.