Leningrad nuclear power experts have for the first time connected the innovative VVER-1200 NPU No 6 to the heat and hot water system of the town of Sosnovy Bor and its industrial site.

From this moment on, the new cogeneration plant (TPU) along with the similar installation at the VVER-1200 NPU No 5 and the two installations at RBMK-100 units No 3 and No 4 will ensure comfortable living conditions at the flats of over sixty five thousand people. It will also encompass heat and hot water supply at hundreds of business enterprises as well as educational, cultural and medical facilities at Sosnovy Bor.

The sixth LNPP unit with a VVER-1200 reactor is confidently replacing the second RBMK-1000 unit that has exhausted its resource. Unit No 6 successfully fulfills the two tasks assigned to it already, at the current stage of commissioning. It produces extremely valuable, vital products for mankind: Electricity and heat. Another high-performance cogeneration unit guarantees uninterrupted supply of heat to the citizens of Sosnovy Bor for the scenarios when one of the units is shut down for scheduled preventive maintenance or when the RBMK units are taken out of service one by one. That means the “weather" in our homes will always remain good, under any circumstances,” Director at LNPP Vladimir Pereguda noted.

Presently, the stage of experimental-industrial operation of the sixth unit is ongoing, and all its systems are being checked using an incremental increase in capacity up to 100%. The cogeneration plant must also be adjusted. This is necessary for stable and flawless maintenance of the dispatch schedule of heat supply to consumers.