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Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant (russian: Обнинская АЭС, Obninskaja AES; ) was built in the "Science City" of
Obninsk Obninsk (russian: О́бнинск) is a city in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the bank of the Protva River southwest of Moscow and northeast of Kaluga. Population: History The history of Obninsk began in 1945 when the First Research I ...
,Nuclear Engineering International: Obninsk - number one, by Lev Kotchetkov
, who was there at the time. Source for most of the information in this article. Kaluga Oblast, about southwest of Moscow, Soviet Union. Connected to the power grid in June 1954, Obninsk was the first grid-connected
nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces ele ...
in the world, i.e. the first nuclear reactor that produced electricity industrially, albeit at small scale. It was located at the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering. The plant is also known as APS-1 Obninsk (Atomic Power Station 1 Obninsk). It remained in operation between 1954 and 2002, although its production of electricity for the grid ceased in 1959; thereafter it functioned as a research and isotope production plant only. According to Lev Kotchetkov, who was there at the time: "Although utilisation of generated heat was going on, and production of isotopes was even enhanced, the main task was to carry out experimental studies on 17 test loops installed in the reactor." The technology perfected in the Obninsk
pilot plant A pilot plant is a pre-commercial production system that employs new production technology and/or produces small volumes of new technology-based products, mainly for the purpose of learning about the new technology. The knowledge obtained is then ...
was later employed on a much larger scale in the RBMK reactors.


Design

The single reactor unit at the plant, ''AM-1'' ("", ''Atom Mirny'', Russian for " Peaceful Atom"), had a total electrical capacity of 6 MW and a net capacity of around 5 MWe. Thermal output was 30 MW. It was a prototype design using a graphite moderator and water coolant. This reactor was a forerunner of the RBMK reactors. The Obninsk reactor used 5% enriched uranium; this percentage would be lowered for subsequent reactors.


History

Construction started on 1 January 1951. First criticality was achieved on 6 May 1954, and the first grid connection was made on 27 June 1954. For around four years, until the opening of the Siberian Nuclear Power Station, Obninsk remained the only nuclear power reactor in the Soviet Union; the power plant remained active until 29 April 2002 when it was finally shut down. According to Kotchetkov, in its 48 years of operation there were no significant incidents resulting in personnel overdose or mortality, or radioactive release to the environment exceeding permissible limits. The next Soviet nuclear power plant to be connected to their grid was Beloyarsk Unit 1 in 1964 with a capacity of 100 MWe.


See also

*
BORAX Borax is a salt (ionic compound), a hydrated borate of sodium, with chemical formula often written . It is a colorless crystalline solid, that dissolves in water to make a basic solution. It is commonly available in powder or granular form ...
III was briefly connected to the US power grid in 1955 *
Experimental Breeder Reactor I Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) is a decommissioned research reactor and U.S. National Historic Landmark located in the desert about southeast of Arco, Idaho. It was the world's first breeder reactor. At 1:50 p.m. on December 20, ...
– World's first nuclear power plant (powered its own building, but was not grid-connected) *
F-1 (nuclear reactor) The F-1 (from "First Physical Reactor") is a research reactor operated by the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Russia. When started on December 25, 1946, it became the first nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and ...
(the Soviet equivalent of
Chicago Pile 1 Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) was the world's first artificial nuclear reactor. On 2 December 1942, the first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated in CP-1, during an experiment led by Enrico Fermi. The secret development of t ...
) *
Magnox Magnox is a type of nuclear power/production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The n ...
reactor prototypes at Calder Hall (1956) produced electricity although their main purpose was plutonium production *
Nuclear power in Russia Russia is one of the world's largest producers of nuclear energy. In 2020 total electricity generated in nuclear power plants in Russia was 215.746 TWh, 20.28% of all power generation. The installed gross capacity of Russian nuclear reactor ...
* Shippingport Atomic Power Station (1957) with 60 MWe power; it is described by the US government as the first full-scale nuclear power plant


References


Further reading

* Contains a more detailed account of the reactor's construction and early operational history.


External links

{{Authority control Atomic tourism Buildings and structures in Kaluga Oblast Former nuclear power stations in Russia Nuclear power stations built in the Soviet Union Nuclear power stations using RBMK reactors Obninsk Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Kaluga Oblast