Beloyarsk nuclear power plant

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Beloyarsk nuclear power plant
Beloyarsk nuclear power plant
location
Coordinates	56 ° 51 ′ 0 ″  N , 61 ° 19 ′ 0 ″  E Coordinates: 56 ° 51 ′ 0 ″  N , 61 ° 19 ′ 0 ″  E
Country:	Russia
Data
Owner:	Rose energoatom
Operator:	Rose energoatom
Project start:	1958
Commercial operation:	April 26, 1964
Active reactors (gross):	2 (1485 MW)
Decommissioned reactors (gross):	2 (268 MW)
Reactors in planning (gross):	1 (1220 MW)
Energy fed in in 2015:	4,255 GWh
Energy fed in since commissioning:	150,380 GWh
Was standing:	December 31, 2015
The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation .

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The Belojarsk nuclear power plant ( Russian Белоярская АЭС [ listen ^{? / I} ], abbreviation БАЭС, BAES) is located east of the Urals , 50 km from the metropolis of Yekaterinburg , near Saretschny . It was the first commercial civil nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union and has a total of four units . The power plant draws its cooling water from the Belojarsk dam, which was built for this purpose on the Pyschma and was built during the construction of units 1 and 2 between 1958 and 1961.

Units 3 and 4 contain the world's only fast breeder reactors in commercial operation (as of 2015).

history

The power plant in its current form has been built since 1964. It is also named Igor Kurchatov Nuclear Power Plant after academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov . With the commissioning of the BN-600, the Belojarsk site was secured. Since commissioning, the power plant has won the title of Best Nuclear Power Plant in Russia five times and in 1980 it received the Order of the Red Labor Banner . Reactors 1 and 2, which have now been shut down, are in the dismantling phase. The contaminated components are to be stored long-term near the power plant.

The nuclear power plant generates approximately 10% of the electrical energy for Sverdlovsk Oblast . In 2008 around 2000 people were employed in the nuclear power plant. The research reactor IWW-2M is also located on the site of the power plant .

Block 1

On April 26, 1964, an AMB reactor was first synchronized with the grid in Belojarsk . This type of reactor is one of the predecessors of the RBMK . The reactor went critical for the first time on September 1, 1963. The reactor had an electrical output of 100 MW. It was shut down in 1983.

Accidents

In 1964 and 1979 fuel elements burned out several times in the first block. The repairs were carried out at an unacceptably high radiation dose for the workers.

Block 2

On December 29, 1967, the second unit of the nuclear power plant went into operation. This was also a graphite-moderated pressure tube reactor of the type AMB, but with an output of 200 MW. It became critical for the first time on October 10, 1967. After 23 years of operation, the reactor was finally shut down in 1990 because it did not meet the new safety requirements after the Chernobyl disaster .

Operating profit

Annual net electricity generation

year	Millions of kilowatt hours
1987	1,028.0
1988	874.1
1989	771.5

In 1987, the reactor was on the grid for 6966 hours and delivered 1,028 gigawatt hours. In 1989 the power plant was connected to the grid for 5263 hours and delivered 771.5 gigawatt hours.

When it was shut down in 1989, the reactor had produced a total of 22,008.717 gigawatt hours of electricity.

Accidents

In 1977, half of the fuel elements in the active zone in Unit 2 were destroyed.

On 30./31. December 1978 the temperature in the area dropped to as low as −50 ° C. On the following New Year's Eve, the low temperatures caused a serious incident that almost turned into a meltdown . The roof of the turbine hall collapsed due to material fatigue. Parts fell on the generator and there was a short circuit that started a fire in the turbine hall. Measuring lines to the reactor were partially destroyed. Burning oil made it difficult for firefighters to get the fire under control. The reactor had to be shut down in order to prevent a disaster. Thick smoke reached the control room, so that the operating personnel had to leave the control room temporarily and could only enter it again for a short time in order to carry out some switching operations. In the first few hours, worried about the consequences, they set about evacuating the nearby workers' town of Saretschny. Attempts have already been made to organize many buses and trains for evacuation in Sverdlovsk Oblast.

Eight people were severely radioactively contaminated, almost two dozen were temporarily unconscious from the flue gas, but after a few hours the reactors were under control again. Panic broke out in Yekaterinburg over rumors of the burning nuclear power plant in Beloyarsk. After the incident, the then Prime Minister of the USSR, Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin , awarded a medal of honor to all operators and firefighters who had prevented a disaster. In the case of the Chernobyl disaster , the first measures afterwards were the same as in Belojarsk, since the experience that was gained here could also be used there. The head of operations in Beloyarsk, Vladimir Sakharov, was the deputy head of the first group in Chernobyl that led the first post-disaster operations.

Block 3

Block 3

The reactor building from the outside

Fuel element of the BN-600

In 1980 a fast breeder of the Russian BN series was put into operation. This reactor was the world's largest fast breeder in operation until Unit 4 was commissioned. It is the successor to the BN-350 in the Aqtau nuclear power plant ( Kazakhstan ). The reactor has three cooling circuits and a gross output of 600 MW and has no containment . The advertising statement previously made by the operator Rosenergoatom that it is one of the most environmentally friendly and safest reactors in the world, since it releases almost no carcinogenic substances, is no longer upheld. This claim has long been denied, u. a. by the environmental protection organization Bellona Foundation and the EU Commission.

The reactor has a thermal output of 1470 MW. The reactor uses highly enriched uranium with an enrichment level of 17 to 21% as fuel . The active zone of the reactor is one meter high and two meters in diameter. The reactor has three cooling circuits and the coolant throughput of the reactor is 25,000 t per hour. The sodium leaves the reactor at up to 550 ° C and transfers the heat to the secondary circuit via six heat exchangers. The water is converted into steam, heated to 500 ° C and passed through the 600 MW turbine.

In 1987 the active zone of the reactor was modernized. This enabled the burn-up of the fuel elements to be reduced from 6.9% to 6.5%. From 1991 to 1993 the active zone was modernized again. This enabled the burn-up to be further reduced to 6.0%.

The shutdown of the reactor was scheduled for 2010. However, the reactor is being upgraded and modernized in order to enable the operating time to be extended by 15 years. The reactor is now expected to remain in operation until the end of 2021.

Operating profit

Annual net electricity generation

year	Millions of kilowatt hours	year	Millions of kilowatt hours
1982	2,771.0	1999	3,721.0
1983	3,545.2	2000	3,565.8
1984	3,584.1	2001	3,891.1
1985	3,561.8	2002	3,774.4
1986	3,500.7	2003	3,693.2
1987	3,894.9	2004	3,927.6
1988	3,762.1	2005	3,802.7
1989	3,694.4	2006	3,844.9
1990	3,198.0	2007	3,798.4
1991	3,393.9	2008	3,781.0
1992	4,094.9	2009	3,736.6
1993	3,914.9	2010	3,669.8
1994	3,810.6	2011	3,968.7
1995	3,413.2	2012	3,975.5
1996	3,722.3	2013	3,841.1
1997	3,545.8	2014	4,222.9
1998	2,335.3	2015	4,220.2

How much electricity the power plant produces depends on the availability and operating time of the reactor. If the reactor had 100% availability, it could produce 5.25 billion kilowatt hours of gross electricity. This is not possible, however, since the reactor has to be shut down or shut down, among other things, for overhaul or unscheduled faults.

The best year of operation with the highest availability rate was 1992 with up to 7449 hours of operation and with the largest electricity production since the beginning of commercial operation with 4095 gigawatt hours. The worst result was achieved in 1982 with an availability of 5555 operating hours and a production capacity of 2771 gigawatt hours. By 2012 the BN-600 had an availability of 74%, 22% of the time was used for replacing fuel assemblies and for planned maintenance and controls.

In 1992, ten years after it went into commercial operation, the reactor had already produced 43,976 gigawatt hours of electricity. At its 20th anniversary in 2002, the reactor had a total production of 79,670 gigawatt hours. And on its 30th anniversary in 2012, the reactor had a total production of 117,869 gigawatt hours.

Accidents

In December 1992, radioactively contaminated water got into the cooling water basin when pumping radioactive sludge from the waste basin. The water seeped into the ground due to a leaky safety foundation. The incident was an INES-1 event.

On October 7, 1993, there was a sodium leak in a conduit of the auxiliary systems. About 1000 liters of sodium were released and small amounts of radioactivity were released. The reactor was shut down. A small fire broke out in one of the primary cooling circuits. The incident was rated 1 on the INES.

In November 1993, only a short time after the sodium leak, the block was shut down due to increased radiation levels in the exhaust system. This is due to the leak in October. The incident was also an INES-1 event.

In May 1994 a fire broke out during a general overhaul when sodium leaked into the secondary circuit and reacted with water. However, no radioactivity was released into the environment. The event was classified as INES 1.

In July 1995 there was a sodium leak. The reactor had to be shut down for two weeks.

On December 15, 1995 there was a change in the helium pressure in one of the circuits. The reactor was shut down.

On March 25, 1996, a short circuit occurred near the disposal facility. The reactor continued to operate.

On July 10, 2007, lightning struck a high-voltage line near the power plant. As a result, the generator only delivered an output of 400 MW instead of 600 MW. The technicians were able to bring the reactor back to full capacity with difficulty.

A list of the BN-350 and BN-600 incidents is available online.

Block 4

Construction work on Block 4

In the 1980s, work began on building a fourth BN-800 block . Because of the Chernobyl disaster , the project was frozen in 1986. In 1997 it was decided to resume construction.

The BN-800 had been under construction again since 2006. Its electrical output is set at 880 MWe and the thermal output at 2100 MWt. A fuel cycle is expected from the breeder in Russia. This should also protect the weak uranium mines in Russia. The BN-800 is to serve as a prototype for the BN-1200 , the construction of which is also planned in Belojarsk. The construction of the BN-800 was financed by the federal budget and Rosatom . It is one of the few Generation IV reactors and the first reactor of this type since the construction of the South Urals nuclear power plant , which began in 1986, was discontinued due to financial problems.

On December 7th, 2007 the first two sodium tanks (the coolant) were installed and filled. The tanks have a length of 15 m, a diameter of 4 m and weigh 54 t. The reactor commenced test operation at reduced power in June 2014. It has been ramped up continuously since mid-2015.

Operating profit

Annual net electricity generation

year	Millions of kilowatt hours
2015	34.6

On November 10, 2015, the nuclear power plant received permission from the Rostechnadzor supervisory authority to start commissioning. It has been running in power operation since the end of 2015.

Block 5

Rosenergoatom plans to build another reactor block with a type BN-1200 reactor. This reactor will serve as a prototype for this new series.

Data of the reactor blocks

The Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant has four blocks :

Reactor block	Reactor type	net power	gross power	start of building	Network synchronization	Commercialization of essential operation	switching off processing
Beloyarsk 1	AMB-100	102 MW	108 MW	06/01/1958	04/26/1964	04/26/1964	01/01/1983
Beloyarsk 2	AMB-200	146 MW	160 MW	01/01/1962	12/29/1967	December 01, 1969	01/01/1990
Beloyarsk 3	BN-600	560 MW	600 MW	01/01/1969	April 8, 1980	11/01/1981	(Planned for 2025)
Beloyarsk 4	BN-800	820 MW	885 MW	07/18/2006	12/10/2015	10/31/2016
Beloyarsk 5	BN-1200	1130 MW	1220 MW	( Planned for 2025 )	( Planned for 2030 )

See also

• List of nuclear power plants
• List of nuclear facilities in Russia

Web links

Commons : Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Image from one of the control rooms of the AMB reactors
• Beloyarskaya reactor (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ АТОМЭНЕРГОПРОЕКТ; Белоярская АЭС ( Memento from September 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Russian)
2. ↑ "Белоярская атомная станция" Филиал концерна "Росэнергоатом" (СО) (Russian)
3. ↑ Ростехнадзор настаивает на создании экологической службы на Белоярской АЭС (Russian)
4. ↑ BELOYARSK-1 Operating Experience History - Belojarsk 1 nuclear power plant in the IAEA's PRIS (status from 1983) (English)
5. ↑ ^{a b} History of the nuclear power plant ( Memento from September 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Russian)
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA : "Russian Federation: Nuclear Power Reactors" (English)
7. ↑ BELOYARSK-2 Operating Experience History - Belojarsk 2 nuclear power plant in the PRIS of the IAEA (as of 1989) (English)
8. ↑ Byeloyarsk NPP
9. ↑ ^{a b} Персонал Белоярской АЭС спас мир от "уральского чернобыля" в 1978 году (Russian)
10. ↑ Nuclear Safety - TACIS Action Program 2002 of the EU Commission ( Memento of November 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), archived version (PDF; 55 kB)
11. ↑ Bellona Factsheet on Belojarsk NPP (English)
12. ↑ Samuel Upton Newtan: Nuclear War I and Other Major Nuclear Disasters of the 20th Century . Authorhouse, 2007, ISBN 1-4259-8511-4 , p. 186
13. ↑ ^{a b} Краткая характеристика энергоблока БН-600  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Russian)  
14. ↑ ^{a b} WNA - Nuclear Power in Russia (English)
15. ↑ Database of the Nuclear Training Center ( Memento from February 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Slovenian)
16. ↑ Operating experience from the BN600 sodium fast reactor (PDF)
17. ↑ ^{a b c} BELOYARSK-3 Operating Experience History - Belojarsk 3 nuclear power plant in the PRIS of the IAEA (English)
18. ↑ ^{a b} annual calendar (PDF; 2.0 MB) Greenpeace
19. ↑ ^{a b} Nuclear environmental hazard in Russia . ( Memento from June 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) DIW Berlin weekly report 21/96
20. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Beloyarsk Operating History
21. ↑ (page 101) Operating experience with BN600 (English)
22. ↑ ^{a b c} NTI list of incidents (English)
23. ↑ Russia: Lightning strike at Belojarsk nuclear power plant
24. ↑ Russia: Lightning strike at Belojarsk nuclear power plant
25. ^ "Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: History and Status", A research report of the International Panel on Fissile Materials February 2010, Chapter 5 [1]
26. ↑ djysrv: Russia has ambitious plans for MOX fuel and its BN-1200 fast reactor. In: Neutron Bytes. September 27, 2015, accessed on January 17, 2020 . 
27. ↑ Белоярская АЭС установила первое крупногабаритное оборудование на реакторе БН-800 ( Memento from May 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Russian)
28. ↑ rt.com (English), accessed June 27, 2014
29. ↑ BN-800 Power startup: the project of the future is being prepared to supply Russian power system with current (English)
30. ↑ Media release Nuclear Forum CH
31. ↑ BELOYARSK-4
32. ↑ Russia connects BN-800 fast reactor to grid (English)
33. ↑ http://www.atominfo.ru/newso/v0477.htm
34. ↑ Russia has ambitious plans for MOX fuel and its BN-1200 fast reactor (English)