Fuel loading begins at Leningrad II-2

Rosatom officials and plant staff celebrate in the control room at Leningrad II-2 as the unit achieves first criticality. Photo: Rosatom

Rosenergoatom, the electric power division of Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear power corporation, announced on August 31 that Leningrad II-2 has achieved initial criticality. The unit is one of two Generation III+ VVER-1200 pressurized water reactors at the Leningrad nuclear plant.

Leningrad II-2 is scheduled for commercial start early next year, replacing Leningrad I-2, a 925-MWe RBMK-1000 light-water–cooled graphite-moderated reactor that will permanently cease operation at the end of 2020 after 45 years of service. Fuel loading at Leningrad II-2 began in July.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and Rosatom on September 12 initialed a draft amendment extend the Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Investigation on Uranium from the Russian Federation, signed in 1992. Rosatom is Russia’s state atomic energy corporation.

Should the amendment receive final approval, it will extend the agreement to 2040.

Unit 5 at the Tianwan nuclear plant. Photo: CNNC

Unit 5 at the Tianwan nuclear power plant completed its full-power continuous operation assessment on September 8, meeting the conditions for commercial operation, China National Nuclear Corporation reported. The domestically designed ACPR-1000 pressurized water reactor will become CNNC’s 22nd reactor to provide power to China’s electric grid, raising the CNNC fleet’s installed capacity from 19.112 million kilowatts to 20.230 million, according to the company.

Tianwan-5 construction officially commenced on December 27, 2015, with the pouring of safety-related concrete. China’s National Nuclear Safety Administration issued a 40-year operating license for the unit on July 7 of this year, and two days later CNNC announced that first fuel loading had been completed. The reactor achieved initial criticality on July 27 and connected to the grid on August 8. Once commercial operation of the unit has begun, Tianwan will boast five operating reactors.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant. Photo: Rosatom

Fuel loading has commenced at Unit 1 of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, according to Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation. The first fuel assembly was loaded into the unit at 11:45 a.m. (local time) on August 7, the company said, adding that a total of 163 assemblies will have been loaded by month’s end.

The plant, Belarus’s only nuclear power facility, houses two 1,109-MWe VVER-1200 pressurized water reactors. Unit 1 is scheduled to begin commercial operation later this year, with a Unit 2 startup slated for 2021.

The Akkuyu-1 reactor pressure vessel. Photo: Atomenergomash

Atommash has completed hydraulic testing of the reactor pressure vessel for Unit 1 at the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, the four-unit facility currently under construction on the Mediterranean coast in southern Turkey. Atommash is part of Atomenergomash, the engineering division of Rosatom, which is Russia’s state atomic energy agency.

Leningrad nuclear plant. Photo: Rosenergoatom

Preparations have begun for the construction of four nuclear reactors in Russia—two VVER-1200 units at the Leningrad plant and two VVER-TOI units near the Smolensk plant, according to Rosenergoatom, a division of Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation Rosatom.

Rosenergoatom operates all of Russia’s nuclear power facilities. Authorization to move forward with the new-build projects was signed by Alexey Likhachev, Rosatom’s director general.

Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation, announced on June 18 that it has teamed up with France’s Framatome and General Electric’s GE Steam Power to participate in a tender to construct the Belene nuclear plant in northern Bulgaria. The Belene project would involve the construction of two AES-92 units, similar to the reactors that Rosatom supplied to India.

The Akademik Lomonosov, the world’s only floating nuclear power plant, has been fully commissioned, reports Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation.

Rendering of a Russian Project 22220 icebreaker. Image: Hanko/Wikimedia Commons

The keel for Rosatomflot’s Yakutia, the third Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker, was laid at the United Shipbuilding Corporation’s Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg on May 26, according to a press release from Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation. Rosatomflot is a subsidiary of Rosatom.