26.12.2007 // Information Department of Leningrad NPP

A delegation of municipal officials from Ulsan province and employees of Ulsan NPP (South Korea) visited Leningrad NPP on Dec 25 2007

The visit was organized by the Government of Ulsan province so the delegates could see Leningrad NPP and to acquire its advanced experience of safe and efficient operation and treatment of radioactive waste.

The head of the Information Department of Leningrad NPP Sergey Averyanov told the guests about one of the oldest nuclear power plants in Russia: the first unit of Leningrad NPP was launched in 1973. In 2003 after long and thorough modernization, the plant extended the life of its 1st unit, in 2006 – the life of the 2nd unit. Now, the plant is modernizing its 3rd unit and is preparing for the upgrading of the 4th one. Today, together with Kola NPP, Leningrad NPP meets almost 35% of the energy demand in North-Western Russia. The plant employs mostly people living in Sosnovy Bor. Most of them have come here from different regions of the former USSR. Today, the city has a population of 67,000.

The head of the Chemical Department of Leningrad NPP Viktor Tishkov and his deputy Pyotr Shishkanov told the guests about the plant’s system for treatment of liquid radioactive waste with its temporary storage facility; about the controlled water circulation system, recycling water supply system, filtration, desalination and distillation system, bituminization and bituminous compound storage. Shortly, the plant is planning to launch a system for conditioning and cementing the distillation residue of liquid radioactive waste. The cemented waste will be put into containers and sent to a special storage facility. 

The guests asked: Which is the maximum life of the plant?

— We examine all of our units and all of their systems. Each system has its own lifespan. We inspect each system thoroughly and decide either to repair it or to replace by a new one.

For example, as a result of the modernization program, the life of the liquid radioactive waste storage facilities – monolith ferroconcrete containers with 3–5 mm stainless steel lining, while the evaporator systems will be replaced as soon as they go out of date. “The life extension procedure at our plant is carried out in compliance with the international standards,” Averyanov said.

— What an effect does life extension have on the efficiency of the plant?

— The capacity factor remains the same. The thermal capacity of each unit of Leningrad NPP is 3200MW, the electric capacity — 1000MW. Rosenergoatom Concern, the operator of all the 10 Russian nuclear power plants, has adopted a program for enhancing their efficiency without changing their capacity. In 2015 our plants are supposed to increase their outputs by as much as 4.5 new 1000MW units can produce.   

Simultaneously with life extension, we are starting a large-scale program for construction of new NPPs. In Feb 2007 Sosnovy Bor hosted public hearings of LNPP-2 project, the construction of two WWER-1150 reactors. The project is to be launched in 2008.
 
— South Korea has 20 nuclear power units and is building 10 more. In order to avoid protests, the Government offers projects to improve the social infrastructure and living conditions in NPP zones. How do your people react to the construction of new NPPs?

— Our key argument is safety and stable energy supply. In the last five years our nuclear power plants have registered no single INES incident.

The IAEA guides say that the probability of damage of reactor core should be no more than 10–4 events a year, which is equivalent to one event in 10,000 years. After the modernization of the 1st and 2nd units of Leningrad NPP, the probability of damage of their reactor cores was reduced to 10–5 events a year – once in 100,000 years.

We have a special procedure for adopting such decisions: at each stage, we conduct public hearings; all opinions are included to the protocols of the State Ecological Inspection.

Construction of a nuclear power plant is not only investment of big money, development of related productions and creation of new jobs, it is also construction of roads, water and heating networks and other infrastructure.

After a meeting, the guests visited unit 1.

The Koreans were satisfied with their visit and thanked the managers of Leningrad NPP for offering them a unique opportunity to visit an operating unit, to see everything with their own eyes and to receive answers to all of their questions. The visit has become one more step towards mutually beneficial and stable partnership with Korean colleagues.

Olga Petrova