07.02.2007 // Information and PR Center of Leningrad NPP

Public hearings of the materials on the ecological impacts of the construction and the operation of LNPP-2 were held in Sosnovy Bor on Feb 7 2007

Public hearings of the materials on the ecological impacts of the construction and the operation of Leningrad NPP-2 were held at the “Constructor” Culture Palace of Sosnovy Bor (Leningrad region) on Feb 7 2007 2:00 PM.

Attending the hearings were over 800 people: residents of Sosnovy Bor, Leningrad region and St. Petersburg, representatives of NGOs and mass media, legislators of different levels, state and municipal officials, heads of local companies and departments as well as representatives of the embassy ofthe US and the consulates of Finland, Sweden and Estonia.

In his welcoming speech, the head of the Sosnovy Bor administration Dmitry Puliayevsky said: “Our key task today is to clarify all questions concerning the project so they become a basis for the work and the findings of a state ecological inspection.”

Vice Chairman of the Committee on Economy and Investments of the Leningrad Region Government Sergey Kuklin was glad that so many people are interested in the project. He said: “In the last years Leningrad region and the whole North-Wes have been stably developing… The decision to build new energy capacities was very timely.”

Deputy Director General-Director for Scientific-Technical Development of Rosenergoatom Vladimir Asmolov told the audience about the history of LNPP: “For me, the research manager of the so-called Sarcophagus project in 1986, the change in our technological mentality that followed the Chernobyl accident is the biggest guarantee of the future success of our nuclear power engineering.”

Chief Engineer of the project of the St. Petersburg Research and Development Institute Atomenergoproject Alexander Kazarin presented the preliminary materials on LNPP-2. He said that the mission of the plant is to preserve and develop electricity and heat production in the North-Western region of the European part of Russia, this including phased replacement of the existing capacities of LNPP-1 upon the expiry of their resources.

LNPP-2 has the following target parameters: each unit will have a minimum capacity of 1,150 MW; the service period is 50 years; the capacity factor is no less than 33.7%; the average yearly readiness factor is 0.92%.

Two such units will produce 16.844bln KWh and 1.350mln Gcal a year. The average annual planned suspension period is no more than 25 days. The reactor will work for up to 8,100 hours a year.

The NPP-2006 project is based on the 40-year experience in designing and operating WWER reactors in Russia and abroad. In order to attain high safety standards, the LNPP-2 designers have worked out a rational configuration of the active and passive security elements. This allows to attain diversity and to reduce the human factor.

The plant will have no significant radioactive or chemical impacts on ecology. The qualitative and some quantitative parameters of the forecast of the ecological and social situation in the area show that LNPP-2 will be ecological safe.

More than 100 questions were addressed to the organizers of the public hearings – Rosenergoatom Concern and Sosnovy Bor Administration. It was impossible to answer all of them in just three hours. However, neither those who support LNPP-2 nor those who object to some of its technical solutions said anything against the project.

In conclusion, the independent chairman of the public hearings – member of the Public Chamber of State Duma Vyacheslav Glazychev said: “We have had a good constructive talk.”