29.11.2019
INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT OF LENINGRAD NPP
The capacities of the new Leningrad NPP VVER-1200 power block have been included into the heat supply for the city of Sosnovy Bor
A key milestone at the Leningrad NPP marked an important point for the city of Sosnovy Bor – the new VVER-1200 power block has been integrated into the heat supply system fully replacing the heat capacity of the shutdown RBMK-1000 block.
All major manufacturers and production companies located in the industrial part were the first ones to receive the heat. The next stage is connecting the city to the heat supply.
The Leningrad nuclear power plant is a base source of heat power for the Sosnovoborskiy borough. The net cost of heat generated at the nuclear power plant is far lower than the net cost of heat source produced at boiler stations running on organic fuel. Besides, using heat from nuclear power plants prevents emissions of carbon dioxide and reduces its impact on the environment.
‘The VVER-1200 power block is a replacement for both electricity and heat capacities, and it will start delivering those as a replacement for the shutdown RBMK power block’, Dmitry Tsygankov, the head of turbine hall, said. ‘The Leningrad NPP turbine hall and district heat supply boiler room teams have fully ensured reliable and trouble-free heat supply to the city and the industrial park using a high-capacity power block that can output twice as much power as an RBMK block’.
The main prerequisite of transferring heat to the district heat supply boiler room was the completion of the equipment adjustment and launching the VVER-1200 power block’s cogeneration plant.
‘The thermal output of the new power block is 3,200 megawatt or 250 Gcal/h, which is pretty much enough to supply heat to the industrial park and all Sosnovy Bor’, Andrey Graf, the deputy head of turbine hall on the Leningrad NPP-2 operation, explained. ‘As of now, we are only using one third of the equipment’s capacity, and it caters for 60^ of the boiler room’s heat demand. In the future, we are ready to fully load our cogeneration plant and start selling heat power for central heating and hot water supply in the nuclear power city and satisfy any demand’.
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.