This abandoned facility is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive nuclear reactor in the world. which was never built.
The construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant began in 1975, and it was supposed to provide electricity to the entire Crimea. In 1984, it was even declared the All-Union Komsomol construction site. In the midst of construction, two (!!!) echelons of building materials were mastered per day.
But in 1987, a famous fur animal settled in these places. There are two reasons - the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the unfavorable economic situation in the USSR. The readiness of the station at that time was almost 80% ...
I will give more detailed information at the end of the post, after the pictures. In the meantime, look what is happening with one of the biggest unfinished buildings of the USSR today
2. We drive up to the station. Administrative building and observation tower
3. Broken bricks and crumbs of concrete everywhere. In the background - the first power unit and the engineering building
4. Engineering building of the station. Satellite dishes hint that there are people here
5. And here we have the first power unit. There is also a unique giant crane. Only he no longer builds the station, but destroys it.
Here I want to stop a little. The fact is that during the construction of the reactor building of the first power unit, a unique polar crane, the Danish Kroll K-10000, was already installed. With the help of this crane, further lifting and transport and construction and installation operations were to be carried out inside the reactor compartment. It was the tallest crane in Europe. In 2003, the State Property Fund sold it for ... 310 thousand hryvnias with a starting price of 440. Even if it was scrapped, it would have cost more.
Prior to its dismantling, the high-rise crane was used for base jumping. The jumps were carried out from the lower (80 m) and upper (120 m) booms of the crane.
Today, a similar crane is installed here, but smaller in size for dismantling the station. You can estimate its size against the backdrop of a standing "nine".
6. And that's what this station is for today ... A powerful technique that looks like a toy against the background of a concrete monster crumbles its body, extracting metal fittings from there. We will return here, but for now we will go to the reactor room.
7. We enter the power unit. The scale and thickness of the walls with shutters is impressive
8. Transport corridor of the power unit
9. Entrance to the reactor zone. Arm-thin metal.
10. There, thick cables go inside the reactor and cutting sounds are heard. There's metal being cut out
11. The reactor control panels are at the end
12. And there was the reactor itself... We look at it from the lower corridor. The ends of the cooling pipes are visible
13. A bolt found here. Obviously not from a children's designer. I was surprised by the almost complete absence of corrosion for so many years - only an oxidized surface
14. Let's go back to the faucet.
15. Cabin
16. Rollers. Under each pair - a narrow gauge railway
17. Pipes are cut like sausage. Only not on the table, but on the metal
18. One of the pipes was adapted for a change house
19. There are many techniques. She's in demand
20. But this junk has been standing here for a long time
21. Cylinders here are like replaceable batteries in a TV remote control
22. Destroyed external transition from the engineering building to the power unit
23. What remains after the work of "metalworkers"
24. Shock built, shock break
25. It is somewhat reminiscent of the chimneys of stoves in the Belarusian villages burned by the Nazis.
28. Panorama of the site under the engineering building. Everything is cut here
29. Panorama of the metal cutting site
Some information from Wikipedia:
By the time the construction of the station was stopped, 500 million Soviet rubles were spent on the construction of the nuclear power plant in 1984 prices. Approximately another 250 million rubles worth of materials remained in the warehouses. The station began to be slowly pulled apart for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal. There is evidence that surveys were carried out in the early 1990s, the purpose of which was to "adjust" additional geological justification for the closure of the Crimean NPP. However, this was only a formal reason - by the end of the 80s, the situation in the economy of the USSR worsened so much that almost all major construction projects were curtailed, both in the energy sector and in industry, transport, and urban planning.
From 1995 to 1999, discos of the Republic of KaZantip festival were held in the turbine department.
In 1998-2000, the East Crimean Energy Company, a subsidiary established on the basis of the nuclear power plant, sold the station's property for 2.204 million hryvnias. By February 1, 2003, only a special building, a block of workshops, a reactor department and an oil-diesel facility remained on the balance sheet of the Eastern Crimean Energy Company.
In 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine transferred the Crimean NPP from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy to the Council of Ministers of Crimea. Further, the Crimean Council of Ministers was to sell the received property of the nuclear power plant, and the money was to be used to solve the social and economic problems of the Leninsky district of Crimea, and in particular the city of Shchelkino.
After that, the remaining parts of the Crimean NPP were to be sold: the reactor compartment, the block pumping station, the workshop building, the cooler at the Aktash reservoir, the dam of the Aktash reservoir, the supply channel with the water intake reservoir, the oil-diesel facilities of the station, diesel generator station. Further, it is known that in early 2005 the Representative Office of the Crimean Property Fund sold the reactor department of the Crimean NPP for UAH 1.1 million ($207,000) to an undisclosed legal entity.
There is evidence that the VVER-1000 reactor, which was never installed in the room prepared for it, was cut into scrap in 2005
The nuclear power plant was filmed in many films, of which the most famous was filmed there in 2007 "Inhabited Island" by F. Bondarchuk
Nuclear fuel was not imported here, so the nuclear power plant does not pose a radiation hazard.
A little-known fact: the station has an almost complete twin - the abandoned unfinished Stendal nuclear power plant 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990. By the time the construction was stopped, the readiness of the first power unit was 85%. Its only significant difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers for cooling, and not reservoirs. At present, the Stendal nuclear power plant (2010) has already been almost completely dismantled. A pulp and paper mill now operates on the territory of the former station, the cooling towers were dismantled in 1994 and 1999. With the help of excavators and heavy construction equipment, the disassembly of the reactor shops is being completed.
My previous photo essays:
The territory of Crimea is a very favorable place for the construction of electric power facilities, since the peninsula is convenient for the construction of large power plants that will be located away from the “mainland”, but will be able to provide the mainland of the republic with energy. It was these opinions that led to the start of the construction of the Crimean NPP in 1975.
A bit of history
Initially, the capacity laid down under the project assumed the full supply of the peninsula with electricity, which made it possible to make it independent in terms of energy resources from Ukraine. It was supposed to use uranium-235 as the main fuel, and the standard design assumed the placement of 4 VVER-1000 reactors.
During the Soviet Union, every major construction site was declared a shock communist one. A similar situation arose during the construction of a power plant in the Crimea. Starting from 1984, the construction was declared All-Union at all. At the very beginning of construction, a satellite city was built, the embankment of the reservoir was strengthened, and auxiliary facilities were erected. Since 1982, the construction of the nuclear power plant itself has been actively carried out. It was reported that according to the schedule, the Crimean NPP would be completed by 1989.
Changes in the industry: reasons
Everything changed after the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In 1986, an explosion occurred, which led to the destruction of several power units, the release of a large amount of radioactive particles into the surrounding atmosphere, and the pollution of a large area. Starting from that moment, it was decided to suspend the construction of unfinished nuclear power plants. The construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant was also stopped at the stage of completion of the first of four reactors.
Reasons for stopping construction
- Unfavorable economic environment in the USSR.
- Theft of materials from suspended enterprises.
During the 90s, the premises of the unfinished reactor hosted the well-known and popular festivals “KaZantip” among the “club” youth. In the late 90s, early 2000s, a special company was created on the basis of a power plant in the Crimea, whose task was to sell the equipment that remained intact. In total, more than 2 million Ukrainian hryvnias were received. By the beginning of 2003, only an abandoned building and several outbuildings remained on the balance sheet of the plant.
A unique polar crane, which was planned to be used to carry out the movement of goods inside the power reactor, was used as the basis for base jumping. Subsequently, the crane was sold for a price many times less than the real one. The end of the existence of the station was its transfer to the Council of Ministers of Crimea in 2004. As planned, the Crimean authorities were supposed to sell the rest of the property and use these funds to solve the problems of the peninsula. Nobody was going to finish building the former strategic facility today.
Today, the Crimean NPP is under the control of Rosatom and there are talks about writing off the unfinished facility from the balance of the republic, and using the building materials received after a complete analysis as materials for the construction of a crossing across the Kerch Strait.
The absence of its own nuclear power plant in Crimea does not mean that the republic has completely lost the ability to independently generate energy. In 2015, the construction of two thermal power plants on the peninsula was announced, with a total capacity of 940 MW.
Modern power plants in Crimea
The construction of power plants in Crimea is now in full swing, since according to the current schedule, the first power units should be put into operation as early as 2017, and according to the project, it intends to achieve full capacity by 2018. In parallel, it is planned to launch the Kuban-Krym gas pipeline, which will provide the required level of gas supply to the stations under construction.
The construction of own power plants in the Crimea is an attempt to stop depending on the electricity of Ukraine, since the peninsula is 70% dependent on the supply of energy resources of the republic. The missing 880 MW can be replenished by launching new thermal power plants, which have increased efficiency, are designed to use less fuel and are distinguished by a closed water consumption cycle.
There is little left of the Crimean nuclear power plant now. A vast area of abandoned and dilapidated buildings. The remains of the workshops are densely covered with grass and trees. Things that had even the slightest value were dug up, torn out and taken out. The nuclear reactor, the lining of the mine and the control panel of the nuclear power plant were cut into non-ferrous metal. And if precious metals and equipment were taken away in the first place, today you can profit only from iron in concrete slabs.
A hundred meters from the reactor shop, several people in uniforms are monotonously dismantling another building. The tractor destroys the wall, the crane carries the concrete slab to the ground, where it is smashed by workers. They want to get to the rebar hidden inside. From the concrete shop, only the foundation and a pile of stone chips remained. The further fate of the still surviving buildings frightens with its predictability.
Photo by Oleg Stonko
The huge gray box of the reactor shop dominates the territory of the facility. The workshop, as high as two nine-story buildings and over 70 meters wide, was built on a six-meter foundation. You can enter it through a huge round hole. The metal door, half a meter thick, was dragged away long ago. There is no radiation danger, since they did not have time to deliver nuclear fuel. Entrance is free, there is no security.
The building contains 1,300 rooms, box-rooms for various purposes and, accordingly, sizes. Inside the boxes is empty and dusty. Pieces of wires are hanging somewhere, garbage is lying around. Light does not penetrate into the reactor shop at all. The heavy silence, the belated echo of footsteps and the closed space of the rooms thicken the atmosphere. Being here is unsettling. Random noises are annoying. Nevertheless, you are not in a hurry to leave the reactor. It can be summed up in one phrase: "Terrifyingly interesting."
“In Crimea, everything was done slowly”
Toropov Vitaly, head of the reactor shop:- Scientists and specialists have been working on the project of the Crimean nuclear power plant since 1968. In 1975, a satellite city was laid - Shchelkino, named after the Soviet nuclear physicist Kirill Shchelkin. This is a settlement in which nuclear scientists and their families were supposed to live. When in June 1981 I arrived in the Leninsky district, at the site of the future station, one might say, wheat was still earing and they were just beginning to dig a foundation pit. I was sent here from the Kola NPP. Indeed, in Soviet times, as it was: after studying at the university, you start from the lowest positions, then you rise higher. No one would immediately appoint me the head of the shop.
According to the plan, the power plant was to operate in four years and ten months. But the management was recruited in advance: senior engineers and heads of the four main workshops. Such was the rule. They had to control the receipt of documentation, equipment, monitor the progress of construction and installation work, and gradually recruit personnel. The salary during this period was paid, of course, small.
It was important for me to understand the geography of the workshop. When the reactor is operating, you have a few seconds not to receive a lethal dose of radiation. You need to act instantly, to know exactly where which valve is located. Even in the blackout mode, you have to be able to feel like a divers.
In 1986, the reactor was supposed to be launched, but due to the slow pace of construction, they did not have time. I attribute this to the specifics of the Crimea. Here everything was done slowly. For example, they managed to build one kindergarten per year. And there seemed to be money, but the party had doubts and some party members were against it. And then it exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the construction stalled. There was a wave of discontent. Many believed that Crimea would become the second Chernobyl.
Photo by Oleg Stonko
In 1988, I was sent to Cuba, where I worked for three years at the nuclear power plant in Juragua. When I returned, the station had already been closed and torn apart. It was about 90% complete. Less than a year left for installation and commissioning. If they had time to launch, the station would not have been closed. In addition, equipment for two more units was stored in warehouses. Moreover, the equipment is high-quality, with imported parts. If Vladimir Tansky, the director of the Crimean NPP, took the situation under control and kept the course of events, nothing would be stolen. It was necessary to wait until the hype with Chernobyl subsides, becomes less flashy.
We planned to build four reactor blocks, each of them would generate one million megawatts. One million was enough for Crimea, so the first block was built in order to refuse the overflow of electricity from the mainland. The second block was needed to provide Feodosia and Kerch with hot water, to rid the peninsula of coal dependence and boiler houses. Through the third block, they wanted to desalinate sea water. The whole world is doing it. We wanted to fill the Crimea with fresh water and not depend on water from the Dnieper. The fourth block is for sale, to the Caucasus, to earn money.
“The Crimean NPP was erroneously compared with Chernobyl”
Anatoly Chehuta, master of instrumentation and automation (KIPiA):- I arrived at the station as soon as they issued a referral: I wanted to get an apartment early. Later it could not be done. My specialization is the maintenance and operation of various control and measuring equipment. Prior to that, he worked for ten years at a nuclear power plant in Tomsk. It was a secret facility, and in official documents it was listed as a chemical plant. Upon arrival in Shchelkino, I had an exposure level of 25 roentgens. Five years later, it dropped to 15. Now, probably, there is nothing. Although for a long time the level of 5 roentgens was stable.
One of the problems of the closure of the Crimean nuclear power plant is the general secrecy. There was a lack of publicity. In Soviet times, nothing was disclosed: projects, research, data. When environmentalists raised a wave of indignation in 1986, they did not have official information, so any assumptions could be made. Even the most ridiculous ones. As an example, in the event of an accident at a nuclear power plant with a constant southeast wind, radioactive fallout could fall on Foros. Where Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev rested in the summer at the dacha. As a result, a terrible story was blown out of this.
The Crimean nuclear power plant was mistakenly compared with Chernobyl. After all, these are two different types of reactor. In Chernobyl, they used RBMK-1000, in Crimea - VVER-1000. I will not go into details. But it's like heating water over a fire in a saucepan without a lid or a closed thermal dish. The difference is huge.
Photo by Oleg Stonko
The reactor did not produce plutonium, but produced steam. The steam turned the turbines, which produced electricity. If in Chernobyl the RBMK was buried nine floors into the ground, then the Crimean VVER was neatly placed on a small platform. There was a three-stage protection system. The reactor room was covered with a continuous layer of reinforced concrete. In an emergency, the doors were hermetically closed, air was sucked out of the room. In an explosion in a vacuum, the pressure was zero. So there could be no disaster. By the way, the building of the reactor shop could withstand a direct collision with a jet aircraft.
The same water-cooled nuclear reactors are used in submarines. The type is the same, only smaller in size. In 1988, there were 350 nuclear submarines in the Soviet Union. And so far there has not been a single accident. From the point of view of physics and design, it is a very reliable device.
Another argument of the opponents of the construction was the lack of exploration of the location of the nuclear power plant. Specifically, seismic. Allegedly, the reactor was built on the site of a tectonic fault, and with small tremors, an accident could occur. But later, in 1989, when independent Italian seismologists arrived, they concluded that at least ten reactors could be built, there was no fault. So, the Soviet experts were right, and the place was chosen well. The reactor itself was built to withstand a magnitude nine earthquake. But it was already late, and the station was closed.
50 tons of steam per hour
Andrey Arzhantsev, head of the heat supply section of the TsTPK:- TsTPK is a workshop for thermal and underground utilities. Under my leadership there was a start-up-reserve boiler room or PRK. If it is easier to explain, then the start-up boiler house is four boilers that produced 50 tons of steam per hour. Due to which hot water and heat were supplied to Shchelkino. Now in the city they forgot such words - “hot water”, and earlier it was 75 degrees in the tap.
The main purpose of the PRK is the commissioning of turbines, the heating of the reactor. Without it, not a single nuclear power plant is built. But having completed their task, the boiler house is dismantled, and, for example, a gym is created on its basis.
Photo by Oleg Stonko
The basic project of the Crimean "atomic" was special. There was nothing like this at that time. The turbines were to be cooled by sea water. We planned to take water from the Aktash reservoir and use it as a cooling pond. Aktash received water from the Sea of Azov. That is, there was an unlimited supply. As a result, nuclear power plants produced environmentally friendly energy.
After the closure of the nuclear power plant, Shchelkino gradually dies out. I think there is no need to explain what happens to the city when it loses its main enterprise. The population decreased from 25 thousand to 11. In terms of intellectual potential, Shchelkino was considered the most developed place in the Crimea. Here every second person had two higher educations. Aerobatics specialists from all over the Soviet Union. And instead of the industrial heart of the Shelkino peninsula, it becomes a resort village. What you see now is a tenth of what the city could become. There are no streets here, the houses are simply numbered. Of the attractions - the market, the city council and housing and communal services.
Some nuclear scientists are leaving, others are staying. Those who had somewhere to return left. Throughout the Union, the construction of nuclear power plants is being frozen. There was no work. Here at least the apartment remained. Of course, no one worked in the specialty. I am currently the director of a boarding house.
“Crimea needs a nuclear power plant”
Sergey Varavin, senior turbine control engineer, director of KP Managing Company Shchelkinsky Industrial Park:- It is difficult to say who was right and who was to blame then that the Crimean nuclear power plant began to be plundered. The property was redistributed between customers and contractors. About a hundred firms were involved in the construction. Each of them wanted their money back, so the equipment was being sold. In addition, after the collapse of the Union, something was perceived as free, so they dragged what they could. There was no high-profile case on this matter, so there is no need to talk about embezzlement. Now it's no longer clear.
Photo by Oleg Stonko
The land was redistributed among the construction participants. Someone refused the plots, someone left. Part of the territory remained in the hands of owners and tenants, the rest became the property of the city. It is planned to create an industrial park on the site owned by the City Council. The project started in 2007. But due to lack of funding, it was never implemented.
Now the project has been included in the Federal Target Program for the Development of Industrial Parks in Crimea. One billion 450 thousand rubles will be allocated for the development of the business plan. Our task is to prepare everything for the future investor. Collect all documents, equip the territory, create infrastructure and so on. All that's left is to start building. The focus is very different: from a gas turbine station to an agricultural complex.
But ask any operator of our nuclear power plant, and he will answer: "Crimea needs a nuclear power plant."
“All Crimeans would have cancer”
Valery Mitrokhin, poet, prose writer, essayist, member of the Writers' Union of Russia:- Immediately after being accepted as a member of the Writers' Union, I was sent to the construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant. There I am writing a book of essays "Sun Builders". Three chapters are controversial. They are devoted to the problems that could arise as a result of the construction of the station. I was accused of undermining the material condition of the country. About a billion rubles have already been spent on the facility. At the then rate, one dollar was equal to 80 kopecks, that is, looked from the bottom up. A lot of money. Therefore, a nuclear power plant is rightfully considered the most expensive unfinished project in the world.
A book about the builders of the sun was published in 1984. I refused to throw out the chapters, for which they stopped publishing me for ten years, they did not allow me to broadcast on the regional television and radio.
There were problems, contractors and nuclear scientists knew about them. Everyone was silent. When I began to dig deeper, to communicate with specialists, I came across such a volume of information that it was impossible not to write about it. It threatened disaster. If they had built the station, even in all respects, there would have been a second Chernobyl.
First, hired workers were hacking. Some norms were not respected, mistakes were made. For example, they mixed up the brand of cement. If you look at buildings today, they are crumbling, concrete is crumbling. And not much time has passed. I saw with my own eyes how they built a "glass" under the reactor. There is no mention of any tightness. There would be leaks. A microscopic hole would be enough to irradiate the soil within a radius of tens of kilometers.
Photo by Oleg Stonko
The second is the specificity of the Crimean seismic. We are shaken every year. Tremors are small, but they are. And there is a tectonic fault. It runs from the Feodosia Bay to the Kazantip Bay. Two plates are constantly in contact with each other. While the construction of the power plant was going on, not far from the coast, in the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, an island appeared and disappeared. A clear confirmation of my argument. It is not clear why seismologists hid such facts.
The third is the cooling of turbines with the help of a reservoir. Let me explain with my fingers. Water enters the station, cools the turbines, returns to Aktash and back to the station. It constantly circulates and gets dirty. To avoid this, they make an exit to the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. Now the water is constantly updated. But at what cost? Ten years later, Azov turns into an atomic swamp. The Sea of Azov is connected to the Black Sea. So, a little later, he will suffer the same fate. Next up is the Mediterranean. Not to mention evaporation and precipitation. By this time, all Crimeans would have had cancer.
Having learned about everything, I become one of the founders of the environmental movement. I begin to travel with my book in the Crimea. Understand, environmentalists did not inflate the problem from scratch, afraid of Chernobyl. There were claims. There were no answers. We wanted to save the peninsula. Of course, the project was good, the reactor was excellent and modern, but the wrong place was chosen. Of this I am sure.
In 1990, the film "Who Needs an Atom" was released. We are talking about the use of nuclear energy in the energy sector. It is noteworthy that one of the fragments of the picture is devoted to the problems of the Crimean NPP. There are two opposing points of view in the passage.
The first design surveys were carried out in 1968. Construction started in 1975. The station was supposed to provide electricity to the entire Crimean peninsula, as well as create a reserve for the subsequent development of the region's industry - metallurgical, machine-building, chemical. The design capacity is 2000 MW (2 power units) with the possibility of a subsequent increase to 4000 MW: the standard design provides for the placement of 4 power units with VVER-1000/320 reactors at the plant site.
After the construction of the satellite city, the embankment of the reservoir and auxiliary facilities, the construction of the station itself began in 1982. A temporary line was laid from the Kerch branch of the railway, and at the height of construction, two echelons of building materials per day arrived along it. In general, construction proceeded without significant deviations from the schedule with the planned start-up of the first reactor in 1989.
The unfavorable economic situation in the country and the catastrophe at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986 led to the fact that by 1987 construction was first suspended, and in 1989 a final decision was made to abandon the launch of the station. By this time, 500 million Soviet rubles in 1984 prices had been spent on the construction of the nuclear power plant. Approximately another 250 million rubles worth of materials remained in the warehouses. The station began to be slowly pulled apart for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal.
Fuel was not imported, it does not pose a radiation hazard.
Prospects for the use of the NPP site and the development of the satellite city
In 2006, the territory of the former nuclear power plant was chosen as one of the possible sites for the creation of a pilot industrial park project. In 2008, preparatory work began on the implementation of the Shchelkinsky Industrial Park industrial park project, the city council transferred part of the facilities located on this land plot to the ownership of the Shchelkinsky Industrial Park.
- The Crimean NPP was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive nuclear reactor in the world. This is due to the fact that, unlike the Tatarskaya NPP and the Bashkirskaya NPP of the same type that were shut down at the same time, it had a higher degree of readiness at the time the construction was stopped.
- A solar power plant was built nearby. Near it, on the eastern part of the shore of the Aktash reservoir, there is also an experimental wind power plant YuzhEnergo, consisting of 15 wind turbines with a capacity of 100 kW each. Not far from it there are 8 old non-working experimental windmills of the East Crimean Wind Power Plant, installed back in Soviet times.
- A little-known fact: the station has an almost complete twin - the abandoned, unfinished Stendal nuclear power plant (German) 100 km west of a, which was built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990. By the time the construction was stopped, the readiness of the first power unit was 85%. Its only significant difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers for cooling, and not reservoirs. At present, the Stendal nuclear power plant (2009) has already been almost completely dismantled. A pulp and paper mill now operates on the territory of the former station, the cooling towers were dismantled in 1994 and 1999. With the help of excavators and heavy construction equipment, the disassembly of the reactor shops is being completed.
- The Crimean NPP is mentioned in the song of the punk rock band "Cockroaches!" Who will sleep with me now?
80%, the second - 18%).
| Crimean NPP | |
|---|---|
| A country | USSR USSR→Russia /Ukraine |
| Location | Crimea, Shchelkino |
| Status | unfinished |
| Construction start year | |
| Commissioning | planned in |
| Main characteristics | |
| Electric power, MW | 0 (project - 4,000) |
| Equipment characteristics | |
| Main fuel | U 235 |
| Number of power units | 2 (under construction) 4 (planned) |
| Power units under construction | 0 |
| Type of reactors | VVER-1000 |
| Operating reactors | 0 |
| closed reactors | 4 |
| On the map | |
| Category at Wikimedia Commons | |
Construction history
The first design surveys were carried out in 1968. Construction started in 1975. The station was supposed to provide electricity to the entire Crimean peninsula, as well as create a reserve for the subsequent development of the region's industry - metallurgical, machine-building, chemical. The design capacity of the Crimean NPP is 2 GW (2 power units of 1 GW each) with the possibility of subsequent capacity increase up to 4 GW, - a typical project provides for the placement of 4 power units with VVER-1000/320 reactors at the plant site.
In November 1980, the construction of the nuclear power plant was declared the Republican shock Komsomol construction site, and on January 26, 1984, the All-Union shock construction site. After the construction of the satellite town Shchelkino, the embankment of the reservoir and auxiliary facilities, the construction of the nuclear power plant itself began in 1982. A temporary line was laid from the Kerch branch of the railway, and at the height of construction, two echelons of building materials per day arrived along it. In general, construction proceeded without significant deviations from the schedule with the planned launch of the 1st power unit in 1989.
A unique polar crane has already been delivered to the reactor building of the first power unit and installed at the design site.
With the help of this crane, further lifting and transport and construction and installation operations inside the reactor compartment were to be carried out:
- during the construction of a nuclear power plant: operations for moving and storing equipment (parts of the reactor, steam generator housings, pressure compensator, main circulation pipelines and pumps, etc.), and then installing them at the design sites.
- after the start-up of the station: to carry out transport, technological and repair work on the maintenance of a nuclear reactor.
According to the director of the Rosenergoatom concern, the construction of a new nuclear power plant on the peninsula is futile, and energy can be generated by wind, solar and non-nuclear thermal power plants. It is impossible to restore it from the current state of the Crimean NPP site. It also used the project of the 1960s, while now the construction of nuclear power plants is carried out according to the projects of the 2000s. It may be more economical to build a completely new nuclear power plant than to rehabilitate an old one, but there are currently no architectural designs for small and medium-sized nuclear power plants. On the other hand, nuclear power plants, especially in the context of ongoing attempts by the Ukrainian authorities to block Crimea economically, would reliably provide Crimea with energy autonomy.
In February 2016, it was announced that a new industrial park would be set up at the construction site of the nuclear power plant. The State Council of the Republic of Crimea for Property and Land Relations agreed with the local Ministry of Property to write off the unfinished Crimean Nuclear Power Plant “by demolition” from the balance sheet. At the same time, the building materials received as a result of the dismantling of the facility are planned to be used for the construction of a transport passage through the Kerch Strait.
- The Crimean NPP was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as world's most expensive nuclear reactor [ ] . This is due to the fact that, unlike the Tatarskaya NPP and Bashkirskaya NPP of the same type that were shut down at the same time, it had a higher degree of readiness at the time of the construction stoppage.
- In 1986, an experimental (the first in the USSR) solar power plant SES-5 was built nearby. Near it, on the eastern side of the shore of the Aktash reservoir, there is also an experimental wind power plant Yuzhenergo and eight old non-working experimental wind turbines installed back in Soviet times. Not far from it is East Crimean wind farm, consisting of 15 wind turbines with a capacity of 100 kW and two with a capacity of 600 kW each.
- The nuclear power plant has an almost complete "twin" - the abandoned unfinished Stendal nuclear power plant 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990. By the time construction was stopped, the readiness of the first power unit of the Stendal NPP was 85%. Its only significant difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers for cooling, and not reservoirs. By 2010, the Stendal nuclear power plant was almost completely dismantled. A pulp and paper mill was opened on the territory of the former nuclear power plant, and the cooling towers were dismantled in 1994 and 1999. With the help of excavators and heavy construction equipment, the disassembly of the reactor shops is being completed.
- The nuclear power plant was filmed in many films, of which the most famous was F. Bondarchuk's "Inhabited Island" filmed there in 2007 (photo of the station in the frame of the film).
Information about power units
| power unit | Type of reactors | Power | Start construction |
Network connection | Commissioning | closure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean | Gross | ||||||
| Crimea-1 | VVER-1000/320 | 950 MW | 1000 MW | 01.12.1982 | |||
| Crimea-2 | VVER-1000/320 | 950 MW | 1000 MW | 1983 | Construction stopped on 01/01/1989 | ||
| Crimea-3 | VVER-1000/320 | 950 MW | 1000 MW | Construction has not started | |||
| Crimea-4 | VVER-1000/320 | 950 MW | 1000 MW | Construction has not started | |||