Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant

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Data
Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant

Country	Russia
Operator	Rosenergoatom
Built	March 1, 1970
Start of commercial operation	November 1, 1974
Reactors
Reactors active	4 (4,000 MW)
Power
Capacity	MW
Total power generation in 2006	21,208 GWh
Average annual generation (last 5 yrs)	22,327 GWh
Net generation	655,180 GWh
Other details
As of July 22, 2007

Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant (Russian: Ленинградская атомная электростанция; Ленинградская АЭС) is a nuclear power plant located in the town of Sosnovy Bor in Russia's Leningrad Oblast, on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, some 80 km to the west of the city centre of Saint Petersburg. It consists of 4 nuclear reactors of RBMK-1000 type. These reactors are identical to reactors no. 1 and 2 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Even though the Chernobyl Plant is newer than Leningrad Plant, the reactors at Chernobyl have already been taken out of service due to safety concerns while Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant still continues to operate.

1 Accidents
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Accidents

There have been a number of accidents on the power plant and nuclear material storage facilities nearby, including two incidents classified as serious according to the International Nuclear Event Scale^[1]

In December 1975, there was a partial core meltdown in reactor no. 1 of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant. Leaking of radioactive materials into the air and water of the Gulf of Finland continued for about a month. Witnesses comprising of plant workers were forbidden by KGB to disclose any facts known to them regarding the accident. General public only became aware of the accident after the Soviet Union collapsed.^[2]

In March 1992, an accident at the Sosnovy Bor nuclear plant leaked radioactive gases and iodine into the air due to a ruptured fuel channel. This was the first accident on the station announced in mass media.^[3]

In December, 2005, a non-nuclear smelter at the facility exploded, badly injuring three people. A private company reprocessing scrap metal at the facility experienced an accident at the smelter, which overheated and exploded, spraying molten metal across a large area and starting several fires. Three workers were burned in the explosion, with two experiencing burns over 90 percent of their bodies. The accident took place in a conventional section of the second reactor.^[4]