Technical support mission organized by the Moscow Centre of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO MC) especially for new power units with VVER-1200 reactors took place at Leningrad NPP for the first time.

The specialists of the Nuclear Power Plant and international experts shared the information on the subject of “Reactor equipment and fuel handling”, as well as discussed the areas of possible improvements in the future NPP’s technological and production processes.

The international experts also visited the main facilities of the new power unit – the central reactor room, the main control room and the fresh fuel storage.

Galim Musin, the Advisor of the WANO MC, “Today, when a new power unit of Leningrad NPP is ready to proceed to the final stage, our main aim is to help the personnel to provide its safe commissioning and reliable operation. Experts from Rivne NPP, Kozloduy NPP, and Kalinin NPP acquainted the specialists of LNPP with international experience of work with VVER reactors in the area of nuclear safety.”

Aleksandr Tomov, the Head of the Group of Reactor and Technical Control of Kozloduy NPP (Bulgaria), “The power units’ construction site makes a good showing. We’ve got acquainted with the process of fuel delivery, storage and load at a new power unit of Leningrad NPP. I mean, we have slightly different organizational structure and there is a difference in details, but we deal with the safety matters the same – that is with the high level of requirements and responsibility.”

Viktor Grabko, the representative of Rivne NPP (Ukraine), “The project of Leningrad NPP is surely interesting, up-to-date and proves that international strict safety requirements now imposed on constructed power units are implemented here to the full extent. In addition, here we can see a number of technical novelties that haven’t been applied anywhere else yet. In our plant we operate reactor units with VVER-440 and VVER-1000, but they haven’t got those interesting design solutions of Leningrad NPP. I think that this experience exchange that takes place during the technical support mission is useful for both the expert team and Leningrad NPP that is only getting prepared to operate power units with VVER-1200 reactors.”
The result of collaborative work is a draft report with the recommendations that later will be agreed with Leningrad NPP, and the plant will operate according to them.

In a year the experts will check the efficiency of the recommendations, and the Nuclear Power Plant will assess their use in fuel handling at VVER-1200 units. All together there is going to be two technical support missions on LNPP’s units under construction in a year.

The Leningrad NPP is an affiliate company for Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC. The plant is based in the city of Sosnovy Bor, 40 km to the west from Saint Petersburg at the Gulf of Finland shore. The Leningrad NPP is the first Russian nuclear power plant having RBMK-1000 reactors (uranium-graphite channel-type thermal neutron reactors). The NPP exploits 4 power blocks with the electric capacity of 1000 megawatt each. Also, pursuant to the NPP-2006 project, 1,2 VVER-1200 power blocks included into The State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM long-term plan are being constructed. Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC is the owner and developer of the project. Holding TITAN-2 is the primary contractor. ATOMPROEKT is the general designer.