On June 28, 2016, the public hearings on the preliminary report regarding the way the Rostov NPP’s 4th power block may affect the environment were held in the Dubov district.

280 people, including the designers and the Rostov NPP operating specialists, the representatives of the Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC, the governmental and independent environment protection organizations, the Rostov region government, the district authorities, and non-governmental organization, as well as the Dubov district dwellers who have the Rostov NPP based in their area took part in the discussion. More than 20 people have delivered their speeches on the subject.

Andrey Gorbunov, the Rostov NPP chief engineer, has noted: “Safety is the main priority for the nuclear power specialists. The Rostov NPP was acknowledged to be the best Russian NPP in this regards four times. The 4th power block is a V-320 project concentrating the best engineering practices available in Russia. This block boasts 4 safety barriers and 5 levels of defense in depth. There’s no wonder our foreign colleagues show interest in this type of NPP project”.

According to the Rostov NPP radiation safety department responsible for radiation monitoring of the environment the station is based in, during the period of 2007-2016 the radionuclides ratio in the surface air was lower than the minimum detectable activity. The Rostov NPP wasn’t detected to affect the radionuclides’ specific activity in the surface air and the atmospheric precipitations, the field vegetation, or the fruits, vegetables, meat, and milk used as samples within the area the NPP is located in.

Igor Shumskiy, the head of the interregional department for the Federal Bio-Medical Agency No.5, has also confirmed those data: “The Rostov NPP’s power blocks operations do not affect the environment and do not lead to any growth of the radiation background in the NPP control area. According to the daily monitoring and the research conducted by the interregional department for the Federal Bio-Medical Agency, this indicator remains the same ever since the nuclear power station, with the first, the second, and the third power blocks’ launch not influencing the natural radiation background at all”.

Launching the Rostov NPP’s 4th power block and increasing the atomic power generation in the south of Russia are essential due to the shortage of power, which is growing tremendously. The Russian southern regions, including the Crimea, develop dramatically, and the nuclear power industry is the only one that can meet the growing need for power resources.

The Rostov NPP designers and operating specialists along with the Rosenergoatom representatives have addressed all the questions and concerns raised by the participants of the public hearings. The preliminary reports will be available for review for another month, until August 1st.

The Rostov NPP is an affiliate company for Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC. The plant is based at the Tsymlianskoe reservoir shore 13.5 km away from Volgodonsk. The NPP operates VVER-1000 reactors with the installed capacity of 1000 megawatts. The power block No.1 commenced commercial operations in 2001, with the second and the third power blocks to follow in 2010 and on September 17, 2015, respectively. The power block No. 4 is currently under construction.

The up-to-date information on the nuclear environment close to the Russian NOOs and other nuclear objects is available at www.russianatom.ru


The Rostov NPP Information and Public Relations Administration.