In the era of the Soviet Union, it was difficult to amaze any of the citizens with large-scale construction projects. Enormous in size and material investments construction of industrial facilities took place throughout the vast, now defunct country, among which the Khmelnitsky NPP occupies a special place. We will talk about this station, which generates electricity from atomic energy, in an article.
general information
Khmelnitsky NPP is the last of its kind installation, which was commissioned precisely during the USSR period. Moreover, the facility turned out to be the first of its kind in the territory of modern independent Ukraine and, quite possibly, the first sign on the path to the most efficient renovation of the existing nuclear reactor fleet. The main task for the station was to compensate for the acute shortage of electric capacity in the western regions of Ukraine, as well as, if necessary, export to the states of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.
Background
In the period of the 1970s, the national economy of the Soviet Union was very rapidly developing, which quite logically required an increase in the supply of electricity. The country's unified energy system was extremely acutely aware of the lack of capacity. Since the western regions carried out a very decent export of electricity abroad, there naturally appeared a need to make up the difference by creating a new station, and one that could produce at least 4000 MW. It goes without saying that this was possible only thanks to nuclear energy. And therefore, on March 16, 1971, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to begin construction of a new nuclear power plant in the center of Ukraine. However, in connection with the increasing export of electricity to the CMEA countries, it was decided to build the station in the west of the state.
Creators
Khmelnitsky NPP, the accident on which will be described below, was created by specialists from the Kiev institute under the name "Energoprojekt". The final version of the project was approved by the line ministry on November 28, 1979. The document provided for the unification of nuclear power plants with a VVER-1000 type reactor. More than 50 points claimed the role of the main construction site.
Construction start
So, where is the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant on the map of Ukraine? The leadership of the country chose the district of Neteshina as the place of its permanent basing. Initially, the facility was named West Ukrainian NPP, but was later renamed to Khmelnitsky.
On February 4, 1977, the USSR Ministry of Energy issued an order giving a start to the start of construction work on the construction of the station. This document gave impetus to the implementation of large-scale operations. Aleksey Ivanovich Trotsenko was approved as the director of the industrial-important strategic object.
First difficulties
In the spring of 1977, the first workers arrived in Netishin. A detachment of 60 people was led by the head of the site. Initially, only one excavator, two cars and a bulldozer were allocated to the entire team. It is worth noting that mother nature also brought additional problems to the pioneers: the area was wooded and marshy, peat bogs and terrible impassability interfered. According to the recollections of the first director of the nuclear power plant, construction site workers had a meager salary at that time and lived in very cramped conditions, firmly believing in their bright future.
Continuation of construction
In 1978, equipment and designs of the first units and assemblies began to be delivered to the facility. A dredger was also launched, washing the site under the road and the city. Two years later, they began to build a reservoir with a total area of 22 km 2, and the first residents of the future city of nuclear scientists received completely finished apartments from the state.
The start of the construction of the nuclear power plant dates back to January 22, 1981. It was on this day at the construction site that the first soil bucket was excavated under the foundation pit, on which it was planned to install the power unit of the Khmelnitsky NPP.
After another six months, the builders began concreting the fundamentals of the reactor compartment. And on October 22, 1981, together with the first cube of concrete poured into the slab of the power unit, a capsule was laid in which a symbolic message was placed for subsequent generations. On December 1 of the same year, the first issue of the Energostroitel builder was published.
In July 1982, during the construction of the main building, workers passed the zero mark. The creation of partitions and the installation of metal structures was also begun. The very next year, builders began assembling the shaft of the reactor itself. In parallel, work was carried out on the construction of block No. 2.
In 1984, they built special flyovers for technical pipelines and completed the construction of the Khmelnitsky NPP - Rzeszow (Poland) power transmission line with a capacity of 750 kW.
In 1986, an airtight shell, pipelines, and ventilation systems were installed at the first power unit. In August, the reactor dome was finally installed. The construction of blocks No. 2 and No. 3 also continued, the workers were preparing for the start of construction No. 4.
Commissioning
In November 1987, nuclear fuel was laid in the first power unit. The reactor was physically launched at 6 a.m. on December 10 under the supervision of shift supervisor Tugaev. On December 22, it became clear that the reactor was already fully ready to be connected to the country's unified energy network. On December 31, the station was fully commissioned.
On April 17, 1988, the first scheduled preventive repair of the first power unit in the history of the Khmelnitsky NPP was made.
The era of the 90s
At this time, the Khmelnitsky NPP was actively operated and gradually built further. At the same time, problems appeared, among which: the introduction of a moratorium by the government of the country on the construction of nuclear reactors, chronic wage arrears among employees of the enterprise, and others. Nevertheless, the nuclear power plant continued to generate electricity, and at the time of 1999, the construction of a radioactive waste storage facility was 80% complete.
2000s period
At the time of 2002, the power plant was able to produce 90 billion kWh of electricity. A year later, the facility was able to reduce the amount of harmful emissions into the atmosphere by 10 times.
On August 8, 2007, power unit No. 2 was introduced into the unified energy system of Ukraine.
In 2007, the situation at the Khmelnitsky NPP was studied by representatives of the IAEA mission, who arrived at the facility at the invitation of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The experts assessed compliance with safety standards and were satisfied with what they saw, which was the most reassuring to all those who were worried about the operation of the nuclear power plant.
In the fall of 2015, the agreement with the Russian Federation on the construction of energy blocks No. 3 and No. 4 was broken.
Technical specifications
Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant currently uses two power units. Both the first and second reactors are equipped with VVER-1000/320 power plants with a capacity of 950 MW. Moreover, power unit No. 1 has a design deadline date of December 13, 2018, and power unit No. 2 has September 7, 2035.
Emergency
What happened at the Khmelnitsky NPP at the beginning of the current 2018? On the night of January 3, an emergency occurred at the industrial facility: a coolant leak was detected in the seal assembly of the regulating body of the protection and control system. In connection with this management of the station, it was decided to disconnect the second power unit from the network. As a result, the repair work lasted until January 9th. All this time, local residents received heat in their homes through the use of steam boilers at the start-up station.
In general, the Khmelnitsky NPP, the accident in 2018 at which caused a commotion among ordinary inhabitants, is relatively safe and is under strict control of relevant specialists. It is worth noting here that the “320th” power units are no longer considered to fully comply with international safety requirements after the accident in Japanese Fukushima.
The described incident on the INES world scale has a zero classification, that is, off the scale.