As used at Chernobyl? Minus, that is, the weight of the turbine system, and the reactor hall building itself?
I don’t need an answer fast, per se, but it’d be handy to have before I begin flight testing. Can anyone help me out?
The specific answer to your question is that I have no idea, but flight testing?
I think Comrad Ranchoth is taking the Tupolev Tu-95 out of mothballs.
Either that or he’s using misdirection to figure out the scrap value of some hot (hot) steel.
Maybe he’s playing a Champions [TM] session, and wants to know how much Strength it would take to bench-press a nuclear reactor.
Either that, or he’s got a bar bet going to see if Superman would be strong enough to lift it.
Apparently we might still see (unmanned) nuclear aircraft one day.
I imagine these are using RTG’s and not reactors.
Something like that, if only on the simulator. And a wee bit larger.
Of course, it’s a monstrosity that requires more than a bit of artistic license, but I’d like to try to start from at least a base of technical realism.
Nuclear-powered jet engines would be awesome.
The RBMK reactor pit is 21.6×21.6×25.5m - total volume ~12000m[sup]3[/sup]. If filled with water, that is 12000 tonnes. Of course, graphite and uranium and zircalloy and stainless steel weigh more than water, so …
Can 30MW raw thermal output lift 15000 tonnes (without any additional heat-to-work equipment)?
Si
What does the weight of an RBMK have to do with this? Project Pluto and other nuclear rocket designs wouldn’t seem to have much in common with an RBMK.
The weight of this would seem more relevant:
Phoebus 2
5000 Megawatts, 250,000 lbs thrust
Is it just me, or is it apposite that coremelt posts a link to nuclear rockets that seem to be sitting on the catastrophe curve between motive force and exploding radioactive vapour?
A bit of research show that nuclear rocket engines could achieve thrust-weight ratios of 7:1 - more than I expected.
Si
You may want to google “Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment”. Both working prototypes are on display in Idaho. IIRC, they both came under 100 tons.