Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant ( ''Leningradskaya atomnaya elektrostantsiya; Leningradskaya AES'' ()) is a

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 ...

located in the town of Sosnovy Bor in Russia's

Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast (, ; ; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). The oblast has an area of and a population of 2,000,997 (2021 Russian census, 2021 Census); up from 1,716,868 recorded in the 2010 Russian census ...

, on the southern shore of the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

, some to the west of the city centre of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. The Leningrad NPP was the first power station in the Soviet Union to operate the RBMK type of reactor. Despite its age, in 2012 and 2013 the Leningrad NPP took the third place in the annual contest for the Best Nuclear Power Plants of the Year. The plant has four nuclear reactors of the

RBMK The RBMK (, РБМК; ''reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalnyy'', "high-power channel-type reactor") is a class of graphite moderated reactor, graphite-moderated nuclear reactor, nuclear power reactor designed and built by the Soviet Union. It is so ...

-1000 type, Units 1 and 2 of which are first generation units similar to that of Kursk and Chernobyl units 1 and 2, while the units 3 and 4 are second generation similar to Chernobyl 3 and 4. Each unit has a separate reactor building but the turbine hall is shared between 2 reactors. In 2008, construction started on Leningrad II with 2

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 ...

-1200 type reactors. They will eventually replace the RBMK units as they are shut down due to age.

Reactor data

From May 2012 to December 2013, Unit 1 was offline while repairs were made related to some deformed graphite moderator blocks. On 21 December 2018, the first unit of Leningrad NPP was shut down for decommissioning. Defuelling at unit 1 was completed in August 2021. On 10 November 2020, the second unit of Leningrad NPP was shut down for decommissioning. Defuelling at unit 2 was completed in December 2024. Leningrad units 3 and 4 remain operational, the 3rd unit got life extension until 2030.

Incidents and accidents

The first accident at the plant occurred shortly after the first unit came online. On 7 January 1975, a concrete tank containing radioactive gases from Unit 1 exploded; there were no reported accident victims or radiation releases.Nuclear Encyclopedia, chief editor A. A. Yaroshinskaya. - Moscow: the Charity Fund of Yaroshinskaya, 1996. - 656p.V. M. Kuznetsov, Russian Nuclear Power Engineering Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Opinion of independent expert. - Moscow: National press institute, 2000. - 288 p. Less than a month later, on 6 February 1975, the secondary cooling circuit of Unit 1 ruptured, releasing contaminated water into the environment. Three people were killed, and the accident was not reported in the media. On 28 November 1975, a fuel channel in Unit 1 suffered a loss of coolant, resulting in the degradation (partial meltdown) of a nuclear fuel assembly that led to a significant release of radiation lasting for one month. The exposed inhabitants of the Baltic region were not notified of the danger. The accident was not reported in the media. The

Ministry of Medium Machine Building The Ministry of Medium Machine-Building (, also known as Sredmash) was a government ministry of the Soviet Union which supervised the Soviet nuclear industry, including production of nuclear warheads. History The ministry was established on the ...

blamed the accident on poor construction, rather than on the inherent instability of the reactor design, in an attempt to cover up the accident.Higginbotham, A. (2019). ''

Midnight in Chernobyl ''Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster'' (2019) by Adam Higginbotham is a history of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that occurred in Soviet Ukraine in 1986. It won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excelle ...

: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster''. London: Bantam Press. page 66 The commission investigating the incident made several recommendations to improve safety of RBMK reactors, but they were not implemented. Practically the same accident occurred in Unit 1 of the Chernobyl Power Station in 1982.V. A. Melnikov, N. B. Malevannaya, Radiological Safety During the Operation of Nuclear Complex in Sosnovy Bor. - presentation at the international conference ENERGY. ECOLOGY. SAFETY, 25–27 May 1999, Sosnovy Bor. In July 1976 and again in September 1979, due to a poor safety culture, a fire broke out in a concrete vault containing radioactive waste. Water used in extinguishing the fires was contaminated, leaked into the environment, and entered the water table. This was not reported in the media. On 28 December 1990, during refurbishment of Unit 1, it was noticed that the space between the fuel channels and the graphite stack (contaminated during the 1975 accident) had widened. The contaminated graphite was spilled, and the radiation levels in the space under the reactor increased. Radiation was detected 6 km away from the unit, but this was not reported in the media. On 3 December 1991, due to faulty equipment and a lack of safety rule compliance, 10 new fuel rods were dropped and damaged. The staff tried to conceal the accident from the plant's management. In March 1992, an accident at the plant leaked radioactive gases and

iodine Iodine is a chemical element; it has symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists at standard conditions as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

into the air through a ruptured fuel channel. This was the first accident at the station that was announced in the media. On 27 August 2009, the third unit was stopped when a hole was found in the discharge header of a pump.The third unit of Leningrad NPP has been stopped

Rosenergoatom Rosenergoatom () is the Russian nuclear power station operations subsidiary of Atomenergoprom. Ownership and formation The company was established on 7 September 1992 in Presidential decree 1055: "On operating organization of nuclear power plan ...

, 28 August 2009 According to the automated radiation control system, the radiation situation at the plant and in its monitoring zone was normal. The plant's management refuted rumors of an accident and stated that the third unit was stopped for a "short-term unscheduled maintenance", with a restart scheduled for 31 August 2009. On 19 December 2015, unit 2 was stopped (

scram A scram or SCRAM is an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor effected by immediately terminating the fission reaction. It is also the name that is given to the manually operated kill switch that initiates the shutdown. In commercial reactor ...

med) due to a broken steam pipe. No radioactively contaminated material was released.

Electricity generation

;Production of Leningrad Units 1–4, 1974-2017 (TWh/year)

Leningrad II Nuclear Power Plant

In December 2019, Leningrad II-1 was integrated into the

district heating District heating (also known as heat networks) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heater, space heating and w ...

system of Sosnovy Bor and the local industrial park, replacing the heating capacity of the closed RBMK-1000 units. The thermal output is 3200 MW. On 25 October 2008, Saint Petersburg Atomenergoproekt began concreting the foundation plate of the reactor building of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant II, Unit 1. The cost of the project was estimated at almost 70 billion

Russian ruble The ruble or rouble (; Currency symbol, symbol: ₽; ISO 4217, ISO code: RUB) is the currency of the Russia, Russian Federation. Banknotes and coins are issued by the Central Bank of Russia, which is Russia's central bank, monetary authority ind ...

s (about $3 billion US dollars at the time).Leningrad NPP-2: Concreting of the foundation plate of the reactor building of the 1st unit started; 27 October 2008

A construction licence was issued on 22 July 2009.

Gallery

RIAN archive 305011 Leningrad nuclear power plant.jpg, Reactor hall of one of the RBMK units Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant 20JUL2010-4 (cropped).jpg, Construction site for Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant II, April 2010

References

External links

Leningrad NPP
– official website of the plant
Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant
– official website from operator
Ecologists Slam Nuclear Power Plant
{{Hidden Nuclear Power Plants in Russia Nuclear power stations built in the Soviet Union Nuclear power stations in Russia Nuclear power stations using RBMK reactors Nuclear power stations using VVER reactors Nuclear power stations with reactors under construction Nuclear power stations with proposed reactors 1974 establishments in Russia