Pages of history: a nuclear reactor from space on the head of the imperialists
January 24 marked the 40th anniversary of the space emergency when debris from the Soviet space probe Cosmos 954, including its onboard nuclear reactor, fell in northwest Canada. The emergency had a global public resonance, the USSR was accused of all mortal sins, but the then leadership of our country managed to quickly, deftly and with minimal losses solve all the problems that arose in connection with this unfortunate crash.
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One of the most significant problems of astronautics, both at the dawn of the space age and in our time, is the power supply of aircraft, without which expensive equipment is worth the value of a cobblestone. The most common method of generating energy in space is solar panels. Their obvious advantages include a long service life and no contamination. All you need is the Sun. But they have much more disadvantages. Solar semiconductor panels are not cheap, have large dimensions, low efficiency, and low power.
In 1965, the Americans said a new word in the power supply of spacecraft by building the SNAP installation - a radioisotope thermoelectric generator weighing approximately 400 kg. The heat source in the generator was some kind of radioisotope with a half-life of a couple of decades. As a rule, the Americans used one of the isotopes of plutonium, which could be quickly and relatively inexpensively produced in tens of kilograms in special reactors.
The undoubted advantage of SNAP was the direct generation of electricity by thermionic converters, whose operating principle is very similar to radio tubes.
USSR scientists did not sit idly by and soon also designed compact radioisotope generators such as “Romashka”, “Topaz” and “Yenisei”, which did not go into series. With a thermal power of one and a half hundred kilowatts, the generators produced 5–6 kilowatts of electricity.
Space engineers liked the idea, and soon the next thought arose - how about building a nuclear microreactor so that spacecraft would literally bathe in energy. The sea of energy opened up exciting possibilities for installing advanced ion and plasma engines and additional research equipment on space probes, and also seriously extended their service life. The use of microreactors in automatic spacecraft seemed extremely tempting, since it made it possible to avoid spending money on bulky and heavy radiation protection for the crew from penetrating radiation. It was enough to shield the capsule with the instruments.
In 1970, the USSR launched the US-A radio reconnaissance satellite with a double-circuit uranium micronuclear reactor "Buk" on fast neutrons. A potassium-sodium mixture was used as a coolant. The mass of uranium is 30 kg. The weight of the Buk reached one ton.
According to the plan of Soviet scientists, it was planned to “bury” the spent blocks of the Buk by transferring the device to high orbits of 800 - 1000 km. There they had to teleport until Earth came up with a way to dispose of them directly in space.
Orbits are orbits, but the Buk was designed in such a way that when it enters the atmosphere (you never know what kind of accident might happen in a normal orbit), the reactor will fall apart into its component parts and burn out completely, including the core. Radiation contamination of the atmosphere or surface of the earth was minimized.
So, Kosmos-954, weighing 4.3 tons with a Buk nuclear power plant on board, was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on October 28, 1977. Everyone who should have known about it, including the UN Secretary General, was informed about the launch of the satellite. "Cosmos-954" worked in tandem with the previously launched "Cosmos-952". The only thing that was not reported to “who needs it” was the nature of the power plant. The Americans, for example, believed that Cosmos-954 was equipped with the Romashka radioisotope generator.
The flight program of the device was completely closed, but according to some reports, Cosmos-954 was launched with the aim of testing new electric rocket engines for future automatic interplanetary stations.
After working for a month, Cosmos-954 stopped responding to commands from Earth. The reason for the refusal has not yet been clarified. Attempts to transfer the device to a “burial” orbit were also unsuccessful.
Around the same time, the North American Aerospace Defense Command NORAD, which monitored all spacecraft in low-Earth orbit, determined that Cosmos 954 had lost its orbit and was threatening to fall from the sky to the ground. Since it was already known that the power plant on the satellite was nuclear, the United States began to prepare and even created a commission to study the debris. Computer calculations showed that the fall should occur on January 23-24. True, the intrigue - where exactly the ill-fated device would land - persisted until the last moment.
Concerned Americans asked the USSR for the type of power plant of the device and, having received information, became even more concerned.
In the early morning of January 24, 1978, Pacific Standard Time, American surveillance assets lost a Soviet satellite on radar. The Naval Observatory in Hawaii reported that it was not observing Cosmos 954 with optical telescopes. Soon, reports began to come in of a fireball streaking over the northwestern provinces of Canada. Presumably, the Soviet satellite fell somewhere in the Great Slave Lake area.
The Americans, seduced by the opportunity to dig deeper into the wreckage of a top secret Soviet satellite, offered the Canadians their help at the highest level. This is understandable: Buk microreactors were routinely supplied almost exclusively to the world’s best Soviet reconnaissance satellites, Legend. The "Cosmos" series was the general name for Soviet unmanned spacecraft for various purposes. In general, the situation should have been taken advantage of, and Prime Minister Trudeau received a personal call from President Carter. The Canadian side agreed to accept assistance.
As part of Operation Morning Light, a headquarters was established at the Canadian Air Force base in the Edmonton area, where American specialists arrived. A search zone was established, and the search itself was carried out using airplanes and helicopters. The first fragment was found on January 26.
In total, about a hundred fragments were found in the form of all kinds of tubes, rods and disks. Radiation contamination of the impact zone was insignificant. The total weight of the fragments is estimated at 65 kg. Unfortunately, the passive system for separating the elements of the power plant in the air did not work well. Otherwise there would be nothing to collect.
What exactly the Americans learned about Soviet reconnaissance satellites and their microreactors, other than the fact that they exist, is unknown. Most likely, not much. A hundred fragments from 3100 satellite parts is very, very small. Only the most oaky ones reached the surface of the earth. In monetary terms, searches and work to deactivate fragment fall zones are estimated at $17 million at the then exchange rate.
But the scandal turned out great. It was slandered on the radio that a “Soviet spy satellite” fell into a farmer’s field and caused enormous damage. The Canadians presented the USSR with a demand for damages in the amount of just over 6 million Canadian dollars, with the open option of paying additional amounts due to unaccounted expenses in the future. In the USSR, too, it was not the boys who sat and cut the sturgeon to 3 million for everything, about which they signed an official document with the victims in Moscow.
The scandal quickly faded away. The damage was minor, and after a short time, rainfall and numerous streams, rivers and reservoirs in that part of Canada washed away the remaining radiation.
The accident of the Cosmos-954 apparatus did not cause the closure of the program for the development of nuclear power plants for space. Over the next three years, the Buk underwent major modernization. The radiation safety of the satellite was seriously improved, and in case of danger, the core rods had to be forcibly fired by a special gas mechanism.
It must be said that the Americans were not too frightened by the fall of Cosmos 954. In the early 90s, the United States purchased from Russia two new-generation Yenisei microreactors for “research purposes in space” for $13 million. However, both “Yenisei” did not make it into space, but only underwent ground tests, and in 1996 the program was closed.
It cannot be said that the program for using domestic spacecraft with microreactors on board went too smoothly. Seven launches, including Cosmos 954, ended in accidents. The active zones of two satellites were placed into a burial orbit, where they remain to this day. Two more reactors fell in a deserted part of the South Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. The last Cosmos-1818 accident occurred in orbit in 2008. What exactly happened and where its core went has not been established. Presumably, the satellite was torn into small fragments.
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