Kola Nuclear Power Plant
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The Kola Nuclear Power Plant ( []), also known as Kolsk NPP or Kolskaya NPP, is a nuclear power plant located 12 km away from Polyarnye Zori,
Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the northwestern part of the country, with a total land area of . Its only internal border is the Republic of Karelia to the south, and it is bor ...
in Northwestern Federal District, north-western Russia. If the floating nuclear power plant
Akademik Lomonosov ''Akademik Lomonosov'' () is a non-self-propelled power barge that operates as the first Russian floating nuclear power station. The ship was named after Russian Academy of Sciences, academician Mikhail Lomonosov. It is docked in the Pevek harb ...
is excluded, it is the northernmost nuclear power plant housed in a fixed location structure.


History

The Phase 1 (No. 1 and 2 reactors) at the Kola NPP went online in 1973 and 1974, respectively, and are part of Russia’s first generation of PWR reactors (the
VVER The water-water energetic reactor (WWER), or VVER (from ) is a series of pressurized water reactor designs originally developed in the Soviet Union, and now Russia, by OKB Gidropress. The idea of such a reactor was proposed at the Kurchatov Instit ...
440/230 type). The Phase 2 (No. 3 and 4 reactors) went online in 1981 and 1984 with the improved
VVER The water-water energetic reactor (WWER), or VVER (from ) is a series of pressurized water reactor designs originally developed in the Soviet Union, and now Russia, by OKB Gidropress. The idea of such a reactor was proposed at the Kurchatov Instit ...
440/213 type. Phase 1 reactors were designed to work for 30 years and were originally slated to be shut down in 2003 and 2004. However the shutdown did not happen. Instead, the operational life spans of the reactors were extended, after a massive safety upgrade effort that included about 200 safety systems upgrade projects and was financed in part by the governments of Norway, Sweden, Finland and USA.


Today

Kola NPP produces about half of
Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the northwestern part of the country, with a total land area of . Its only internal border is the Republic of Karelia to the south, and it is bor ...
's energy. The newest two reactors are of a similar reactor type to Finland's
Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant The Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) (, ) is located close to the Finnish town of Loviisa. It houses two Soviet-designed VVER-440 Pressurized water reactor, pressurised water reactors, with capacities of 507 MW each. It is one of Finl ...
, which conforms to regulatory requirements commonly considered to be the most stringent in the world.


Reactor data

The Kola Nuclear Power Plant has four units:


Campaign to close the station

Several environment movement groups such as the ecologists from Norway and Russia support media campaign to close Kola NPP citing safety concerns with Phase 1 reactors and alleged violations of Russian law during issue of operating permit extensions. The license for phase 1 reactors five-year operation extensions, granted by the Russian Federation's civilian nuclear regulator Gosatomnadzor (FSETAN’s predecessor), were issued without conducting an obligatory state
environmental impact Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans ( human impact on the environment) or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot reco ...
study. Conducting such federal level studies is mandated by the law "On Environmental Impact Studies" in Article 11. The first extension for the old reactors was issued in summer 2003, almost precisely after former Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Andrei Malyshev was installed as Gosatomnadzor’s chief. He replaced Yury Vishnevsky at this post. Vishnevsky had been an outspoken
critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...
of the former Ministry of Atomic Energy, now known as the Federal Agency for Atomic energy, or Rosatom. In April 2005, the Murmansk Regional Prosecutor issued a recommendation to resolve the violations surrounding the reactor life-span extensions and force regulatory bodies and Rosenergoatom, Russian's nuclear power plant operations conglomerate, to carry out the environmental impact studies. But none of this took place. The Murmansk Prosecutors again ordered the state structures to fulfill the earlier order, but was again unsuccessful. Norway's
Nature and Youth Natur og Ungdom (NU) which translates to Nature and Youth, also known in English as Young Friends of the Earth Norway, is a Norway, Norwegian youth environmental protection organisation. It is the only environmentalism, environmentalist youth o ...
and Norway-based Bellona’s "Environment and Rights" magazine first drew the attention of prosecutors to the illegality of prolonging the life-spans of the reactors in 2004.
Rostekhnadzor The Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor; ) is the supervisory body of the Government of Russia on ecological, technological, and nuclear issues. Its functions include the passage of regulator ...
subsequently issued a license for the fifteen year life extension of Unit 1 in June 2008, after further reviews, inspections and upgrade work.


Kola II

Kola II construction (2 VVER-600) is expected to begin in 2028 and completed in 2035. These 2 Kola-II units are supposed to be VVER-S types and be able to potentially work on 100%
MOX fuel Mixed oxide fuel (MOX fuel) is nuclear fuel that contains more than one oxide of fissile material, usually consisting of plutonium blended with natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium. MOX fuel is an alternative to the low-enr ...
(mix of
uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...
and
plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...
).


See also

*
Nuclear power in Russia Russia is one of the world's Nuclear power by country#Overview, largest producers of nuclear energy. In 2020 total electricity generated in nuclear power plants in Russia was 215.746 terawatt-hour, TWh, 20.28% of all electric power plant genera ...


References


External links


Bellona Foundation

Kola NPP official web page
{{Nuclear fission reactors Nuclear power stations built in the Soviet Union Nuclear power stations in Russia Industry in the Arctic Nuclear power stations using VVER reactors