It refers to nuclear power plants in the Volga region. Rumors about the accident at the Balakovo nuclear power plant provoked panic in the Volga region. Nuclear power after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

When scientists invented the light bulb and the dynamo car in the nineteenth century, the demand for electricity increased. In the twentieth century, the need was compensated by burning coal in power plants, and when it increased even more, new sources had to be found. Thanks to innovative research current is obtained from environmentally friendly sources. There are 5 largest hydroelectric power plants, thermal power plants and nuclear power plants in Russia.

HPP - hydroelectric power plant. In each of them, energy is produced from an induction current. It appears when the conductor rotates in the magnet, while water does the mechanical work. Hydroelectric power plants are dams that block rivers, control the flow, from which energy is drawn.

5 largest hydroelectric power plants in Russia

1. Sayano-Shushenskaya them. P. S. Neporozhny on the river. Yenisei in Khakassia: 6,400 MW. It has been operating since December 1985 under the management of JSC RusHydro.
2. Krasnoyarskaya 40 km from Krasnoyarsk: 6,000 MW. It has been operating since 1972 under the management of OAO Krasnoyarskaya HPP, owned by Oleg Deripaska.
3. Bratskaya on the river. Angara in the Irkutsk region: 4,500 MW. Works since 1967 under the leadership of OAO Irkutskenergo Oleg Deripaska.
4. Ust-Ilimskaya on the river. Angara: 3,840 MW. He has been working since March 1979 under the leadership of Irkutskenergo OJSC Oleg Deripaska.
5. Volzhskaya on the river. Volga: 2,592.5 MW. It has been operating since September 1961 under the leadership of JSC RusHydro.

TPP is a thermal power plant. Electrical energy is generated by burning fossil fuels. Thermal power plants generate more than 40% of the world's electricity. The fuel used in Russia is coal, gas or oil.

5 largest thermal power plants in Russia

1. Surgutskaya GRES-2 in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug: 5,597 MW. Works since 1985 under the leadership of Unipro PJSC.
2. Reftinskaya GRES in the village of Reftinskoe ( Sverdlovsk region): 3,800 MW. Works since 1963 under the leadership of Enel Russia.
3. Kostroma GRES c. Volgorechensk: 3,600 MW. Works since 1969 under the leadership of Inter RAO.
4. Surgutskaya GRES-1 in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug: 3,268 MW. It has been operating since 1972 under the leadership of OGK-2.
5. Ryazanskaya GRES in Novomichurinsk: 3,070 MW. It has been operating since 1973 under the leadership of OGK-2.

NPP - nuclear power plant. Although it is dangerous, it is clean, unlike hydroelectric power plants and thermal power plants. Electricity comes from the consumption of a small amount of fuel - Uranus, Plutonium. Nuclear power plants are concrete chambers where heat is generated due to the decay of radioactive elements. High temperatures lead to the evaporation of water, and the steam begins to rotate the turbines, as in a hydroelectric power station.

5 largest nuclear power plants in Russia

1. Balakovo in Balakovo (Saratov region): 4,000 MW. Works since December 28, 1985 under the leadership of Rosenergoatom.
2. Kalininskaya in Udomlya (Tver region): 4,000 MW. It has been operating since May 9, 1984 under the leadership of Rosenergoatom. The director is Ignatov Viktor Igorevich.
3. Kursk on the Seimas in Kursk: 4,000 MW. Works since December 19, 1976 under the leadership of Rosenergoatom.
4. Leningradskaya in Sosnovy Bor (Leningrad region): 4,000 MW. Works since December 23, 1973 under the leadership of Rosenergoatom.
5. Novovoronezhskaya: 2,597 MW, planned - 3,796 MW. Works since September 1964 under the leadership of Rosenergoatom.

civil defense

Yesterday, residents of Saratov, Samara and a number of other regions were seized with panic, which arose because of rumors about a major accident at the Balakovo nuclear power plant (Saratov region). In fact, on the night of November 4, an emergency situation arose at the nuclear power plant from the category of often occurring: emergency protection worked at the power unit due to a rupture of a water pipe. But the management of the station and the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations did not promptly explain to the population what had happened. As a result, iodine disappeared from pharmacies, dozens of enterprises stopped, hundreds of people moved away from nuclear power plants, fearing radiation.

The first reports of an emergency situation at the Balakovo NPP (BalNPP) appeared on the morning of November 4th. The Public Information Center of BalNPP reported that power unit #2 is undergoing current repairs of the feed pipe pipeline of the fourth steam generator. According to the report, the power unit was shut down on November 4 at 1.24 a.m., its launch is planned to be carried out at 10 p.m. on November 5. But the residents of Balakovo did not believe in the current repairs, which should be started at two o'clock in the morning. By mid-afternoon, most of the nearly 200,000-strong city was convinced that there had been an accident with a release of radiation at the station.

“It was horror and the end of the world,” Anna Vinogradova, head of the Balakovo Society for Nature Conservation, shared her impressions with a Kommersant correspondent. “The whole city went crazy. The bosses spoke about the accident to their subordinates, who called their relatives. All phones were busy. People advised each other to drink vodka, iodine and never use tap water.

When the site http://aesbalakovo.narod.ru, promptly created by some independent journalists, appeared on the Internet, Balakovo was completely taken over by panic.

The site, in particular, stated: "There was an accident at the BalNPP. As a result of the incident, 4 workers died, another 18 received burns of varying severity. The situation is critical."

In several kindergartens, on the orders of the directors, teachers gave the children potassium iodide tablets. Stocks of iodine, iodomarin and other iodine-containing preparations disappeared from local pharmacies by the evening. In at least ten villages in the Balakovo district, the peasants refused to turn their cattle out to pasture. A similar situation has developed in the Saratov, Samara, Penza regions, in part Nizhny Novgorod region and Mordovia. Everywhere people were stocking up on iodine and alcohol, trying to get out of what they thought might be already contaminated areas, and factories were shutting down because their directors couldn't keep the workers rushing to save their families.

The editorial offices of regional newspapers in Saratov on November 4 and 5 withstood a real flurry of calls from the population. A Kommersant correspondent managed to talk to several callers.

“I went to the market in the morning, they said that a reactor had exploded at a nuclear plant,” Anna Samokhina, a resident of the city of Petrovsk, shouted into the phone.

Several circumstances worked simultaneously to incite panic. On November 3, planned exercises of the Ministry of Emergency Situations took place in the area of ​​the nuclear power plant. The city was informed about them, but no one spoke about the nature of the exercises. The generals who arrived for the exercises on the afternoon of November 4 attended a concert of a patriotic song, which was held in the house of culture in the center of the city. The sight of a dozen black "Volgas" with military numbers did not add optimism to anyone in Balakovo. And most importantly, none of the officials considered it necessary to speak to the population and tell what happened on the night of November 3-4 at the nuclear power plant. Only in the evening of November 4, Lieutenant Colonel Romanenko, head of the Balakovo Ministry of Emergency Situations, appeared on the air of the local television company Free Television. He demanded that the residents stop panicking, but he did not say a word about the incident at the BalNPP. This only made things worse.

- The city has long been warmed up by the discussion about the construction of the fifth and sixth power units, which is being conducted by the administration and environmentalists, - says Anna Vinogradova. - All this accumulated negativity should have had a way out. Here it happened. I think that one of the station workers came home, told one neighbor, another. And it began.

From the morning of November 5, people from all over the Volga region tried by phone to find out from specialists in what quantities they should take iodine (see certificate). The first cases of iodine poisoning appeared on the same day.

“We have already documented three cases,” the duty officer of the ambulance station in Balakovo told Kommersant. “Two elderly women and a schoolboy. Their condition is satisfactory, only the temperature is high and they constantly feel sick. Please tell me through the newspaper that iodine and vodka do not interfere. It will be very bad. Since they bought up all the iodine, let them smear the thyroid gland, there is more benefit from this: the prevention of cancerous tumors.

Seven iodine poisonings were recorded yesterday in Samara. One of the victims, a 52-year-old woman, was told by the city's ambulance station: "She bought a topical iodine solution from a pharmacy, dissolved the iodine in water, and drank the liquid, which burned her throat."

And only in the middle of the day on November 5, officials finally explained what happened at the nuclear power plant. The NPP Public Information Center issued a statement saying that a leak was found in the pipeline that supplies water to the steam generators of the second power unit. At 01:24 on November 4, the emergency protection of the power unit was triggered due to this leak, and it was shut down.

“This is a common situation that occurs at any nuclear power plant several times a year,” Nikolai Shingarev, a spokesman for the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, said yesterday. “The automation shut down the power unit due to malfunctions that are not related to the reactor.

As Kommersant was told in the NPP safety supervision department of the Volga department of Rostekhnadzor, the pipe rupture has nothing to do with the reactor core. The incident occurred in the water pipe of the secondary circuit, through which clean water is supplied to the steam generator. The water flowing out of the pipe closed the electrical terminals of the capacity regulators of the main pumps pumping water to the steam generator, and the water level in the steam generator dropped. In this regard, the emergency protection worked - the automation lowered safety rods into the reactor, absorbing the neutron flux, thus stopping the process and shutting down the reactor.

Atomic scientists claim that even an accident as such did not happen - only an emergency situation arose. “The protection automatics worked instantly,” they claim. “The fuel assembly body did not melt, the reactor containment did not collapse, there was no release of radioactive steam from the steam generator, circuit # 1, through which water “contaminated” with uranium circulates, did not depressurize.” Problems, according to them, arose in the so-called civilian part of the nuclear power plant, where there is no radiation at all. The leaked water of the secondary circuit was absolutely clean - cleaner than that supplied to the domestic water supply network, so there is no cause for concern.

BalNPP Chief Engineer Viktor Ignatov confirmed this at an emergency press conference yesterday: “There was no radiation release. planned exercises were held at the station in the field of civil defense and emergency situations with the evacuation of personnel. The coincidence of events gave rise to panic moods."

“I myself am a Chernobyl survivor and would be the first to scream if something happened to you,” said Alexander Rabadanov, Minister for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of the Saratov Region. and emergency situations, recommended that people put on cotton-gauze bandages and drink iodine. Apparently, there are forces interested in panic moods, perhaps pursuing political goals."

Andrey Zolotkov, head of the representative office of the international environmental organization Bellona in Murmansk, told Kommersant, who identified himself as an expert on nuclear reactors for icebreakers, "theoretically, the danger still remains." "The problem is that even a shutdown reactor continues to operate, as it were, by inertia - the so-called residual heat release occurs. The duration of this process depends on how long and under what load the reactor was operating before the accident: residual heat release can take from several hours to several days "All this time, the fuel assembly housing must be forced to cool. Since the second circuit is not working, water has to be supplied through an emergency system, which communicates directly with the first, contaminated circuit. Accordingly, during the entire time until the reactor cools down, spent radioactive water flows outside For its collection at each nuclear power plant, there are special sealed containers, but their possibilities are not unlimited," says Mr. Zolotkov.

The Kommersant correspondent's simple questions about whether the emergency cooling of Unit 2 has been completed, how much space is left for radioactive water in the tanks, and whether it can be dumped in an emergency (with all the consequences), for some reason unbalance the previously benevolent BalNPP press officer. "There is no danger, and that's all we would like to tell the media," he shouted, not wanting to even introduce himself. "Technical questions are not relevant to your work, and we will only answer them upon written request."

Last night, Balakovo ecologists and the official website of the BalNPP simultaneously gave the same indicators of the level of radiation in the atmosphere. In Balakovo it fluctuates between 8 and 13 microroentgens per hour. In Saratov, according to the specialists of the Radon enterprise engaged in the disposal of radioactive substances, it is 11 microroentgens per hour. Exceeding the norm starts from 20 microroentgen per hour.

Nevertheless, Sergei Kiriyenko, presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District, arrived in the Saratov Region yesterday. He explained that the decision to travel was made due to the fact that, despite the statement of the competent authorities about the complete safety of Balakovo's facilities, panic continues among the inhabitants of the region. "The plenipotentiary went to the region to personally prove that nothing terrible had happened here," Kiriyenko's plenipotentiary's office noted.

ANDREY B-KOZENKO, Saratov; SERGEI GUBANOV, Balakovo; SERGEY Y-MASHKIN

Page 2

Fuel and energy complex. The Volga region uses both its own fuel and energy raw materials and imported ones. More than half of the oil and gas produced in the region is exported. In the same time thermal power plants(TPP) and thermal power plants (TPP) of the region operate on thermal coal from Kuzbass, Karaganda, etc., on Orenburg gas supplied by main gas pipeline. No significant changes in the structure of the fuel balance are expected in the future. A more active use of excess fuel in the eastern regions is expected.

The Volga region in 1995 generated about 100 billion kW/h of electricity, ranking fifth in Russia according to this indicator.

In the Volga region electric power industry It is represented by three types of power plants: hydroelectric power plants, thermal power plants and nuclear power plants. The power industry of the region is of republican importance. The Volga region specializes in the production of electricity (more than 10% of the total Russian production), which it also supplies to other regions of Russia.

The basis of the energy economy is the hydropower plants of the Volga-Kama cascade (Volzhskaya near Samara, Saratovskaya, Nizhnekamskaya, Volgogradskaya, etc.). According to preliminary estimates, the total electricity generation at all HPPs in the Volga region can reach more than 30 billion kWh per year. The cost of energy generated at these HPPs is the lowest in the European part of the Russian Federation.

Hydroelectric power plants in the Volga region play an important role in covering peak loads in the energy system of the European part of the country.

There are a number of powerful thermal stations located in the centers of large consumption of heat and electricity in the region. In the total electricity production, the share of thermal power plants is approximately 3/5. One of the largest is the state district power plant in the Republic of Tatarstan, which runs on gas.

The development of the chemistry of organic synthesis in the region of oil refining required the creation of a powerful thermal power industry.

Leading in the industry of the Volga region petrochemical complex is the largest in the country in terms of production. It includes the entire technological chain of sequential oil and gas processing - from their extraction to the production of various chemical products and products from them.

The development of this complex was facilitated primarily by the presence of a powerful raw material base. Petrochemical industries were able to develop rapidly due to the good supply of water, fuel and energy resources. In addition, an important role was played by the transport and geographical position of the region, located in close proximity to consumers of products.

Oil industry remains one of the main branches of specialization of the region, although the trend of decline in the extraction of this fuel and raw materials, which has been outlined in recent years, as a result of the depletion of the most productive deposits, continues. The current scale of oil production in the area fluctuates within 10-14% of the level of the Russian Federation. To maintain this level, here apply latest methods the most complete oil recovery.

More than half of oil production comes from Tatarstan. The largest oil production center here is Almetievsk, which developed on the basis of the most powerful Romashkinskoye field in the Volga region. The Druzhba oil pipeline originates from Almetyevsk. The Samara region is also distinguished by oil production, the most important centers are the cities of Otradny and Neftegorsk. Currently, oil production is being developed in Kalmykia.

Development is directly related to oil and gas production oil and gas processing industry. The refineries of the region (Syzran, Samara, Volgograd, Nizhnekamsk, Novokuibyshevsk, etc.) process not only their own oil, but also oil from Western Siberia. Refineries and petrochemistry are closely related. Along with natural gas, associated gas is extracted and processed, which is used in the chemical industry.

Highly high level reached chemical and petrochemical industry. The chemical industry of the Volga region is represented by mining chemistry (extraction of sulfur and table salt), chemistry of organic synthesis, production of polymers. The largest centers: Nizhnekamsk, Samara, Kazan, Syzran, Saratov, Volzhsky, Tolyatti. In the industrial hubs of Samara-Tolyatti, Saratov-Engels, Volgograd-Volzhsky, energy and petrochemical production cycles have developed. In them, the production of energy, oil products, alcohols, synthetic rubber, and plastics are geographically close.

AT recent times The district accounted for 22.2% of the total Russian production of all products of the chemical industry. Hydrocarbon resources, favorable opportunities for water and energy supply, and the constantly growing needs of the country and the region itself for the products of this industry made it possible to locate and develop large chemical and petrochemical complexes and enterprises here.

Machine building complex- one of the largest and most complex industries in the structure of the Volga region. It accounts for at least 1/3 of the total industrial products district. The industry as a whole is characterized by low metal consumption. Mechanical engineering works mainly on the rolled metal products of the neighboring Urals; a very small part of the demand is covered by our own metallurgy. The machine-building complex unites various machine-building productions. The Volga Engineering produces a wide range of machinery and equipment: cars, machine tools, tractors, equipment for various industries and agricultural enterprises.

A special place in the complex is occupied by transport engineering, represented by the production of aircraft and helicopters, trucks and cars, trolleybuses, etc. Aviation industry is represented in Samara (production of turbojet aircraft) and Saratov (YAK-40 aircraft).

But the automotive industry stands out especially in the Volga region. The Volga region has long been rightfully called the “automotive workshop” of the country. There are all the necessary prerequisites for the development of this industry: the region is located in the zone of concentration of the main consumers of products, it is well provided with a transport network, the level of development of the industrial complex allows organizing broad cooperation ties.

In the Volga region, 71% of passenger cars and 17% of trucks in Russia are manufactured. Among the machine-building centers, the largest are:

Samara (machine tool building, production of bearings, aircraft building, production of autotractor equipment, mill and elevator equipment, etc.);

Saratov (machine tool building, production of oil and gas chemical equipment, diesel engines, bearings, etc.);

Volgograd (tractor building, shipbuilding, production of equipment for the petrochemical industry, etc.);

Togliatti (a complex of VAZ enterprises is the leader in the country's automotive industry).

Important centers of mechanical engineering are Kazan and Penza (precision engineering), Syzran (equipment for the energy and petrochemical industries), Engels (90% of the production of trolleybuses in the Russian Federation).

The automotive industry of the Volga region is presented in table 1.

	Manufactured products
Tolyatti Naberezhnye Chelny Neftekamsk Ulyanovsk Caspian (Kalmykia) Serdobsk Balakovo Dimitrovgrad Samara, Saratov Nizhnekamsk Volzhsky	Cars (VAZ), generators, starters Trucks, engines Dump trucks (based on KAMAZ trucks) ATVs, trucks, vans autoshops Trolleybuses, buses Autotractor trailers automotive fittings Truck engines Carburettors, technical fabrics Bearings plastics Rubber products Synthetic varnishes

The Volga region is one of the main regions of Russia for the production of aerospace equipment.

In the Volga region electric power industry It is represented by three types of power plants: hydroelectric, thermal and nuclear.

The most powerful HPPs of the Volga cascade are located on the territory of the district: Volzhskaya near the city of Zhigulevsk (capacity 2.3 million kW, average annual electricity generation 11 billion kWh), Saratovskaya near the city of Balakovo (capacity 1.3 million kW, average annual output 5, 4 billion kW/h), Volgograd (capacity 2.53 million kW, average annual output 11.1 billion kW/h), Nizhnekamsk (capacity 1.08 million kW). It is possible to build the Perevolokskaya HPP with a capacity of 2.4 million kW, designed both to cover peak loads and to generate additional electricity.

According to preliminary estimates, the total electricity generation at all HPPs in the Volga region can reach more than 30 billion kWh per year.

Hydroelectric power plants in the Volga region play an important role in covering peak loads in the energy system of the European part of the country.

There are a number of powerful thermal power plants located in the centers of large consumption of heat and electricity (the centers of the petrochemical industry and oil refining) in the region. The share of thermal power plants in the total electricity production is about 3/5. One of the largest is the state district power plant in the Republic of Tatarstan (capacity 2.4 million kW) operating on gas.

Electricity generation in the Volga region will grow due to the commissioning of new capacities at the Nizhnekamsk HPP and the Balakovo NPP. Electricity from the Volga region is transmitted via power lines to the Donbass, to the Urals, from the Nizhnekamsk hydroelectric power station to Cheboksary and Nizhny Novgorod. Electricity is also transmitted from Zainskaya and Botkinskaya GRES.

The development of the chemistry of organic synthesis in the region of oil refining required the creation of a powerful thermal power industry.

There are now nine nuclear power plants in Russia, and all of them are working. Eight of them are part of the Rosenergoatom system, one (Leningrad NPP) is an independent operating organization.
Rosenergoatom includes the following NPPs:
Balakovo (Balakovo, Saratov region - four reactors);
Novovoronezhskaya (Novovoronezh, Voronezh region - three reactors);
Kursk (Kurchatov, Kursk region - four reactors);
Smolensk (Desnogorsk, Smolensk region - three reactors);
Kalininskaya (Udomlya, Tver region - two reactors);
Kolskaya (the city of Polyarnye Zori, Murmansk region - four reactors);
Beloyarskaya (Zarechny, Sverdlovsk region - one reactor);
Bilibinskaya (Bilibino village, Magadan Region - four reactors). (The number of operating reactors is indicated in brackets. - A.K.)
The Obninsk NPP in the Kaluga region is not industrial and operates as an experimental station of a scientific center.
The oldest power unit has been in operation since 1971 at the Novovoronezh NPP, the youngest - since 1993 in Balakovo. The estimated service life of all stations is 30 years. However, a preliminary check of the power units showed that they are all safe and their work can be continued.
Prospects for the development of Russia's nuclear power industry are determined by the Federal Target Program "Development of the Russian Nuclear Power Industry Complex for 2007-2010 and up to 2015" and other documents
According to these programs, by 2025 the share of electricity generated at the country's nuclear power plants should increase from 16 to 25%, 26 new power units will be built.

Work is currently underway at the following sites:

Rostov NPP, power unit No. 2, commissioning plan - 2009;
- Kalinin NPP, power unit No. 4, commissioning plan - 2011;
- Beloyarsk NPP, power unit No. 4 (BN-800), commissioning plan - 2012;
- Novovoronezh NPP-2, power units No. 1,2, commissioning plan - 2012 and 2013;
- Leningrad NPP-2, power units No. 1 and 2, commissioning plan - 2013 and 2014.
- The selection of sites for the placement of Seversk NPP (Tomsk region), Central NPP (Kostroma region), Baltic NPP (Kaliningrad region), Yuzhnouralsk NPP (Chelyabinsk region) is nearing completion.

Balakovo NPP

Location: Saratov region

Balakovo NPP is the largest electricity producer in Russia. It generates more than 30 billion kWh of electricity annually (more than any other nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric power plant in the country). Balakovo NPP provides a quarter of electricity generation in the Volga Federal District and a fifth of the generation of all nuclear power plants in the country. Its electricity is reliably provided to consumers in the Volga region (76% of the electricity supplied by it), the Center (13%), the Urals (8%) and Siberia (3%). Electricity from Balakovo NPP is the cheapest among all NPPs and thermal power plants in Russia. The installed capacity utilization factor (ICUF) at the Balakovo NPP is over 80 percent.
Balakovo NPP is a recognized leader in the nuclear power industry in Russia, it has repeatedly been awarded the title of "The Best NPP in Russia" (according to the results of work in 1995, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007). Since 2002, the Balakovo nuclear power plant has had the status of a branch of OAO Concern Energoatom (prior to corporatization of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Concern Rosenergoatom) of the Federal Agency (until March 2004 - the Ministry of the Russian Federation) for atomic energy.
The main activity of the NPP management is to ensure and improve safety during operation, protect the environment from the influence of the technological process, reduce costs in the production of electricity, improve the social protection of personnel, and increase the contribution of the plant to the socio-economic development of the region.

Beloyarsk NPP

Location: Sverdlovsk region, Zarechny
Total capacity of 1 block: 600 MW
Beloyarsk NPP named after I.V. Kurchatov is the first-born of the big nuclear power industry of the USSR. The station is located in the Urals.
Three power units have been built at the Beloyarsk NPP: two with thermal neutron reactors and one with a fast neutron reactor.
Power unit 1 with the 100 MW AMB-100 reactor was shut down in 1981, power unit 2 with the 200 MW AMB-200 reactor was shut down in 1989. The fuel from the reactors has been unloaded and is in long-term storage in special cooling pools located in the same building with the reactors .
At present, the third power unit with a BN-600 reactor with an electric power of 600 MW, put into operation in April 1980, is in operation - the world's first industrial-scale power unit with a fast neutron reactor.

Bilibino NPP

Location: Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Bilibino
Total capacity of 3 units: 48 MW
The Bilibino NPP is the central link in the Chaun-Bilibinsky energy center and is connected by a 110 kV overhead line with the Chaunskaya CHPP (Pevek) and the Chersky substation (Zeleny Mys settlement). In addition to these overhead lines, there is a 35 kV overhead line network through which power is supplied to local consumers. The station generates both electrical and thermal energy, which is supplied to the heat supply of the city of Bilibino. Bilibino NPP is the first nuclear power plant beyond the Arctic Circle and the only one in the permafrost zone. In 2005, the plant operated at 35% of the installed capacity, in 2006 - 32.5%.

Source of household - drinking and technical water supply Bilibino NPP is a reservoir on the Bol stream. Ponneurgen, located three kilometers east of the industrial site. The reservoir provides the water requirements of the industrial site, the city of Bilibino and other NPP facilities and is retained by an earth dam.

Rostov (Volgodonsk) NPP

Location: Rostov region, Volgodonsk
Total capacity of 4 units: 4000 MW
The first stone at the construction site of the Volgodonsk NPP was laid on October 28, 1977. Full-scale construction of the station, originally called Volgodonskaya, began in 1979 after a thorough study of seven possible sites.
For installation at the Rostov NPP, a water-to-water power reactor of the VVER-1000 vessel type has been selected. Reactors of this type are among the safest and are widely used at nuclear power plants in Russia and Ukraine - for many years they have been operating reliably at Balakovskaya (4 units), Novovoronezhskaya (1 unit), Kalininskaya (1 unit), Zaporizhskaya (6 units), Yuzhno -Ukrainian (1 block), Khmelnytsky (2 blocks) and Rivne (1 block) NPP, proving its safety and efficiency. Russian VVER-1000 reactors are also installed at the operating Kozloduy NPP (Bulgaria, 2 units) and the Temelin NPP under construction (Czech Republic, 2 units). Work began on the construction of nuclear power plants with VVER-1000 in Iran, and China and India became actively interested in Russian reactors.
Reactors of a similar type are used in most nuclear power plants in the world.
During the construction of the Rostov NPP, inspections of the progress of its construction were repeatedly carried out, documenting the quality of the work performed.
On the wave of well-known post-Chernobyl sentiments, the Rostov Regional Council of People's Deputies in June 1990. adopted a decision, which states: "... to consider the construction of a nuclear power plant in the territory of the Rostov region at the present stage as unacceptable."
Based on the decision of the regional Council, the construction of the Rostov NPP was suspended by the minutes of the meeting with the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR Silaev I.S. and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Ryabev L.D. on August 29, 1990. In the same protocol, the State Committee for Nature Protection was instructed to ensure the environmental impact assessment of the project and the constructed facilities of the Rostov NPP in accordance with the resolution of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
In pursuance of this decision, an additional section of the Rostov NPP project on the environmental safety of the plant was developed - "Assessment of the impact of RosNPP on the environment (EIA)", which was submitted in 1992. to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Russian Federation for the State Ecological Expertise.
Based on a comprehensive analysis of the design and other materials, the State Environmental Expert Commission came to a conclusion about the environmental safety of the Rostov NPP. The positive conclusion of the State Expertise is a legal basis for resuming the construction of the station. On July 21, 1998, this was recognized by the Decree of the Legislative Assembly of the Rostov Region. At present, the 1st and 2nd power units of the Rostov NPP are scheduled for commissioning in accordance with the "Program for the Development of Nuclear Energy" approved by the Government of the Russian Federation in July 1998. Russian Federation for 1998-2005 and for the period up to 2010.

Kalinin NPP

Location: Tver region, Udomlya

In the mid-70s of the XX century, when the construction of a nuclear power plant began in the quiet patriarchal Udomlya, the rapid development of the city began. In 1981, the village became a city of district, and in 1986 of regional subordination.
Over 30 years of construction and operation of the KNPP, a modern city has been built among picturesque lakes and forests: with a developed infrastructure, an education and medical service system, a network of cultural and educational institutions, an excellent base for physical education and sports, good conditions for the development of small and medium-sized businesses.
The Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant provides electricity to the largest regions of the central part of Russia. Over 22 years of operation, the station has generated over 250 billion kWh of electricity.
The share of electricity generated at the KNPP is about 60 percent of its total production in the Tver region. 25 percent of marketable products produced in the region are accounted for by the Kalinin NPP.
Putting the third power unit into operation provided additional revenues to the region in the form of property tax, deductions to the 30-kilometer zone in the amount of 2 billion rubles. In addition, in the process of completing the construction of power unit No. 3, Energoatom Concern OJSC (prior to the corporatization of Rosenergoatom Concern Federal State Unitary Enterprise) invested more than 1.5 billion rubles in the economy and social sphere of the Tver region.
Based on the results of 2002, the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant was awarded the title of "The Best NPP in Russia". In 2003 and 2004, KNPP was in second place.
4th power unit
The construction of the second stage of the Kalinin NPP, which included power units No. 3 and No. 4 with a VVER-1000 reactor, began in 1984.
By order of the Ministry of Atomic Energy and Industry in 1991, the construction of power unit No. 4 was suspended and mothballed in a state of 20% construction readiness. And only after almost a decade, the question of the need to resume the construction of the block was raised again. The developing Russian economy required the introduction of new generating capacities.

Kola NPP

Location: Murmansk region, Polyarnye Zori
Total capacity of 4 units: 1760 MW

The history of the construction of the Kola NPP began in the 60s of the twentieth century. The rapid development of the region's industry required additional energy resources. The Kola Peninsula had no other sources of electricity, except for hydro resources, which were already almost completely used. It was decided to build the first nuclear power plant in the Arctic.
In the course of survey work in 1963, a site for the construction of a nuclear power plant was selected on the shore of Lake Imandra. 1967 - Gosstroy of the USSR approved the design assignment for the construction of the Kola NPP. On May 18, 1969, the first cubic meter of concrete was laid at the base of the station. In 1968, Alexander Romanovich Belov, a candidate, was appointed director of the station under construction. technical sciences, three times laureate of the State Prize of the USSR, a leader who had extensive economic experience behind him. To the position of chief Construction Department entered Alexander Stepanovich Andrushechko.
The hard and well-coordinated work of the entire team of builders, installers, adjusters and operators was crowned with success: on June 29, 1973, the first power unit of the Kola Nuclear Power Plant was launched.
In the year of its launch, the station generated 1 billion kWh of electricity.
The construction of power units continued at a rapid pace. On December 8, 1974, the second power unit was launched, on March 24, 1981, the third, and on October 11, 1984, the fourth.
To date, the main supplier of electricity for the Murmansk region and Karelia is the Kola nuclear power plant. The nuclear power plant is located 200 kilometers south of Murmansk on the shores of Lake Imandra, one of the largest and most picturesque lakes in Northern Europe. Currently, the station operates 4 power units with a capacity of 440 MW each, which is about 50% of the total installed capacity of the region. The station can generate more than 12 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Electricity generation at a nuclear power plant releases millions of tons of fossil fuel annually, excluding harmful effect on the environment of combustion products. To date, the capacities of the Kola NPP have not been fully utilized, which creates prerequisites for the development of the region's industry.

NPP awards:
2006 Best NPP in the field of safety;
2006 2nd place in the contest "Best NPP at the end of the year";
2007 2nd place in the competition "Best NPP at the end of the year";
2008 Best NPP in the field of safety culture;
2008 2nd place in the competition "Best NPP at the end of the year".

Kursk NPP

Location: Kursk region, Kurchatov
Total capacity of 4 units: 4000 MW

The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is located 40 kilometers west of the city of Kursk, on the banks of the Seim River. Kurchatov is located 3 km from the station.
The decision to build the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant was made in the mid-1960s. Start of construction - 1971. The need for construction was caused by the rapidly developing industrial and economic complex of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly (Staro-Oskolsky and Mikhailovsky mining and processing plants and other industrial enterprises region). General projector: Moscow branch of Atomenergoproekt. Chief designer of the reactor: NIKIET Institute, Moscow. Scientific advisers: Russian Scientific Center "Kurchatov Institute". The construction of the 1st and 2nd stages was carried out by the Construction Department of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (now LLC Association Kurskatomenergostroy).
The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is a single-loop type plant: the steam supplied to the turbines is generated directly in the reactor by boiling the coolant passing through it. As a heat carrier, ordinary purified water circulating in a closed circuit is used. Cooling pond water is used to cool the exhaust steam in the turbine condensers. The surface area of ​​the reservoir is 21.5 km2.
As part of the two operating stages of the Kursk nuclear power plant, 4 RBMK-1000 power units (1-4 power units) are being operated, the 3rd stage is being built.
The installed capacity of each power unit is 1,000 MW (electric). The power units were put into operation: the 1st power unit - in 1976, the 2nd - in 1979, the 3rd - in 1983, the 4th - in 1985.
The Kursk nuclear power plant is one of the top three nuclear power plants of the country equal in terms of power, and in terms of the amount of electricity generated, it is one of the top four power plants of all types in Russia, including, in addition to the Balakovo and Leningrad nuclear power plants, the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP.
The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is the most important node of the Unified Energy System of Russia. The main consumer is the Center energy system, which covers 19 regions of the Central Federal District. The share of the Kursk nuclear power plant in the installed capacity of all power plants in the Chernozem region is 52%. It provides electricity to 90% of industrial enterprises in the Kursk region.
In May 2008, the cooling pond of Stage III of the Kursk NPP was commissioned to meet the technical water needs of power unit No. 5 under construction and power unit No. 6 planned for construction. .
The new reservoir holds about 50 million cubic meters of water. Water from cooling ponds of nuclear power plants is involved in the technological process of electricity production. Its use ensures the operation of heat exchange equipment and technical systems NPP protection and does not harm the environment.

Leningrad NPP

Location: Leningrad region, Sosnovy Bor
Total capacity of 4 units: 4000 MW

The station includes 4 power units with an electric capacity of 1000 MW each, the 1st and 2nd power units (first stage) are located approximately 5 km southwest of the city of Sosnovy Bor, the 3rd and 4th power units (second stage) are two kilometers to the west.
The grandeur of this structure can be judged by the fact that the construction volume of only one main building of the first stage of the station is 1,200,000 m 3, the height of the reactor block reaches 56 m, and the length of the main facade is more than 400 m.

The Leningrad NPP was laid down on July 6, 1967. On December 23, 1973, members of the State Selection Committee accepted the first power unit into operation. In 1975, the second block of the Leningrad NPP was launched and construction of the second stage of the station began. Work on the construction of the second stage began on May 10, 1975. The first installation work on the third block began on February 1, 1977.
On December 26, 1980 at 8:30 pm, the reactor of the fourth unit was physically launched, and on February 9, 1981, shortly before the opening of the XXVI Congress of the CPSU, the fourth power unit was put under industrial load.
Over the years of successful operation, and in 2002 the Leningrad NPP will celebrate its 30th anniversary, the station has generated over 600 billion kWh. electricity - and this is a record figure for a power plant in Europe.
Each power unit of the station includes the following main equipment:
RBMK reactor with a circulation loop and auxiliary systems;
2 turbine units of the K-500-65/3000 type with a steam and condensate-feed path;
2 TVV-500-2 type generators. .
The reactor and its auxiliary systems are located in separate buildings. The machine room is shared by 2 power units. Auxiliary workshops and systems for two power units are common and geographically located near each of the queues (2 power units) of the plant.
The total area occupied by the Leningrad NPP is 454 hectares.

Novovoronezh NPP

Location: Voronezh region, Novovoronezh
Total capacity of 3 units: 1880 MW

The decision to build a nuclear power plant was made in May 1957.
September 1964 - power launch of the block;
December 1964 - bringing the unit's capacity up to the design one (210 MW);
January 1966 - development of an increased power level (240 MW);
December 1969 - testing and operation of the power unit at a capacity of up to 280 MW.
With the launch of the first block of the Novovoronezh NPP on September 30, 1964, the countdown began in the history of nuclear energy in our country and European countries. Although the capacity of the power unit, according to modern concepts, was small, at the level of that time it was the most powerful nuclear power unit in the world.
1 power unit of the Novovoronezh NPP, created as a pilot industrial unit, clearly demonstrated the advantages of using nuclear energy, the reliability and safety of NPP operation
On December 30, 1969, the 2nd power unit of the Novovoronezh NPP was put into operation. The reactor plant for the 2nd power unit (VVER-365) was the basis for the transition to the construction of serial units with VVER.
In December 1971, the launch of the third power unit was carried out.
In 1972, power unit No. 3 reached its design capacity, and in December the power start-up of the next fourth unit was carried out.
A new page in the history of the station began - the construction of the country's first power unit with a VVER-1000 reactor, which gave current on May 31, 1980.
A series of units with VVER-440 reactor plants was built at the Kola, Armenian, Rovno NPPs, as well as abroad - in Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Finland. The head power unit No. 5 has become serial for the South-Ukrainian, Kalinin, Zaporozhye, Balakovo, Rostov NPPs, as well as for the Kozloduy NPP in Bulgaria.
In the meantime, the life of the design operation of the first two power units of the NPP was coming to an end. In August 1984, after the expiration of the commercial operation of the reactor vessel, the first unit was shut down to carry out work on reconstruction and modernization.
In 1986, after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the USSR nuclear power plant safety concept was revised and work on the modernization of unit No. 1 was stopped.
Based on the existing operating experience, the technical policy of the administration of Novovoronezh NPP for a long time was associated with the issues of modernization and reconstruction of units 3 and 4, the design operation period was also coming to an end. Thanks to the great work on the modernization of systems and equipment aimed at improving safety, Minatom of Russia in 2001-2002. It was decided to extend the life of Units 3 and 4 for 15 years.

Smolensk NPP

Location: Smolensk region, Desnogorsk
Total capacity of 3 units: 3000 MW

Annually, the station delivers an average of 20 billion kWh of electricity to the energy system, which is 13% of the electricity generated by ten nuclear power plants in the country.
Today, Smolensk NPP is the largest city-forming enterprise in the Smolensk region, the share of revenues to the regional budget of which is more than 30%.
There are three power units with uranium-graphite channel reactors RBMK-1000 of the second and third generations in commercial operation at the Smolensk NPP.
The first power unit was commissioned in 1982, the second - in 1985, the third - in 1990.
Electric capacity of each power unit is 1000 MW, thermal capacity is 3200 MW.
In 2007, Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant was the first NPP in Russia to receive an international certificate of conformity of the quality management system to the ISO 9001:2000 standard.
In order to extend the life of the Smolensk NPP, scheduled and current repairs are carried out at the station in stages, with a large amount of work on the reconstruction and modernization of equipment.
All power units are equipped with an accident localization system that excludes releases of radioactive substances into the environment.
In preparing the material, information was used from the site rosenergoatom.ru