A unique virtual technical photo tour in 3600 was held at the Leningrad nuclear power plant (NPP) for representatives of the Philippine Institute for Nuclear Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of the Philippines. The hour-long online tour conducted in English provided information about the new nuclear power units (NPUs) with VVER-1200 reactors put into commercial operation in 2018 and 2021.

“Given the current restrictions due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting inability to demonstrate Russian nuclear power plants to foreign partners, we were tasked with transforming our technical tours into online tours. The first virtual tour has already taken place, and by the end of 2021 Rosenergoatom will be ready to present four more sites: the Beloyarsk, Kursk, Novovoronezh NPPs, as well as the FNPP,” said Deputy Director General, Director for Business Development of Rosenergoatom JSC (part of the Electrical Power Division of Rosatom) Nikita Konstantinov.

The online form of the tour allowed the colleagues from the Philippines to make a direct acquaintance with the main principles of operation of the Russian nuclear power plant with its 3+ gen water-water VVER-1200 reactors and other technical solutions of this project; this despite the impressive distance of 8.5 km that separates the town of nuclear professionals, Sosnovy Bor from the capital of the Philippines, Manila. The guests were even able to visit the reactor building, which is forbidden while the NPUs are in operation.

The tour was conducted by the chief specialist of the LNPP decommissioning department Ruslan Kotykov. He underlined the importance of maintaining safe operation and told the participants about passive technological containment monitoring systems, which are a know-how of the Russian nuclear industry. These CMS are what allowed for the Russian VVER-1200 NPUs to be recognized globally as one of the most advanced nuclear objects.

Among other topics were personnel training for NPU operation, ecology politics, and social projects realized in the town of Sosnovy Bor with help from the LNPP, Rosenergoatom JSC, and Rosatom JSC.

The information shared with the Philippine colleagues during the virtual technical tour organized at the request of Rostekhnadzor will allow our counterparts from Manila to form a stance on the development of nuclear power and possible NPP construction in their country.