Smolensk NPP is guarding the country's energy security. Stations and projects

Director of the Smolensk NPP Alexander Vasiliev talks about the prospects for the development of the largest energy enterprise in the Smolensk region and its contribution to the regional economy.
- Alexander Ivanovich, tell us about the investment program and activities of the Smolensk NPP in the coming years in connection with the extension of the operating life of the power units. How was the modernization of equipment and systems carried out, what unique aspects can be highlighted, how much money was spent on it?
- Before starting a conversation about the prospects for the development of the Smolensk NPP, I would like to say a few words in general about the largest energy enterprise in the Smolensk region. It is no secret that the Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant has been safely and uninterruptedly supplying consumers with a quality product - environmentally friendly electric and thermal energy - for 33 years. Smolensk NPP is the main taxpayer of the region, making a significant contribution to its economic well-being. This is a responsible employer that provides decent conditions and levels of remuneration for staff, takes care of their health, and supports young people and retirees.

The design 30-year operating life of existing nuclear power plants was determined in the 50–60s of the last century and reflects some conservatism of the adopted calculation base for its justification. Many years of experience in operating nuclear power plants, actual operational data on equipment wear, and modern achievements of science and technology make it possible today to revise the previously established service life of power units and the timing of decommissioning of nuclear power plant equipment. Practice and research have shown that a power unit is capable of operating much longer than the range of 30 years previously determined by the designers, and therefore one of the objectives of the investment program for the development of nuclear power plants was the modernization and extension of the operating life of power units by an average of 15-25 years while increasing their safety by 1.5-2 orders of magnitude. This policy of the nuclear industry is supported by the government leadership.
At the Smolensk NPP, work to prepare power unit No. 1 for an additional service life started back in 2002. During a comprehensive survey of the power unit, the fundamental possibility of operating non-replaceable elements (graphite masonry, reactor metal structures, foundations, foundations), as well as the power unit as a whole, was determined beyond the design service life; elements to be replaced due to resource exhaustion were identified. The audit did not reveal any factors preventing the further safe operation of the “firstborn” of the Smolensk NPP. During the large-scale modernization and reconstruction of the first power unit, a colossal amount of work was completed. A number of systems were modernized: monitoring and control of the reactor installation, emergency cooling of the reactor, radiation control, the centralized control system "Skala" was replaced with the modern automated system "Skala-micro", an automated system for detecting coolant leaks was introduced. The building structures of the “hot” rooms of the power unit were strengthened, all technological channels, thermal-mechanical and electrical equipment that had exhausted their service life were replaced. Subsequently, an in-depth and comprehensive safety assessment of the power unit was carried out and personnel were trained to operate the newly installed and upgraded equipment.

Work to extend the service life of the first power unit was completed in December 2011, a year before the end of its designated service life. Their cost was about 8 billion rubles. In December 2012, a license was received from the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision to operate the nuclear installation for an additional period of 15 years until 2027. The updated power unit has been in operation for three years now.
A similar amount of modernization work was completed at the second unit. The work was completed in May 2014. The cost of the work amounted to about 10 billion rubles. The service life of power unit No. 2 has been extended by 15 years – until 2030. Ahead is the modernization of the third power unit, the design life cycle of which ends in five years. A comprehensive survey was also carried out, an investment project and design and estimate documentation were developed, and equipment for repairs was supplied.
Leading scientific, design and engineering organizations in Russia, the best domestic manufacturers of equipment for nuclear power plants, installation and repair organizations, and nuclear plant specialists are participating in the work to extend the service life of all three power units of the Smolensk NPP. The result of their extensive joint work makes it possible to extend the life of the power units of the Smolensk NPP, ensuring their safe and reliable operation.


- How many jobs will be saved or increased, will tax payments increase during the period to which the construction of the new nuclear power plant is postponed?
Smolensk NPP is a city-forming enterprise, so most of its working population works at the nuclear power plant or in contractors. Thus, the Smolensk NPP provides jobs for more than 7 thousand people.
Until the commissioning of replacement capacities - Smolensk NPP-2, the personnel of the nuclear power plant and contractors will be provided with work, since, as I have already said, the operating life of the power units has been extended. However, the number of staff at the Smolensk plant, as well as at all other nuclear power plants of the Rosenergoatom concern, will decrease over time. And here, I would like to emphasize, we are not talking about staff reduction, but about optimizing the number, that is, transferring non-core (auxiliary) functions and the personnel performing them to contracting organizations. The optimization process is inevitable, since labor productivity and, as a consequence, increasing the competitiveness of the enterprise directly depend on it. Thus, we have already partially outsourced the repair functions to OJSC Atomenergoremont, and the decontamination of equipment and cleaning of nuclear power plant premises to SAES-Service LLC. In fact, all these people continue to work at the Smolensk NPP.
Now about taxes. Tax payments from the Smolensk NPP to the regional budget tend to increase from year to year, and this is a clear confirmation that during the period of postponing the construction of SAES-2, the budget will not decrease. All programs implemented at the Smolensk NPP are directly related to an increase in tax revenues. In particular, impressive investments in the modernization of existing units in order to extend their service life lead to an increase in the cost of fixed assets, and therefore to an increase in the share of income tax when distributed by a consolidated group of taxpayers between regions. In addition, investments in modernization increase property taxes, which in full go to the budget of the Smolensk region.
Tell us how the work on the construction of SAPP-2 is going?
It would not be amiss to recall that the Smolensk NPP-2 project has always been considered as a nuclear power plant project to replace the existing power units of the Smolensk NPP. Thus, the commissioning of the first power unit of SAES-2 should take place after the decommissioning of the first power unit of the existing nuclear power plant, in 2027. The VVER-TOI project was chosen for SAES-2 - these are advanced reactors with increased safety and reliability that meet all modern world norms and standards.
Preparations for the construction of a replacement nuclear power plant are proceeding in accordance with the approved schedule of activities. To date, a lot has been done: engineering surveys have been carried out on the site, an assessment of the impact of future construction on the environment has been carried out and public discussions have been held, materials have been developed to justify the license for the placement of replacement power units. Design surveys have been completed and an act on the selection of a land plot for the construction of new facilities has been drawn up. State bodies are undergoing the approval procedure for documents on the transfer of land to industrial use. In the future, it is necessary to carry out the entire range of preparatory work and obtain at the state level all the necessary permits for the placement and construction of replacement power units for SAES-2.

The Smolensk NPP is located in the south of the Smolensk region, 3 km from the city of Desnogorsk. At the moment, its total installed capacity is 3000 MW, and its thermal capacity is 9600 MW. Moreover, it accounts for more than 80% of the total amount of energy generated in the region. For example, last year it generated 24,182.2 million kWh of electricity. Like other nuclear power plants in our country (there are ten in total), it operates as part of Rosenergoatom Concern JSC, and accounts for about 13% of the concern’s total energy output. So the station is not small, and I’ll show you how interesting it is now.

I like to start getting acquainted with any enterprise with history, because it’s no secret that whoever remembers it has a future. In this regard, nuclear scientists are great; in each region of their presence they have built large, spacious, beautiful and very educational information centers. Here visitors can get acquainted in great detail with the history, present, and even future of the power plant, as well as understand how everything works and works there. In the city of Desnogorsk, of course, there is one, and the first thing we do is go there.

And it all started like this. On September 26, 1966, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted Resolution No. 800/252 on the construction of the Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant. In 1971, its construction began. Thanks to the nuclear power plant, the village of Desnogorsk first appeared on the map of our country, which then grew into a city. By the way, it was on February 24, 1974 that it was officially registered as a village, and according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated January 31, 1989, it became a city.

Let's move on, 1978 was marked by the damming of the Desna River, after which the filling of the Desnogorsk reservoir began. On December 25, 1982, an act was signed on the acceptance of power unit No. 1 of the Smolensk NPP for commercial operation. On May 31, 1985, power unit No. 2 began to help him. In our country, the trinity is always held in high esteem, so here we followed this path, launching power unit No. 3 on January 30, 1990. True, they also planned to build a fourth, the construction of which began in the fall of 1984, but it was stopped in December 1993.

Nothing lasts forever and our safety comes first. No matter how good our Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant is, it has a certain service life, so power engineers are already thinking about the next generations today. In December 2012, the General Director of the Rosatom State Corporation Sergei Kiriyenko signed an order to begin work on the construction of the second stage of the Smolensk NPP (Smolensk NPP-2). It will become a replacement station. At Smolensk NPP-2, according to the project, two new generation power units with advanced reactor units of the V-510 type (VVER-TOI Project) will be installed, with an electrical capacity of 1255 MW each and a thermal capacity of 3312 MW. According to all safety standards, these new reactors will be much more reliable and comply with the most insane requirements of the IAEA. And their service life will be 60 years. In November 2014, survey work on the construction of Smolensk NPP-2 was completed. The first two power units are currently being designed, which should be commissioned in 2024 and 2026, respectively. As they are commissioned, most likely by 2027, the existing power unit No. 1 of the Smolensk NPP will be decommissioned. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. If they ever call you to this construction site, I will definitely show and tell you everything in detail.

10. Hurray, here she is a beauty, immediately there is awe everywhere, in short I got it :)

The Smolensk NPP operates three power units with single-circuit uranium-graphite channel reactors RBMK-1000. The electrical capacity of each such power unit is 1 GW, and the thermal capacity is 3.2 GW.

The Smolensk NPP sends all generated energy to the unified energy system of Russia, with which it is connected by six power lines with an electric voltage of 330 kV (Roslavl-1, 2), 500 kV (Kaluga, Mikhailov), 750 kV (Novo-Bryanskaya, Belorusskaya).

13. Lenin is more alive here than anyone else, and the panel is really cool

14. Here are those you should look up to

15. I won’t repeat how we went through everything here. We were dressed with special socks, boots, gowns, hats, gloves, ear plugs and helmets, everything as it should be. We went through various security systems. Rosatom's control at all stages is strict and the same everywhere. But what I really liked and what I was really pleasantly surprised by was the fact that here we were shown and allowed much more. It is not for nothing that the Smolensk NPP has been repeatedly recognized as one of the winners in various competitions among energy enterprises in the nuclear industry, even around the world, for example, in 2011 according to the OSART version of the IAEA. In fact, before my eyes there is a transformation in the information openness of the company as a whole and this is very cool, I’m afraid I’ll jinx it, we’ll check it at the next nuclear power plant.

16. Block control panel. It is from here that all processes at the station are monitored and controlled.

21. More than 4,000 people work at the SAPP.

23. Central hall of RBMK-1000 Smolensk NPP

For lovers of statistics, I record it. The first power unit with a RBMK-1000 type reactor was launched in 1973 at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant (we were there last time). Its thermal power is 3200 MW, electrical power - 1000 MW. The moderator here is graphite, and the coolant is water. The reactor itself is located in a reinforced concrete shaft and is a system of channels with fuel assemblies installed in them. The number of technological channels is 1661, the number of control and protection rods is 211. The reactor load with uranium is 200 tons. And the average fuel burnup is 22.6 MW*day/kg.

25. Unloading and loading machine, which reloads fuel cassettes.

27. Well, I’ve reached the next dose of radiation again :)

29. Fuel ready for loading into the reactor

32. One fuel assembly weighs about 130 kg, its length is 7 meters. It serves for 1.5-2 years.

39. Main circulation pumps designed to create coolant circulation in the primary circuit of a nuclear power plant.

40. And this is the turbine hall of the Smolensk NPP, its length is 600 m.

41. Each power unit has two turbogenerators. Here they are located for all three power units. The power of one such turbogenerator is 500 MW, and it weighs as much as 1,200 tons.

Actually, the process of obtaining the necessary energy is as follows. There is a controlled chain reaction that occurs in the reactor core: fuel - uranium dioxide U235 - is divided by thermal neutrons. As a result, a huge amount of heat is generated, which is converted into electricity with the help of separators, steam generators and turbines. That is, at first nuclear energy transforms into thermal energy, thermal energy at the next stage into mechanical energy, and then into electrical energy.

44. At the end of our program, we looked into the Laboratory of External Radiation Monitoring, there was no sensation, we will live and live happily ever after!

45. Many thanks to the entire press service OJSC Rosenergoatom Concern and personally to Artyom aoshpakov Shpakov for organizing this trip!

Last week I took a trip to a place I had never dreamed of. For those who often write about large industrial facilities, getting to an operating nuclear power plant is already a holiday. For me this is a double holiday! It was my first time visiting a large and strategically important facility.

Smolensk NPP is located in Desnogorsk. This city is located approximately in the middle between Smolensk and Bryansk not far from Roslavl.

1. First, some basic information.

2. There are 10 nuclear power plants in Russia. Together they generate 16% of the country's electricity.

3. Smolensk NPP was put into operation in 1982. In the future, Solenskaya NPP-2 will be built to gradually withdraw the capacity of NPP-1.

4. In order not to rewrite the pictures, I immediately indicate the operation scheme of the SAES.

5. Now we are moving to the territory of the nuclear power plant.

6. The cooling pond is teeming with fish. Its quantity is huge due to the temperature. It's always warmer than normal here. Specialists from Moscow come specifically to control the amount of fish!

6. Algae also actively live and reproduce here.

7. At the entrance we are greeted by a large mosaic with Vladimir Ilyich.

8. Is it worth talking about safety at nuclear power plants? Every person in their right mind wants to live. The numerous posters in workplaces, hallways and interstitial spaces are bright, clear and sometimes highly motivating.

9. Access to the territory for guests only with equipment that has been declared in advance. Dressing completely in white clothes. In general, I was pleasantly surprised that it was possible to shoot a lot. In any case, everything cannot be shown, but in my short experience there have already been places where there were much more prohibitions.

10. Unfortunately, my stupidity sometimes goes beyond boundaries. I managed to forget to remove the polarizing filter for filming screens. So they came out darker than real.

11. The nuclear power plant control system is a huge shield with a bunch of buttons and levers.

12. To film it completely, you need to use a 360 camera or ask everyone to step out of the frame and shoot from the very angle.

13. Workplace.

14. If you don’t know what this is, you don’t understand the structure of a nuclear power plant. These buttons are responsible for controlling the rods - the basis of the reactor.

15. And three red levers nearby - turning off all three reactors. Hopefully they won't need to be used in extreme circumstances or as a preventive measure.

16.

17. Red lines on the floor are a dangerous place to enter. Just in case.

18. The most important, most interesting and most desirable place for all guests of the nuclear power plant is ahead.

19. The central hall, in which the basis of the entire station is located - the power unit. We are in one of three of these.

20. Before us is the reactor itself. Its upper part is called the plateau. People (I once loved games about Chernobyl) often called it a cover, a surface. Internally, the device resembles a large bunch of pencils. Do you remember in your school years there were piles of unsharpened pencils, covered with an elastic band? Here's something similar

21. Under the cells there are fuel assemblies in the form of tubes with uranium pellets.

22. To be honest, entering the plateau for the first time was a bit scary. It would seem that I can imagine what’s underneath me, others have already left, but I’m a little scared. Then I finally decided. Fine. The feeling is special. I even took a rare “feet” photo of myself.

23. The height of the room is designed for the quiet rise of each part of the structure. And the yellow “pipe” in the middle of the photo will soon generate electricity.

24. As you can see, the design consists of ordinary tubes, inside of which there are uranium tablets. Now until they are lowered into the reactor they pose no danger.

25. In order to carry out work on replacing parts, there is a special machine in the hall.

26. This is a crane that moves across the entire area and drags structural elements. Can be controlled either automatically or manually.

27. Workplace.

28. The waste material remains here for 1.5 years.

29. The overall view of the structure is impressive. While I was in this room, I received an interview. They pulled the first sensations out of me. Then it really seemed to me that everything here was compact. Yes, I understand that this is a large object of great power with enormous weight and large scale. But for some reason, my distorted view initially expected that everything here would be not just big, but huge.

30. And of course everything is under control.

32.

33. And this is the turbine hall. The place where electricity appears.

34. This multi-level design generates electrical energy from steam by moving turbine blades at 3,000 revolutions per minute.

35. All characteristics.

36. The hum here is a little disorienting.

37. It may surprise you, but there are not many people here. Those who are there are in soundproofed rooms. The automation works without failures and protects the system if something happens.

38.

39. To study everything that is in this picture, I, a humanist, will need to spend a year.

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42.

43. Part of the nuclear power plant’s capacity is used to service the city.

44. And finally, let’s take a quick look at the external radiation control laboratory. It is no longer located at the nuclear power plant, but in the city.

45. So that you understand the level of radiation in the vicinity of the station, I am posting the table in full. For comparison, in St. Petersburg on the embankments the indicator from the second column is 0.45, and in Moscow in some places it is 0.60.

46. ​​Numerous tests of everything possible are still carried out here.

47. But I think that it is wrong to rewrite Wikipedia, and it is she who will better tell about the meaning and purpose of the devices.

My gratitude to the organizers of the blog tour, the NPP employees and the security service! I didn’t expect that it would be possible to calmly photograph everything that seemed interesting!

Thank you for your attention! Stay connected!

The Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant is located in the Smolensk region, 3 kilometers from the city of Desnogorsk. Smolensk NPP is the largest energy enterprise in the North-West region.

The total power of the station is 3000 MW. Reactors of the RMBK-1000 type are operated. The first unit was put into commercial operation in December 1982, the second in 1985, and the third in 1990.

Initially, it was planned to build two stages of two blocks each, but in 1986 the construction of the fourth block was stopped due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

We got to a shift change. Each shift lasts 8 hours, the station operates around the clock.

Upon entering, each person must go through metal detectors, then go to a special booth and present a pass. When the doors open, the employee enters the booth, enters a secret code and applies his palm to scan his hand biometrics. A photo of the employee’s face is also checked, as well as the employee’s weight! The permissible discrepancy is no more than 10 kg.

There is also a board of honor.

About 30 thousand people live in the city, the enterprise is a city-forming one. The number of station employees is about 4.5 thousand people! About 4 thousand people cooperate with the station.

Fish is also bred at the station; the annual discharge of fish is about 40 tons. The water temperature at the reservoir is 28 degrees Celsius all year round!

There is an observation zone around the nuclear power plant with a radius of 30 kilometers! Soil and water analysis and background radiation measurements are constantly carried out.

11 springs have also been developed; among the locals they enjoy the fame of holy springs.

Everyone is dressed in special white clothes: hats, socks, shirts, gowns, boots, gloves, earplugs and helmets.

They are also given a special meter that measures background radiation on the body.

The main circulation pumps provide continuous circulation of the coolant in each loop of the multiple forced circulation circuit. There are 4 of them in total, but 3 are working, the other is a backup.

Pumps send water to the pressure manifold, and from it to the distribution group manifolds, from where it is supplied to the technological channels of the reactor, where it is heated and partially evaporated. Output pressure: 70 kgf/cm2, temperature: 284.5 degrees.

Then the steam-water mixture is fed into separator drums, where the water is separated from the steam. The separated water is returned through lowering pipelines to the suction manifolds of the main circulation pumps, which circulate it multiple times through the reactor. The steam from the separator drums is directed through heat pipes to the turbines.

The productivity of the main circulation pump is 8000 m3/h, the engine power is 5.5 MW. The main circulation pump is a complex unit with an autonomous oil supply system and a sealing system that eliminates external leaks of circuit water.

We rise to a height of 35.5 meters.

A couple of turns along the corridors and we find ourselves in the reactor hall. As we walk through the corridors, we step on special adhesive paper, to which dust from the soles sticks.

The reactor is located in a reinforced concrete shaft with dimensions of 21.6 x 21.6 x 25.5 m. The reactor shaft has graphite masonry. Graphite acts as a moderator and neutron reflector to return neutrons to the core with their subsequent participation in the chain reaction of nuclear fission of the U 235 atom.

Inside the graphite columns there are through holes in which technological channels are located. A fuel cassette consisting of fuel elements is placed inside each channel - an ampoule with fuel - has a diameter of about 12 mm and a height of 3.5 m. Two fuel assemblies connected in series, containing 18 fuel elements each, form a fuel cassette, the length of which is 7 m.

The uranium-graphite, channel-type reactor RBMK is a source of thermal energy and a steam producer at the SAPP. The fuel for the nuclear reaction occurring in the reactor is uranium U 235, enriched to 2.6-2.8%. The nuclear reaction that occurs during the decay of U 235 nuclei is accompanied by the release of a huge amount of energy, which is used to produce steam.

The advantage of RBMK reactors over vessel-type reactors, the replacement of spent cassettes in which requires shutting down the reactor, is the possibility of overloading the cassettes when the reactor is operating at rated power. Overloads are carried out by a loading and unloading machine (RLM), which is controlled remotely. The machine is hermetically joined to the upper part of the technological channel, the pressure in it is equalized with the pressure in the channel, then the used fuel cassette is removed and a fresh one is installed in its place.

The spent fuel is first placed in cooling pools located in the central hall and then transported to the spent nuclear fuel storage facility.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to photograph the glow of the water in the aging pools.
At a depth of 20 meters, a blue glow is visible. This is the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect - a glow caused in a transparent medium by a charged particle that moves at a speed exceeding the phase speed of light in this medium. Cherenkov radiation is widely used in high-energy physics to detect relativistic particles and determine their velocities.

The background radiation in the reactor hall is 7 microroentgens per hour.

We are transferred to the block control center. In the elevator we notice numbers near the buttons - this is the height at which the floor is located.

The block control panel is designed for centralized automated control of technological processes. If the remote control fails, the unit is stopped and the state of its systems and equipment is monitored from the backup control panel.

Smolensk NPP is the most reliable nuclear power plant in Russia and is one of the 10 best nuclear power plants in the world.

In fact, only the name remains of its reactors; after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the reactors were greatly modernized.

If all the workers running the plant try to lead the plant to a Chernobyl-like explosion, nothing will happen, since the automated control system will shut down the reactor and nothing will happen.

There are 3 consoles on the block control panel, each of which is operated by a leading engineer responsible for the equipment assigned to him.

The leading unit control engineer directly monitors and controls the safety panel equipment: the multiple forced circulation circuit, the steam removal and distribution system, etc.

The leading turbine control engineer directly monitors and manages the turbine generators, their auxiliary systems and the unit's auxiliary consumers.

The leading reactor control engineer directly monitors and controls the reactor using a control and protection system, a system for monitoring and regulating coolant flow through the reactor channels, a temperature control system, etc.

We put on earplugs and stomp into the turbine hall.

The hall is about 600 meters long. Turbines, generators and a complex pipeline system are installed here, where water heated in the reactor circuit is converted into electricity.

The turbine is a five-cylinder unit: a high-pressure cylinder and four low-pressure cylinders. First, the steam is activated in a high-pressure cylinder (from 69.5 kgf/cm2 to 2.5 kgf/cm2, at a temperature of 280 degrees), then it is dried and heated in steam separators-superheaters and distributed among four low-pressure cylinders.

The generator is three-phase, with hydrogen cooling of the rotor and water cooling of the stator. The generator output voltage is 20 kV, frequency 50 Hz. After the generators, the voltage is increased by block transformers to 500 kV and through open switchgears the electricity enters the unified power system.

All rotors of the turbine and generator cylinders are combined into one shaft. Shaft rotation speed – 3000 rpm. The total length of the turbogenerator is 39 m, its weight is 1200 tons.

To return to your usual clothes you need to go through a double radiation control system. The primary takes place in clothing, you can measure the background of the technique.

If the control system doesn’t think you’re clean enough, it won’t let you in and you’re forced to clean off the dirt from a certain point on your body.

The secondary one takes place when you are stripped down to your underpants; if you are dirty, then you must wash in a special shower.

SAES key.

Soviet canteen.

SAES also conducts active public work in Desnogorsk. Helps schools, kindergartens and cultural centers. Desnogorsk is also the only city that experiences natural population growth.

Do I have more confidence in the nuclear power plant? Absolutely yes. Having seen the entire technological process with my own eyes, I realized that reliability is paramount here and only began to have a more positive attitude towards nuclear power plants.

Which water is used for cooling.

There are three power units with RBMK-1000 uranium-graphite channel reactors in commercial operation at the SAPP. The electrical capacity of each power unit is 1 GW, the thermal capacity is 3.2 GW. Power units with RBMK-1000 reactors are single-circuit. Communication with the Unified Energy System of Russia is carried out by six power transmission lines, voltage: 330 kV (Roslavl-1, 2); 500 kV, but built in dimensions of 750 kV (Kaluga, Mikhailov); 750 kV (Novo-Bryansk, Belorusskaya).

Radiation safety

Ensuring safety during the production of electrical and thermal energy is a priority task of the Smolensk NPP. All power units are equipped with an accident localization system that eliminates the release of radioactive substances into the environment. Special systems ensure reliable heat removal from reactors even if the station completely loses power supply, taking into account possible equipment failures.

Monitoring compliance with radiation safety on the territory of the nuclear power plant and in the observation zone is carried out carefully. Using dosimetric equipment and sampling equipment, the condition of air and water basins, vegetation and locally produced agricultural products is monitored. Data from 15 posts of the automated radiation monitoring system (ASKRO), located in populated areas of the observation zone, are sent hourly to the SAES external radiation monitoring laboratory and to the crisis center of the Rosenergoatom concern. Sensor readings can also be viewed online at Russianatom.ru

Environmental control of the region where the Smolensk NPP is located is carried out by the specially accredited environmental protection laboratory of SAES. The radiation background at the industrial site of the Smolensk NPP and the adjacent territory for the entire period of operation of the power units is at a level corresponding to natural values.

Story

In 2000, Smolensk NPP took 1st place in the all-Russian competition “Russian organization of high social efficiency”. In 2007, the nuclear power plant was the first among Russian nuclear power plants to be awarded a certificate of compliance of the quality management system with the international standard ISO 9001. In 2009, a certificate of compliance of the plant's environmental management system with the requirements of the international standard ISO 14001 was received. In the same year, Smolensk NPP was recognized as the best station in Russia in the field of “Physical Protection”.

In 2010, the result of the safe and reliable operation of power units, modernization and implementation of advanced production technologies, and the preparedness and professionalism of personnel was the recognition of Smolensk NPP as a leader in the corporate competitions “Best NPP in Russia based on the results of the year” and “Best NPP in Russia in terms of safety culture.”

In 2011, Smolensk NPP won the “Best NPP in Russia” competition based on the results of work for 2010 and was recognized as the best NPP in terms of safety culture. As part of the implementation of the program to extend the operating life of the Smolensk NPP, a major overhaul and modernization of power unit No. 1 was carried out. In the same year, the Acceptance Certificate for the 1st start-up complex of KP RAO was signed. In addition, a group of highly qualified experts in the field of nuclear safety of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conducted an OSART mission at the Smolensk NPP to verify compliance of the safe operation of the plant with international standards. Based on the results of the inspection, a positive assessment was given and a number of positive practices recommended for implementation at nuclear power plants around the world were noted: high operational reliability of power units, professional training of personnel, and others.

In 2013, Smolensk NPP became the owner of an international environmental certificate and the gold sign “International Ecologists Initiative 100% eco quality”, confirming the environmental friendliness of the enterprise. In the same month, the Smolensk NPP was awarded the main prize of international ecologists “Global Eco Brand” in the category “Leader of a Socially and Environmentally Responsible Business.”

In 2016, Smolensk NPP became one of the exemplary RPS enterprises in the industry and received the status of “Enterprise - RPS Leader”. And also for reliability and safety it was recognized as a leader in the corporate competition “Best NPP in Russia in Safety Culture”; Smolensk NPP “Best NPP in Russia” based on the results of the 2015 traditional industry competition. In the same year, an important decision was made - Rostechnadzor issued licenses, and at the government level a corresponding order was issued on the placement of two VVER-TOI power units in the Smolensk region, replacing the capacities of existing units that are subject to decommissioning.

In 2017, Smolensk NPP was recognized as an environmentally exemplary organization by Rosenergoatom Concern JSC, becoming the winner of the All-Russian competition “Health and Safety”, held with the support of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation in two categories at once: “Development and implementation of highly effective occupational safety management systems” and “Development of measuring instruments, methods, techniques and technologies for assessing working conditions.”

Public organizations

An organization of station veterans and pensioners has been created at the Smolensk NPP. The Council of Veterans is working to support SNPP pensioners, protect their interests, work with youth, and vocational guidance for schoolchildren.

The public organization of young nuclear workers operating at the Smolensk NPP has about 160 young workers. Its main tasks are to improve the skills of young workers, unlock the intellectual potential of young specialists, support and provide assistance in solving production issues and everyday problems, and involve them in scientific activities and sports. To implement these and other tasks, the organization of young nuclear workers has created 5 sectors: scientific and educational, social, sports, environmental, and information.