02.04.2019
INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT OF LENINGRAD NPP
The Leningrad NPP-2: the first industrial process system has been launched operational at the VVER-1200 power block under construction
The team of the 2nd VVER-1200 power block of the Leningrad NPP-2 under construction has successfully performed the operational launch of the makeup water system, the first out of 23 ones required for the key event of the year – the liquid release over the open reactor.
The makeup water is transferred from the demineralized water tanks, which are located in the steam cell of the nuclear island, into the reactor, turbine, electric and chemical halls’ equipment to supply the process loops of the power block and the safety sytems.
Following the installation, the team has also successfully performed the vibration alignment of the pump installation, cleaned it, and carried out the hydrostatic tests. The quality of the works has been fully verified.
‘The makeup water system pumps were the first piece of the intended production machinery launched at the Leningrad NPP 2nd power block under construction’, Andrey Timakov, the deputy head of the Leningrad NPP-2 turbine hall, said. ‘The whole system is like a heart and blood vessels bringing life to all other process systems of the new power block. Once the block is commissioned, the pumps will supply all technology systems in all operational modes. Hypothetically, if there is a non-routine power failure, the pumps will transfer water into the system of passive heat removal from the steam generators, into the fuel pond makeup, and to the backup and block diesel power plants’.
The Leningrad NPP is the country’s first plant with RBMK-1000 reactors (uranium-graphite circuit-type reactor running on thermal neutrons). The decision that marked its construction was taken in September 1966 by a resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR and the Council of Ministers No. 800-252. According to that document, the Leningrad NPP was supposed to become a core in a network of nuclear power plants with RBMK-1000 reactors that were supposed to produce a substantial share of electric power. The construction of the Leningrad NPP was going well, and by 1973 the first power block was fully erected. On December 23, 1973, following stable 72-hours’ operation at the capacity of 150 megawatt, the State Commission signed the acceptance certificate stating that the first power block of the Leningrad nuclear power plant is commissioned for pilot production.
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