The Leningrad NPP has passed the partnership reevaluation held by the WANO (The World Association of Nuclear Operators). The international team of experts said that the nuclear power plant has progressed considerably in the aspects noted as room for improvement during the partnership evaluation in 2014. At that point of time, the experts took note of the 5 strengths and 15 weaknesses of the Leningrad NPP. According to the standard practice, after two years the WANO experts have reviewed whether their recommendations to the nuclear power plant were helpful.

“One of the aspects has reached the A level in our metrics, with the others attaining the B level”, Yaroslav Vokurek from the Czech Republic, the head of the expert team, summarized the outcomes. He praised the way the Leningrad NPP’s specialists were involved in the discussion.


A level means that sustainable progress has been achieved, most of or all remedial actions have been completed, and the outcomes are being monitored and analyzed to maintain constant growth.

B level refers to a situation when the enhancements are obvious, there is still room for improvements, some of the remedial actions have been completed, while the whole set of those actions will enable to fully address the issues identified during the evaluation.

The B level marks for the Leningrad NPP were stipulated by the time lines and the tough self-criticism among the plant’s staff members. Many of the remedial actions are planned to be completed next year. The experts believe that all of those areas are being consistently progressing, so there are no doubts the changes will be successful.


“In many cases, the Leningrad NPP is much more critical than ourselves. The plant’s staff insists on not being consistent with the A level guidelines and are committed to working on it further on. We would like to stress that these self-evaluation results enable them to stay focused and continue their pursuit of security and reliability”, Vladimir Rybakov, the expert team coordinator and the counselor of the WANO Moscow center, said.

“There are always some best practices to adopt, and one should learn from their mistakes. We are happy to welcome any guests and any commissions and are grateful to them for an opportunity to see the origin of any issues we couldn’t see on our own”, Vladimir Pereguda, the Leningrad NPP director, thanked the WANO delegates.

He also expressed his hope for even better outcomes benefiting the nuclear power experts all over the world, as there are no national boundaries for nuclear security.

The Leningrad NPP is an affiliate company for Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC. The plant is based in the city of Sosnovy Bor, 40 km to the west from Saint Petersburg at the Gulf of Finland shore. The Leningrad NPP is the first Russian nuclear power plant having RBMK-1000 reactors (uranium-graphite channel-type thermal neutron reactors). The NPP exploits 4 power blocks with the electric capacity of 1000 megawatt each. Also, pursuant to the NPP-2006 project, 1,2 VVER-1200 power blocks included into The State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM long-term plan are being constructed. Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC is the owner and developer of the project. Holding TITAN-2 is the primary contractor. ATOMPROEKT is the general designer.


Leningrad  NPP Information and Public Relations Administration.