25.04.2008 // Information Department of Leningrad NPP

On Apr 22 a group of participants in the 2nd International Dialogue-Forum “Nuclear Energy, Society, Security” from Seversk, Tomsk region, visited Leningrad NPP and the construction site of Leningrad NPP-2

The deputy director for personnel management of Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant N.Kirillov was frank: he said that their key problem was shortage of personnel.

In its time, the construction of Leningrad NPP attracted lots of specialists from all over the Soviet Union because the plant was near Leningrad. Today, St.Petersburg (former Leningrad) “vacuum-cleans” everything “brainy” that happens to bud in Sosnovy Bor. Each year Leningrad NPP employs 800 people with 500 quitting the plant: so, it turns out that Kirillov is “the worst” personnel management executive in Rosenergoatom Concern.

“But the point is that they in Sosnovy Bor are not carrying out big construction projects at the moment,” Kirillov said. “The cost value of one sq m of housing in Sosnovy Bor is 35,000–40,000 RUR, houses are sold at 45,000 RUR per sq m, while junior engineers of Leningrad NPP earn just 15,000–17,000 RUR a month. We are implementing a mortgage credit program for our youth: we offer them loans at 7%. We give them as many as 15 years for repayment. We have even agreed not to charge pre-payment. But today we have just one construction project in Sosnovy Bor — a house with 360 apartments – and nothing else. So, we must urgently solve this problem: we have to build a whole residential area – and not only for our plant. Without houses we will have no Leningrad NPP-2.”

“Nevertheless, we are relatively cheerful. We have successfully modernized our units and have extended their lives for 15 years. In fact, we have managed to avoid the situation our colleagues from Ignalina NPP are facing now: they have to decommission their 1^st unit and this will cost them half of what they would spend on the construction of a new reactor.” “The preliminary decommissioning date for our 1^st unit is 2018. So, the LNPP-2 project will be a real salvation for our city.”

When the guests went to the construction site of LNPP-2 I asked Kirillov:

Wasn’t it a strange way to attract people: telling them about problems?

— We perfectly understand that we cannot keep problems from people. Sooner or latter, they will learn everything. Our problems have objective grounds: 15 years of reforms and transition to market economy; lack of effective system of basic vocational education; lack of managers. 

Today, the situation has changed and we can hope that we will sort things out and will create worthy conditions for the employees of our plants: LNPP and LNPP-2. Today, the key things our youth care for are image and money. We have the former: it is prestigious to be an operator at a nuclear power plant. So, if we add to it worthy wages and favorable housing conditions, we will attract lots of youths. Otherwise, we will hardly be able to recruit new specialists. 

– Is it a tradition to recruit specialists from Tomsk?

— Yes, when we built LNPP we recruited lots of specialists from Tomsk: almost 30% of our staff were from that city. Almost half of the people who built and launched our first units were from Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk. So, we know where to look or good specialists.

– Do students from Tomsk Polytechnic University come here for probation?

— Yes, we are expecting 50 people to come for probation from that university this summer: some of them are graduates preparing for theses, the others of students of the 3^rd and 4^th years needing work practice.

– How many houses do you have to build for them and others to come to Sosnovy Bor and start working at Leningrad NPPs?

— I can say that we have certain plans, estimates, applications but I can’t yet say that they have been accepted. In 2013 we are to launch the 1^st unit, in 2015 — the 2^nd one. To do it we need 600–800 workers. Some of them will be workers from LNPP, others will be recruited from other places. Today, we have almost no houses for rent. So, I think we should borrow money to build houses and to give them to people. They will later pay for them. Today, the average age of our personnel is 47. Almost 300 people retire every year. So, we need substitutes: part of them come from Sosnovy Bor – I kind of “pirate” them from other companies — but most of newcomers are graduates of universities of Novovoronezh, Smolensk and other cities. All of them need housing and we are obliged to give it to them. So, by 2014 we will need almost 2,000 flats.

– What can newcomers hope for in the near future?

— Presently, we are building 60 flats under a program for 2007–2009. They will be used as temporary housing for employees of LNPP and LNPP-2. The flats are almost ready and we will get them by the end of May.