Kostroma Nuclear Power Plant is a proposed, but as-yet non-existent

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...

that was to be erected in the Buysky District, of

Kostroma Oblast Kostroma Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Kostroma and its population as of the Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census i ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

History

In the mid-1970s within the erstwhile

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, it was decided by the

Soviet Council of Ministers The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ˌɛsˌɛsˌɛsˈɛr), sometimes abbreviated as Sovmin or referred to as the ...

under chairman

Alexei Kosygin Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin (–18 December 1980) was a Soviet people, Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1980 and, alongside General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, was one of its most ...

that a nuclear power plant would be constructed in Kostroma, using two RBMKP-2400

generation II reactor A generation II reactor is a design classification for a nuclear reactor, and refers to the class of commercial reactors built until the end of the 1990s. Prototypical and older versions of PWR, CANDU, BWR, AGR, RBMK and VVER are among them. ...

cores. Construction began in 1979, with several design changes made throughout; in the 1980s, Soviet planners decided to build two RBMK-1500 reactors instead. In the aftermath of the 1986

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

, the plant's design was again re-drawn to use

VVER-1000 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 ...

reactors. All construction came to a complete stop in 1990, not long before the

collapse of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

. In the '90s, a proposal was made to build two VPBER-600 reactors (variants of the VVER-640 design), but the proposal never reached production stage. On 8 December 1996, further construction was rejected by referendum with 87% voting against. By 1999, the Kostroma Regional Court and later

Supreme Court of the Russian Federation The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation () is a court within the judiciary of Russia and the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law, criminal law and commercial law cases. It also supervises the work of lower court ...

ruled the

Kostroma Oblast Duma The Kostroma Oblast Duma () is the regional parliament of Kostroma Oblast, a federal subject of Russia. A total of 35 deputies are elected for five-year terms. Elections 2005 2010 2015 2020 References {{Regional parliaments of Russia ...

decision to hold a referendum (date 25 April 1996, No. 278) illegal. Per resolution No. 1574 of the

, date 1 March 2007, all resolutions preventing construction were cancelled and, therefore, construction was to resume in earnest; on-site

switchgear In an electric power system, a switchgear is composed of electrical disconnect switches, fuses or circuit breakers used to control, protect and isolate electrical equipment. Switchgear is used both to de-energize equipment to allow work to ...

had already been installed that could handle up to 500kV.

Resumed construction efforts (2008)

On 14 October 2008, Kostroma's regional governor was presented with a Declaration of Intent to invest in the construction of two power units, signed by Rosatom State Corporation's then General Director,

Sergey Kiriyenko Sergey Vladilenovich Kiriyenko (''né'' ''Izraitel''; ; born 26 July 1962) is a Russian politician who has served as First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia since 5 October 2016. He previously served as the 30th ...

. Public hearings held in 2009 discussed the potential environmental impact for power units No. 1 and 2 of the plant. Construction of the plant was also referenced by a government scheme to improve energy infrastructure within Russia, approved for construction until the year 2030 by order of the Russian government. It was decided that the plant would be built in stages: between 2016 and 2020, two power units would be built using the

VVER-1200 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 Insti ...

design with a capacity of 2300MW. Later, two additional units would have been installed for a total capacity of 4600MW.

Construction canceled again (2011)

By April 2011, Rosatom had received a license from Russian energy regulator

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 ...

, authorising construction. In the end, Rosatom canceled all construction plans. To this day, the Kostroma Nuclear Power Plant has never been built.

References

External links

Kostroma nuclear plant discussed on Rosenergoatom website
(Russian language page) * Publication by Kirill Rubankov, title
Атомная радость
("Atomic Bliss") (Russian language page) // «Expert Online» /15 окт 2008

History

Resumed construction efforts (2008)

Construction canceled again (2011)

References

External links

See also