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T-15 (reactor)

Nuclear technology in the Soviet UnionSoviet inventionsTokamaks
1987 CPA 5891
1987 CPA 5891

The T-15 (or Tokamak-15) is a Russian (previously Soviet) nuclear fusion research reactor located at the Kurchatov Institute, which is based on the (Soviet-invented) tokamak design. It was the first industrial prototype fusion reactor to use superconducting magnets to control the plasma. These enormous superconducting magnets confined the plasma the reactor produced, but failed to sustain it for more than just a few seconds. Despite not being immediately applicable, this new technological advancement proved to the USSR that they were on the right path. In the original (circular cross-section with limiter) shape, a toroidal chamber design, it had a major radius of 2.43 m and minor radius 0.7 m.The T-15 achieved creating its first thermonuclear plasma in 1988 and the reactor remained operational until 1995. The plasma created was thought to solve a number of issues engineers have struggled with in the past. This combined with the USSR's desire for cheaper energy ensured the continuing progress of the T-15 under Mikhail S. Gorbachev. It was designed to replace the country's use of gas and coal as the primary sources of energy. It achieved 1 MA and 1.5 MW injection for 1 second pulse. It carried out about 100 shots before closing (in 1995) due to a lack of funds.

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T-15 (reactor)
улица Маршала Бирюзова, Moscow Shchukino District

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N 55.8014 ° E 37.4769 °
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улица Маршала Бирюзова
123060 Moscow, Shchukino District
Moscow, Russia
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1987 CPA 5891
1987 CPA 5891
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Shchukinskaya
Shchukinskaya

Shchukinskaya (Russian: Щукинская) is a station on the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line of the Moscow Metro. Named after the village of Schukino before it was consumed by Moscow and became a municipality in the 1940s, it was opened on 30 December 1975. The design follows the original pillar-trispan (40 columns instead of 26). The pillars are faced with different shades of pinkish marble (from the Ukrainian deposit of Burovshchina) and punctuated by a vertical strip of anodized aluminum on each face. The walls are of corrugated, bronze-coloured aluminum, an alloy of extensive strength and flexibility, adorned with decorative panels. The floor is covered with polished grey granite. The architects were Nina Aleshina, N. Samoylova and M. Alekseev. During the construction of the extension tunnel Oktyabrskoe Pole – Shchukinskaya a new engineering method was developed. Because the Moscow soil was sandy, the metro tunnels had traditionally been built using the open pit method (i.e. digging from the surface) or by restricting building work from passing under inhabited areas as cave-ins would have been very likely. For the Shchukinskaya tunnel however circular concrete blocks were pressed rather than mounted into the soil, and as this was done rapidly the elements did not have time to develop into heavy pressure and sap into the tunnel. This removed the need for festering a sand-cement mixture into the finish, thereby dramatically increasing the potential speed of construction, and saving on building materials. Another achievement was that no metal was used for the mounting of the tunnel blocks, instead a bitumen mixture formed from the pressure of the boring complex was used to join the blocks. As this was denser than the soil, there was no need for festering of the cement. The entrances to the station are located near the intersection of Shchukinskaya Ulitsa and Ulitsa Marshala Vasilevskogo. The station handles 93500 people daily.