Monday, November 10, 2008

Peter the Great Update: Clip Your TLDs to Your Belt Please



Gist: The Peter the Great has been at sea for almost two months now and is on her way to Venezuela. Our team takes a look at the heart of the ship, the reactor compartment.

The first step of the Russian Navy flagship's journey is done. Now the Peter the Great has passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, the gates of the Mediterranean Sea. Ten thousand km of sailing is behind with friendly visits to Libya, Turkey and France. Ahead lies three weeks of sailing across the rough Atlantic and Venezuela. The Peter the Great is moving at 18 kts, almost 32 km/hr. Those numbers don't sound like much, but considering great weight of the 27,000 ton ship, it becomes clear what kind of power plant is required to move such a mountain of metal. Our camera team was permitted to check out the reactor zone. To go down there with the crew we needed to obtain special passes with a lot of signatures and stamps on them.

"This is the most powerful shipboard engine in the world. It allows the ship to circle the earth at the equator 50 times. The steam generated by the reactor turns turbines that each generate 70,000 hp."


That's a total of 140,000 hp. The nuclear power plant could supply electricity to a small city. The processes in the reactor are controlled second by second, 24 hours a day by special equipment manned by specially trained sailors. Each one receives a dosimeter and when leaving the reactor area they revceive a scan for radiation.

"So what has gone on during the month and a half at sea...well, so far there hasn't been any leak of radioactive substances into the sea or ocean."


And here is the TsUP - central control. The sailors jokingly call it "being in the soup". From here all the electrical supply systems for the ship are controlled. The scale of the equipment is grandiose - huge buttons and breakers and redundant systems.

"The ship is built for battle. If the ship is damaged in battle, it has to tranfer operations to secondary systems and continue to function."


This is the main propulsion shaft on the Peter the Great. There are two on the ship, each more than 100 meters long. The reactor makes 400 degree high pressure steam which turns two screws, each with a diameter of three meters and weighing seven tons. These screws literally make the water boil, throwing up a white wake larger than any other non-aircraft carrier warship in the world and trailing the ship for kilometers.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn that ship is biiiiig

Good luck
Звукоизоляция глушителей шум

Anonymous said...

"This is the most powerful shipboard engine in the world."
"The steam generated by the reactor turns turbines that each generate 70,000 hp.""

On the US A4W reactor, that powers the Nimitz class:

"The steam generators for each of the Nimitz class' reactors are capable of supplying enough energy to produce 140,000 shaft horsepower (104 MWe)."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A4W_reactor)

Any reason I am wrong, or was the reporter wrong?

Anonymous said...

No, I'm sure you are correct. However, for moral purposes, it is the most powerful in the world *wink* *wink*

Good video:
http://rutube.ru/tracks/1179397.html?v=c2a0cdc27af10642391916fc198d0629

Anonymous said...

"So what has gone on during the month and a half at sea...well, so far there hasn't been any leak of radioactive substances into the sea or ocean."

Love it, 'well so far'. I guess they are counting on it eventually.

Anonymous said...

That part was priceless. That guy is really well spoken, too. Lol

NavyRu said...

Chesapeake: You are, аs usually magnificent in your irony )
But I guess only russian journalists makes mistakes (about powerful) ;)
And of course you well know that russian navy do not talk smut, they just use foul language )))

Anonymous said...

If only it was a journalist. However, it was a Russian Navy serviceman that is being quoted. Watch the video. ;) Not to say that only russians make such claims. Americans do it all the time.

Foul language is fine with me. Sometimes you can't get things done without it. However... in this case, its use was not so masterful as one would hope.