Nuclear Power Plants - Russia

The Russian Republic has reactors of the VVER, RBMK, LWGR, and BN (Metal cooled) reactor designs. 

Rosenergoatom, founded in 1992,  is the Russian agency responsible for generation of electric and thermal power at 8 of 9 nuclear power plant sites. These 8 sites consist of 25 reactors with a total electrical power output of 17.2 GWe.  The Leningrad NPP is an independent operating utility and reports directly to Ministry of Russian Federation for Atomic Energy. 

Kalinin Nuclear Power Station

The Kalinin Nuclear Power Station has two 1000 MWe VVER-1000 pressurized water reactor units. Unit 3 is under construction. The facility is located in the northern part of the Kalinin district, near the town of Udomlia. Kalinin district is located between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Each unit has 4 reactor coolant loops with horizontal steam generators.The secondary system has 7 regenerative stages of condensate and feedwater heaters. From the condenser, the condensate is supplied to condensate pumps which increase pressure to supply a condensate-demineralizer system. Condensate booster pumps then feed the water through 4 stages of low pressure regenerative heaters, then to a deaerator. The deaerator is a large intermediate storage tank that uses some process steam to remove oxygen that may be present in the water. The deaerator supplies feedwater pumps that increase pressure to direct the water through 3 stages of high pressure feedwater heaters then to the horizontal steam generators. VVER-1000 operating reactors are also located at: Novovoronezh 5 Balakovo 1-4

Photo courtesy Kalinin NPS

Smolensk Nuclear Power Station

Smolensk 1-3 units are located about 250 miles southwest of Moscow. The Smolensk RBMK units each generate ~ 1000 MWe. Each unit has 2 turbine-generators. The following pages illustrate reactor and turbine areas of the Smolensk power plant. Turbine-generator hall Refueling floor Turbine-generator and oil system RBMK reactors are also located at: Leningrad (St. Petersburg) 1-4 (you need Cyrillic encoding for this site) Kursk 1-4

Photo by J.A. Gonyeau

VVER-440 reactors (with model) are located at

• Kola 1-4 (1, 2 are the older 230 design; 3, 4 are the newer 213 design)
• Novovonezh 3, 4 (230 with internal suppression pools)
• Rostov 1, 2 (213)

LWGR (Light water cooled-graphite moderated) reactors are located at:

• Bilibino 1-4

BN-600 (metal cooled breeder reactor - located at: Beyoyarsk.

The Rosenergatom site provides a map of Russia with links to information about each plant showing location, detailed information, and also 2 tables - (1) table lists each plant, rating, date connected to grid, and reactor type, and (2) table listing the operating temperature and pressure, electrical and thermal power, number of fuel assemblies for each reactor type

In addition, the US Department of Energy provides some information on Russian reactors:

• NEI Sourcebook on Soviet-Designed Nuclear Power Plants
• International Nuclear Safety Center International Partners

Copyright © 1996-2004.  Joseph Gonyeau, P.E.. The Virtual Nuclear Tourist. All rights reserved. Revised: September 28, 2001.