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Concept
Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant
Summary
Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant (Ленинградская атомная электростанция; Ленинградская АЭС Leningradskaya atomnaya elektrostantsiya; Leningradskaya AES ()) is a nuclear power plant located in the town of Sosnovy Bor in Russia's Leningrad Oblast, on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, some to the west of the city centre of Saint Petersburg.
The Leningrad NPP was the first power station in Russia 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-1000 type, all of which are first generation units similar to that of Kursk and Chernobyl units 1 and 2. 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-1200 type reactors. They will eventually replace the RBMK units as they are shut down due to age.
From May 2012 to December 2013, Unit 1 was offline while repairs were made related to some deformed graphite moderator blocks.
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.
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 blamed the accident on poor construction, rather than on the inherent instability of the reactor design, in an attempt to cover up the accident.
Official source
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