Nuclear power plant in the Urals. "Pros and cons". Nuclear power plants in Russia
Russian government documents state that the construction of the Yuzhnouralsk NPP is envisaged “to cover the energy shortage Chelyabinsk region" It is planned to build a nuclear power plant with a fast neutron reactor with a capacity of 1200 MW (one power unit) in the region. Note that in the diagram territorial planning in the field of energy contains information about the types, purpose, location and characteristics of the territories planned for the location of federal energy facilities for the period until 2030. Yuzhnouralsk NPP is listed in the document under No. 7. In total, the list mentions eight nuclear power plants.
Meanwhile, three years ago, when drawing up a similar scheme, the Yuzhnouralsk NPP was described as consisting of two power units of the BN-1200 type with a total capacity of 2400 MW. And even earlier, when it was reported that a new nuclear power plant would appear in the Chelyabinsk region by 2016, they talked about the construction of three power units.
In 2009, representatives of the state corporation Rosatom considered two sites for the construction of the South Ural Nuclear Power Plant - in Ozersk and Kasly. At that time, its construction was estimated at 140 billion rubles. In 2011, we were talking about 200 billion rubles.
Documents justifying the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Chelyabinsk region were supposed to be prepared by the end of June 2009, but due to economic crisis the process was “frozen”. In the spring of 2011, the issue of constructing a nuclear power plant was raised by then-working governorMikhail Yurevich. He stated that the authorities of the Chelyabinsk region are in favor of building a nuclear power plant in the region, especially since there is a special zone for this: “Everyone knows that the station will become a source of cheap electricity. Now its cost is becoming critical, which makes many enterprises uncompetitive, and this is dangerous for the economy of the region because it entails unemployment.”
In November 2011, during a visit to Snezhinsk head of the Rosatom state corporation Sergei Kiriyenko reported that he is a supporter of the construction of the South Ural Nuclear Power Plant. “There are specialists here, a safety culture has been formed, which is accumulating for a long time, - noted the head of Rosatom. - Nuclear power plant means new jobs, additional taxes that will be invested in social sphere».
At the same time, Sergei Kiriyenko focused on the fact that the construction timeline for the South Ural Nuclear Power Plant in the Chelyabinsk region will be adjusted depending on the region’s demand for electricity.
In 2013, the Russian government included the construction of the Yuzhnouralsk NPP in the territorial planning scheme in the field of energy, indicating the location - in Ozersk. According to the document, the construction of the nuclear power plant, aimed at “covering the deficit in the energy balance of the Southern Urals,” should be completed in 2030.
Everything about the prospects for the construction of the Yuzhnouralsk NPP based on materials from 74.ru is presented.
However, the term “energy deficit” itself has been perceived differently by energy experts for some time now. It was especially popular in the 90s of the last - early 20th centuries. How are things now, after the construction and commissioning of new generating capacities in the Urals? We addressed this question to dDirector for Business Analysis and Market Development at Fortum Yaroslav Rykov.
"On Southern Urals there is no shortage of electricity,” said Yaroslav Rykov. - The Chelyabinsk region is very well connected with networks, and if necessary, electricity comes from other regions. For example, a gigantic amount of energy - 2.5 MW per hour - comes from Tyumen to the Urals zone. So the region can receive as much energy as it needs.”
A representative of the largest generating company in the region expressed great doubts that the Yuzhnouralsk NPP will be built by 2030. "In Russia main document long-term forecasting is a general scheme for the placement of electric power facilities until 2035. At its last discussion at the Ministry of Energy, it was decided to consider the Yuzhnouralsk NPP beyond 2035, noted Yaroslav Rykov. - It will not give anything except an increase in tariffs. There’s already enough energy, in abundance.”
As for the territorial planning scheme of the Russian Federation in the field of energy, which many media outlets have recently written about, then, according to Yaroslav Rykov, this document is being adopted so that the city or region has the right to further allocate land for the construction of facilities. “And this does not mean that everything that is indicated there will be built,” he explained. “But if suddenly someone wants to build a nuclear power plant, the city or region will have the right to allocate land.”
The final version of the general layout of electricity facilities until 2035 is still being drawn up and will be published later. According to Yaroslav Rykov, the main trends now are as follows: not to build new nuclear power plants at all, to build only those that have already been laid down, and to replace the capacities of old nuclear power plants. By the way, in latest version the volume of nuclear power plants decreased from 19 to 9 GW.
“The time will come when nuclear power plants will become more in demand, but then both the stations themselves and the technologies will be different, more advanced,” Yaroslav Rykov is sure.
What are BN-1200 fast neutron reactors? The abbreviation “BN” in the name of the reactor stands for “fast sodium”. This means that the coolant in this type It is not water that comes out of the reactors, but liquid sodium. It has a large heat capacity and allows the reactor not to overheat for several days, even if it is left without cooling at all. The primary circuit equipment exposed to radiation is enclosed inside its housing and separated from the steam-water circuit by an additional circuit made of pure non-radioactive sodium. The reactor has two buildings (main and safety), which are nested inside each other.
The most modern operating reactor of this type is BN-800 (type BN-1200 is still at the development stage. - Noteauto ) a number of additional so-called passive safety systems have been applied, which turn on naturally if the reactor begins to malfunction: additional system emergency reactor cooldown, rods emergency protection ESD (under their own weight they sink into the core and shut down the reactor). In addition, a “Pan” device is mounted in the reactor vessel, capable of retaining the fuel melt if necessary, if nuclear reaction will get out of control.
The order of the Russian government on the territorial planning scheme in the field of energy, which provides for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the ZATO "Ozersk", was signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Discussions about the construction of the facility began back in Soviet times, but in 1991, the South Urals residents spoke out against it in a referendum. Experts interviewed by UralPolit.Ru are skeptical about the prospects for the appearance of a nuclear power plant in the Southern Urals.
In the closed Ozersk, where the Mayak chemical plant is located, it is planned to build a nuclear power plant consisting of two BN-1200 power units (fast neutrons), which will generate a power of 1200 MW, which will cover the deficit in the region’s energy balance.
“We believe that the implementation of this project will serve as a driver for the socio-economic development of the Chelyabinsk region in general and the Ozersk urban district in particular. In addition, the implementation of the project will resolve the issue of maintaining the balance of electricity generation and flow, as well as the cost of electricity for nearby cities and regions, such as Kasli, Kyshtym. In 2015, 30% of the electricity consumption in the Chelyabinsk region was provided through flows from other energy systems.”,” the governor’s press secretary told UralPolit.Ru Dmitry Fedechkin.
According to him, the construction of a nuclear power plant will make it possible to fully ensure electricity consumption due to electrical energy, produced in the Southern Urals, which will help improve the energy security and reliability of the region, as well as reduce the cost of electrical energy for consumers: “We also predict that by 2030 the regional economy’s need for energy resources will further increase”.
The Yuzhnouralsk NPP project appeared in the USSR in the 80s. Initially it was planned that the station would consist of three BN-800 power units. Among the potential sites, Magnitogorsk, Satka, Troitsk, the village of Prigorodny in the Kaslinsky district and the village of Metlino near Ozersk were considered. At that time, residents of the region had ambivalent attitudes towards such a construction project and the issue was put to a referendum. In March 1991, South Urals residents were given the opportunity to express their will. As a result, residents voted against the construction of the facility. But despite negative attitude population, construction began anyway. In the area of the village of Metlino, which is part of the Ozersky urban district, several buildings, infrastructure facilities and a direct road to Mayak were erected. According to UralPolit.Ru, the buildings are currently not in use, are in a mothballed state and are slowly collapsing.
Experts interviewed by UralPolit.Ru are skeptical about the possibility of implementing the project. “The news is probably not that a nuclear power plant will be built in the Southern Urals. Plans for its construction appeared in official documents long ago, and their cancellation was never announced. That's why current news the fact is that the deadlines have shifted again, and fundamentally”, says the political scientist Alexander Melnikov. He recalls that the project originated in the USSR in the 80s. Behind last years The construction dates for the station were postponed to 2016, then to 2021, and now to 2030. “Because of these constant transfers, the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant began to resemble more and more an abstract project, so that even local radiophobes stopped worrying and making noise about the latest news.”, adds the expert.
His opinion is shared by the head of the Fund for Nature, an ecologist. Andrey Talevlin, back in 2010, trying to draw the attention of regional authorities to the environmental threats that nuclear power plants could pose. Then he turned to Governor Mikhail Yurevich with a demand to initiate another popular referendum on the construction of the station. But the popular expression of will never took place, and the topic then faded away.
The interlocutor of the UralPolit.Ru journalist believes that the Yuzhnouralsk NPP project was indicated in the documents so as not to forget about its existence. He claims that building such a nuclear power plant will be quite difficult, since the BN-1200 power unit declared at the disposal of the Russian government is experimental. The last power unit BN-800 was built for about 30 years at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in the Sverdlovsk region, but has not yet been put into operation. So far, only the BN-600 has been operating there since Soviet times, which is difficult to maintain. “The whole world has long abandoned such power units, since fast neutron technology is dangerous. There it is used as a moderator liquid metal. At such reactors the risk of accident is higher. This is bad from the point of view nuclear safety. We already have enough radiation objects that need to be dealt with. The new facility will increase the danger", says the ecologist.
Among the main problems in the implementation of the project, Andrei Talevlin sees the presence water resources and choice of territory: “In the first place where they wanted to build in Ozersk, scientists proved that it was impossible to build, since it was impossible to use reservoirs as a cooler for liquid radioactive waste. I mean the Techensky cascade".
According to his information, Rosatom has been and is now looking for a new site near other bodies of water. “In the Chelyabinsk region it is difficult to do this due to the scarcity of water resources. To do this you need to build a new one water body. There was an option, and Rosatom discussed it, - to build a nuclear power plant on the Dolgobrod reservoir, which still cannot be completed and turned into a reserve water source.”, he noted.
Note that today the Ozersk administration does not have information about the possible resumption of construction and refrains from commenting, saying that the nuclear power plant is under the jurisdiction of Mayak. The official agenda of the chemical plant so far only includes the construction of a new reactor.
The material was prepared jointly by the news agency UralPolit.Ru and the RIA FederalPress
Photo taken fromlemur59.ru
© Anna Balabukha
Nuclear energy is one of the most developing areas of industry, which is dictated by the constant increase in electricity consumption. Many countries have their own sources of energy production using “peaceful atoms”.
Map of nuclear power plants in Russia (RF)
Russia is included in this number. The history of Russian nuclear power plants begins back in 1948, when the inventor of the Soviet atomic bomb I.V. Kurchatov initiated the design of the first nuclear power plant on the territory of what was then Soviet Union. Nuclear power plants in Russia originate from the construction of the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, which became not only the first in Russia, but the first nuclear power plant in the world.
Russia is a unique country that has full cycle technology nuclear energy, which implies all stages, from ore mining to the final generation of electricity. At the same time, thanks to its large territories, Russia has a sufficient supply of uranium, both in the form of the earth’s interior and in the form of weapons equipment.
Nowadays nuclear power plants in Russia include 10 operating facilities that provide a capacity of 27 GW (GigaWatt), which is approximately 18% of the country's energy mix. Modern development technology makes it possible to make Russian nuclear power plants safe for environment facilities, despite the fact that the use of nuclear energy is the most dangerous production from the point of view of industrial safety.
The map of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Russia includes not only existing plants, but also those under construction, of which there are about 10. At the same time, those under construction include not only full-fledged Atom stations, but also promising developments in the form of creating a floating nuclear power plant, which is characterized by mobility.
The list of nuclear power plants in Russia is as follows:
Current state nuclear energy in Russia allows us to talk about the presence of great potential, which in the foreseeable future can be realized in the creation and design of new types of reactors that make it possible to generate large volumes of energy at lower costs.
Igor Kurchatov personally monitored the progress of work on the “peaceful atom” project. Soon, nuclear power plants, as a new and promising way of generating energy, began to be built all over the world. The Chelyabinsk region was also supposed to acquire its own station.
"Peaceful" atom
The South Ural Nuclear Power Plant is a long-term construction project larger than the Chelyabinsk metro. The construction of the site for the station began 10 years earlier than digging tunnels - in 1982 - but apart from the barely begun skeletons of buildings in the village of Metlino, which is 15 km from Ozyorsk and 140 km from Chelyabinsk, to this day there is nothing. Construction was suspended for the first time in 1986: the terrible Chernobyl accident extinguished the desire to create such facilities for a long time. Now in the Chelyabinsk region there live almost four and a half thousand people who were in one way or another affected by that disaster - these are the liquidators and their families. They were convinced from their own experience that radiation is not something to joke about and were forever convinced that nuclear power plants cannot be safe.
However, South Urals residents have encountered the consequences of radioactive contamination before. From 1949 to 1956, waste from the Mayak Production Association was dumped into the Techa River; in 1957, the explosion of a tank with radioactive waste at the same Mayak led to the contamination of a vast territory (East Ural radioactive trace). The echo of those events is still felt, therefore, when in 2006 the construction of its own nuclear power plant was supposed to resume, protests took place throughout the region.
Some advantages
The regional government did not share the residents' concerns. From an economic point of view, the region had an energy deficit - about 20% had to be purchased from neighbors. The construction of the station also guaranteed the creation of about ten thousand new jobs for residents of Ozyorsk and Snezhinsk. The South Ural Nuclear Power Plant was supposed to become the safest in the world in terms of waste processing: spent fuel practically did not need to be transported; the Mayak Production Association, located right there, planned to handle its neutralization.
However, the start of construction, planned for 2011-2013, was again postponed indefinitely. And the reason for this was not the indignation of citizens and environmentalists, but, again, purely economic reasons. During the 2008 crisis, energy consumption in the region decreased and federal authorities construction was considered unprofitable. Moreover, according to the new project, the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant should be equipped with the latest fast neutron reactors, the creation and operation of which are 2-3 times more expensive than conventional ones. Rosatom, in turn, considered the amount of water in the nearby lakes insufficient, which, according to experts, would not be enough to properly cool the four reactors. The public calmed down again.
To be or not to be?
They started talking about construction again in 2011 - and again at the wrong time: in March, a strong earthquake and tsunami damaged the power units of the Japanese Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, which caused a leak of radioactive water and contamination of a vast area. Frightened by the consequences of the disaster and the ineffectiveness of Japan's response measures, many European countries hastened to develop programs to abandon nuclear energy. Thus, Germany plans to close all 17 nuclear power plants by 2022, and the UK and Spain intend to do the same.
In Russia, panic sentiments were not shared: Rosatom specialists are confident that Japanese engineers In the first hours after the accident, too many mistakes were made, and the main cause of the disaster was unacceptable wear and tear of the reactor. Therefore, negotiations between federal and regional officials regarding the construction of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant nevertheless took place, albeit under the dissatisfied murmur of environmental activists.
The station design was once again revised - now it was planned to launch 2 power units with a total capacity of 2400 MW. But an agreement was again not reached - Rosatom still did not like the water supply scheme, and the federal authorities were in no hurry to allocate funds. Only in November 2013 it became known that the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant was included in the scheme for the construction of energy facilities until 2030. This means that any work in Ozyorsk will begin no earlier than 2025. In any case, nothing depends on the Chelyabinsk region - the financing of such facilities lies entirely with the federal budget, and whoever pays calls the tune.