Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear-power engineering started in Russia on June 27, 1954, with the start-up of the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, which had a 5 MW carbon-uranium reactor.

In 1958, construction work began on the Beloyarsk NPP, featuring a channel-type water-carbon reactor with active section reheating.

The early period of nuclear-power engineering was characterized by the wide coverage of alternative and reserve avenues. In 1954, a massive effort was concentrated on two designs for dual-purpose reactors that could combine power generation and the development of weapon-grade plutonium: a graphite-water reactor with zirconium and steel pipes (a prototype of the RBMK, a large-capacity channel reactor) and a water-moderated tank reactor (a prototype of the VVER, a water-moderated power tank reactor).

The VVER project was launched in 1954-1955. The first power unit of this type of reactor at the Novovoronezhskaya NPP was placed in the circuit in 1964 and taken out of service in 1984. The second ran from 1969 to 1990.

Also implemented were power units with graphite water-cooled reactors featuring essentially new design solutions for the fuel core and the fuel element channel, which were used at the Obninsk HPP. They included the 1st and 2nd power units of the Beloyarsk NPP and the four power units of the Bilibinsk NPP. The Beloyarsk NPP featured nuclear reheating of turbine steam, and the Bilibinsk NPP featured natural circulation of primary coolant through reactor channels. The Beloyarsk NPP power unit 1 was in operation from 1964 to 1983 and power unit 2, from 1967 to 1990. The Bilibinsk NPP power units have serviced electric mains since 1974.

In 1962, the nuclear-power engineering program was expanded to cover gas-graphite and heavy-water reactors in addition to AMB and VVER reactors. Subsequently, heavy-water reactors were replaced by the water-moderated reactors, and gas-graphite reactors, by fast reactors (FR).

The RBMK reactor program was launched in 1963. The first version of the reactor was an elaboration of the dual-purpose concept using uranium metal and zirconium channel piping. In 1967, the reactor took final shape as a purely power reactor using dioxide fuel. The first power unit with this type of reactor was started up at the Leningrad NPP in 1973; a total of six such units were placed in operation at the Leningrad and Kursk NPPs between 1973 and 1978.

A breakdown at the fourth unit of the Chernobyl NPP on April 26, 1986, led to a review of the physical characteristics of RBMK reactors and necessitated a tightening of the technological regulations with a view to upgrading the safety of these reactors. Today, pressurized water-moderated and channel-type uranium-graphite reactors dominate Russia's nuclear-power engineering. The country's 10 nuclear power plants, including a ninth, Rostov NPP, which is under construction, operate 29 power units with an installed capacity of 21,242 MW.