Leningrad NPP: history. Power of the Leningrad NPP

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Uninterrupted power supply to all settlements is one of the most important priorities of state administration. In this regard, throughout the territory of the Russian Federation, various stations that generate electricity have been systematically built. One of these is the Leningrad NPP. The history of its creation and development will be discussed in this article.

A trip to the past

The idea of building a power plant arose in the mid-1960s. On April 15, 1966, a resolution was approved, which obliged the creation of a project, on the basis of which the Leningrad NPP began its life on paper. Within five months, all the required documentation was ready.

And already in November, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to start construction of the first stage of the station and determined the entire organizational structure and work of third-party enterprises to implement the plan in practice.

Laying the foundation

The construction of the station began with the digging of a foundation pit. The first soil bucket was lifted on July 6, 1976. Thus, the Leningrad NPP, one might say, began its "life". Leading specialists in welding, installation were involved in the work.metal structures, builders and other engineering workers.

Launch of the first and second power units

On December 23, 1973, a special State Commission accepted the first power unit. As a result, the Leningrad NPP was able to start its full-fledged work. In 1975, the second block was launched, and the installation of the second stage of the industrial facility began. These operations started on May 10, 1975. Two times less time was allocated for the construction of new facilities than for the first stage.

During the design of this complex, previous mistakes were taken into account, new scientific developments were introduced, the assembly of structures was increased, which ultimately led to the formation of a new layout of nuclear power units in the Leningrad Region. The composition of systems and structures was also changed.

Features of the construction of a new complex

Thanks to the clear interaction of various services and organizations, an increase in the quality of installation operations was ensured. New pipelines were delivered to the site, the welding of which required less time. The cranes have also been refurbished. They also changed the design of the greenhouse tents, due to which it became possible even at the reactor assembly stage to mount other parts in parallel with each other, which were previously shipped in bulk, which wasted expensive machine time and dragged out the entire technological process.

Third power unit

The start of construction of this complex dates back to the first of February 1977. CostsIt should be noted that the frame of the building was assembled in record time and was completed very quickly. The speed of construction was 1560 tons per month. This figure is simply colossal even in our time.

Excellent results were also noted in the process of connecting the main systems of the reactor. In particular, technological channels and extension paths were built in just 78 days. For comparison: on the first block, this figure was 169 days, and on the second - 118.

As a result, the Leningrad NPP, the photo of which is shown in this article, received the third unit two and a half years faster.

Fourth power unit

Looking ahead, we note that the terms of its construction turned out to be the most minimal in comparison with the previous "brothers".

The first months of 1980 were spent on enlargement of Unit 4 reactor structures at special assembly sites. At the same time, active preparation of the transport scheme for supplying the obtained products directly to the reactor shaft was underway. For this purpose, a transshipment rack was used with crane beams installed on it in the amount of two pieces. The carrying capacity of each of them was about 300 tons.

The deadline for the installers was only eight months. This was extremely small, as it used to take up to 29 months to complete such a job.

Without going into the details of all the work, let's say that the reactor of the fourth unit was built in five and a half months. itallowed on December 26, 1980 to make a physical launch of the unit, and already in February 1981 to put it under the required load.

Technical indicators of the station

The total capacity of the nuclear power plant in the Leningrad region is calculated quite easily: each of the four power units produces 1000 MW of energy. In addition, we indicate the design annual production of electrical energy. It equals 28 billion kWh. From 8 to 8.5% of own electricity is spent on maintaining normal performance.

Station capabilities

The capacity of the nuclear power plant in the Leningrad Region allows it to supply half of the amount of energy that is necessary for the normal life of the region to the power grid. Speaking in specific figures, the nuclear facility at the beginning of 2012 produced about 846 billion kWh of electricity with all its power units.

Modernization

In August 2007, work began on the improvement of superheater separators. Also, two special gate valves were replaced on the pressure line of the circulation pumps located in the reactor shop. At the end of these operations, on October 1, 2007, the unit began its full-fledged work again.

The third power unit also underwent some technical changes in 2007. It paid close attention to the emergency cooling of the reactor, replaced the technological channels, which ultimately made it possible to extend the life of the facility by twenty years.

Emergencies

Absolutely any accidentat the Leningrad NPP is extremely dangerous, since it can lead to irreversible consequences and casu alties among the personnel and residents of the region. Unfortunately, such events took place, and they should be remembered separately.

So, for example, in January 1974 there was a detonation of hydrogen in the gas tank of the station. Literally a month later, water began to boil, which led to the occurrence of extremely dangerous water hammers that destroyed the intermediate circuit of the first unit. As a result, three people died, as well as a leak of highly active, very harmful water.

On the last day of November 1975, the fuel channel collapsed (more precisely, melted). This incident resulted in the release of one and a half million Ki (a mixture of radioactive substances). To this day, many experts consider this accident to be the forerunner of the Chernobyl disaster.

March 1992 - another destruction of the fuel channel, but already in the third power unit. This incident was rated 2 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

In January 1996, a leak was discovered from SNF storage No. 428. It was partially repaired.

On May 20, 2004 Unit 4 was shut down due to the release of radioactive steam. This abnormal situation occurred due to accidental pressing of the emergency button in the operating room. Fortunately, none of the people were hurt. The cloud of steam moved for two hours in the direction of the village of Koporye.

December 18, 2015 at about 2 pm, the integrity of the pipe of the deaerator unit in the turbine shop was broken. Steampenetrated the technical premises. Some employees were sent home. The reactor of the second unit was shut down. No one was injured, there was no damage. However, as experts assured, the situation was saved by the fact that the wind that day was blowing towards the Gulf of Finland.

This is interesting

Leningrad NPP, the address of which today can be easily found in various sources of information, is located: Russia, Leningrad region, the city of Sosnovy Bor. After the commissioning of Unit 4 in 1981, this facility occupied the third position in terms of capacity, only slightly behind the Bouget station in France and the Japanese Fukushima-1.

Leningrad NPP, which is based in Sosnovy Bor, since 2002 belongs to the open joint-stock company "Russian concern for the production of electrical and thermal energy at nuclear power plants" Rosenergoatom ". The type of reactors installed at the station is water graphite channel thermal neutron reactors.