Smolensk nuclear power plant - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

station Smolensk ( []) is a nuclear power station in Russia. It is located in the Smolensk region, in Desnogorsk

Desnogorsk

Desnogorsk is a town in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Desna River southeast of Smolensk. Population: It was founded as a settlement around the Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant in 1974. It was granted town status in 1989....

province, approximately 100 km from Smolensk

Smolensk

Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...

, 120 km from Bryansk

Bryansk

Bryansk is a city and the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Moscow. Population: -History:The first written mention of Bryansk was in 1146, in the Hypatian Codex, as Debryansk...

and 320 km from Moscow. Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant is the biggest NPP in the Nechernozem region of Russia.

Smolensk NPP operates three RBMK

RBMK

RBMK is an initialism for the Russian reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalniy which means "High Power Channel-type Reactor", and describes a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor which was built in the Soviet Union. The RBMK reactor was the type involved in the Chernobyl disaster...

-1000 reactors

Nuclear reactor

A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...

(1000MW water-cooled graphite-moderated channel-type reactors). The plant was supposed to have four units but the construction of the 4th reactor was stopped in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster

Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...

.

All the units are equipped with emergency response systems, which can prevent release of radioactive material into the environment even in case of serious accident; for example breakage of pipes in the reactor cooling circuit. The reactor cooling circuit is housed in hermetic reinforced concrete boxes that can withstand a force of 4.5 kg/cm².

Unit	Reactor type	Net capacity	Gross capacity	Construction started	Electricity Grid	Commercial Operation	Shutdown
Smolensk – 1	RBMK RBMK RBMK is an initialism for the Russian reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalniy which means "High Power Channel-type Reactor", and describes a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor which was built in the Soviet Union. The RBMK reactor was the type involved in the Chernobyl disaster... -1000	925 MW	1,000 MW	1975-10-01	1982-12-09	1983-09-30	–
Smolensk – 2	RBMK RBMK RBMK is an initialism for the Russian reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalniy which means "High Power Channel-type Reactor", and describes a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor which was built in the Soviet Union. The RBMK reactor was the type involved in the Chernobyl disaster... -1000	925 MW	1,000 MW	1976-06-01	1985-05-31	1985-07-02	–
Smolensk – 3	RBMK RBMK RBMK is an initialism for the Russian reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalniy which means "High Power Channel-type Reactor", and describes a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor which was built in the Soviet Union. The RBMK reactor was the type involved in the Chernobyl disaster... -1000	925 MW	1,000 MW	1975-10-01	1990-01-17	1990-10-12	–
Smolensk – 4	RBMK RBMK RBMK is an initialism for the Russian reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalniy which means "High Power Channel-type Reactor", and describes a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor which was built in the Soviet Union. The RBMK reactor was the type involved in the Chernobyl disaster... -1000	925 MW	1,000 MW	1984-10-01	–	–	Construction cancelled on 1 December 1993

See also