Where is the Crimean nuclear power plant. Gloomy shadows of an unfinished nuclear power plant in the Crimea. NPP on the map of Crimea

80%, the second - 18%).

Crimean NPP
The country the USSR the USSR→Russia /Ukraine
Location Crimea, Shchelkino
Status unfinished
Construction start year
Commissioning planned in
Main characteristics
Electric power, MW 0 (project - 4,000)
Equipment characteristics
Main fuel U 235
Number of power units 2 (under construction)
4 (planned)
Power units under construction 0
Type of reactors VVER-1000
Operating reactors 0
closed reactors 4
On the map
Media files at Wikimedia Commons

Construction history

The first design surveys were carried out in 1968. Construction started in 1975. The station was supposed to provide electricity to the entire Crimean peninsula, as well as create a reserve for the subsequent development of the region's industry - metallurgical, machine-building, chemical. The design capacity of the Crimean NPP is 2 GW (2 power units of 1 GW each) with the possibility of subsequent capacity increase up to 4 GW, - standard project provides for the placement of 4 power units with VVER-1000/320 reactors at the plant site.

In November 1980, the construction of the nuclear power plant was declared the Republican shock Komsomol construction site, and on January 26, 1984, the All-Union shock construction site. After the construction of the satellite town Shchelkino, the embankment of the reservoir and auxiliary facilities, the construction of the nuclear power plant itself began in 1982. From the Kerch branch railway a temporary line was laid, and at the height of construction, two echelons of building materials a day arrived along it. In general, construction proceeded without significant deviations from the schedule with the planned launch of the 1st power unit in 1989.

A unique polar crane has already been delivered to the reactor building of the first power unit and installed at the design site.

With the help of this crane, further lifting and transport and construction and installation operations inside the reactor compartment were to be carried out:

  • during the NPP construction period: operations for the movement and storage of equipment (parts of the reactor, steam generator housings, pressure compensator, main circulation pipelines and pumps, etc.), and then their installation at the design sites.
  • after the start-up of the station: to carry out transport and technological and repair work maintenance of a nuclear reactor.

According to the director of the Rosenergoatom concern, the construction of a new nuclear power plant on the peninsula is futile, and energy can be generated by wind, solar and non-nuclear thermal power plants. It is impossible to restore it from the current state of the Crimean NPP site. It also used the project of the 1960s, while now the construction of nuclear power plants is carried out according to the projects of the 2000s. It may be more economical to build a completely new nuclear power plant than to rehabilitate an old one, but there are currently no architectural designs for small and medium-sized nuclear power plants. On the other hand, nuclear power plants, especially in the context of ongoing attempts by the Ukrainian authorities to block Crimea economically, would reliably provide Crimea with energy autonomy.

In February 2016, it was announced that a new industrial park would be set up at the construction site of the nuclear power plant. The State Council of the Republic of Crimea for Property and Land Relations agreed with the local Ministry of Property to write off the unfinished Crimean nuclear power plant"by demolition". At the same time, the building materials received as a result of the dismantling of the facility are planned to be used for the construction of a transport passage through the Kerch Strait.

  • The Crimean NPP was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as most expensive in the world nuclear reactor [ ] . This is due to the fact that, unlike the Tatarskaya NPP and the Bashkir NPP of the same type that were shut down at the same time, it had a higher degree of readiness at the time of the construction stoppage.
  • In 1986, an experimental (the first in the USSR) solar power plant SES-5 was built nearby. Near it, on the eastern part of the shore of the Aktash reservoir, there is also an experimental wind power plant Yuzhenergo and eight old non-working experimental wind turbines installed back in Soviet time. Not far from it is East Crimean wind farm, consisting of 15 wind turbines with a capacity of 100 kW and two with a capacity of 600 kW each.
  • The nuclear power plant has an almost complete "twin" - the abandoned unfinished Stendal nuclear power plant 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990. By the time construction was stopped, the readiness of the first power unit of the Stendal NPP was 85%. Its only significant difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers for cooling, and not reservoirs. By 2010, the Stendal nuclear power plant was almost completely dismantled. Within the territory of former nuclear power plant pulp and paper mill opened, cooling towers dismantled in 1994 and 1999. With the help of excavators and heavy construction equipment, the disassembly of the reactor shops is being completed.
  • The nuclear power plant was filmed in many films, of which the most famous was filmed there in 2007 "Inhabited Island" by F. Bondarchuk ( photo of the station in the frame of the film (indefinite) (unavailable link). Archived from the original on September 29, 2015.).

Information about power units

power unit Type of reactors Power Start
construction		 Network connection Commissioning closure
Clean Gross
Crimea-1 VVER-1000/320 950 MW 1000 MW 01.12.1982
Crimea-2 VVER-1000/320 950 MW 1000 MW 1983 Construction stopped on 01/01/1989
Crimea-3 VVER-1000/320 950 MW 1000 MW Construction has not started
Crimea-4 VVER-1000/320 950 MW 1000 MW Construction has not started

see also

Notes

  1. This geographical feature is located on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, most of which is an object

Due to energy problems in the Crimea, after its annexation to Russia, the question "Will it be completed?" sounds regularly. We decided to consider all the problems in this situation and assess the need for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea.

Crimean NPP will be completed

Articles with a title confirming the desire of Rosatom to complete the construction of the only nuclear power plant in the Crimea near the city of Shchelkino after the republic joined Russia appeared in almost every publication. However, in reality, the situation with the resumption of nuclear power plant construction is not so simple.

Let's start with the history of the Crimean NPP. In short, the station was supposed to become the main supplier of electricity for the growing industry of the Soviet Crimea a couple of decades ago. The first brick during the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea was laid in 1975. However, it became one of the key factors in stopping the construction of the almost finished Crimean NPP - the first power unit was ready by 80%, the second by 18%. The resumption of the construction of the station has not been started since then.

Crimean NPP. Our days. A photo

The territory of the Crimean NPP was used for several years to host the Kazantip music festival, noted in the filming of the film "Inhabited Island". And local entrepreneurs lead excursions around the territory of the abandoned Crimean nuclear power plant.

Information that the Crimean NPP will be completed was received from Valery Chaly, Deputy CEO Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Research named after Razumkov. Such a question, according to him, was raised between Rosatom and the Crimean government. At the same time, Chaly notes that the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea will have a negative impact primarily on the recreational prospects of the peninsula.

Crimean NPP will not be completed

Representatives of Rosatom further denied information about the resumption of construction of a nuclear power plant in Crimea, received by the media from Valery Chaly.

In their opinion, the construction of the Crimean NPP is inexpedient, it is much more logical to develop thermal energy in the region, as well as alternative energy sources - solar panels, wind energy.

Firstly, the site prepared for the Crimean NPP in the 1970s does not meet the standards for the construction of modern nuclear power plants. Therefore, it is more logical to build a station in a new place, and not resume the construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant. Moreover, from the point of view of safety, the place of construction was not initially chosen as the most successful one.

Abandoned Crimean NPP. A photo

Secondly, due to the problems of the current relations between Russia and Ukraine, providing Crimea with electricity is subject to great risks, since the main supplier at the moment is not the region itself, but Ukraine. The supply of electricity from Russia has not yet been established. Due to the need to resolve this issue in short time– the construction of nuclear power plants is not the most best idea- with an average construction period of 5 years.

Thirdly, as mentioned above, the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea will adversely affect its recreational component, due to environmental risks.

Construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea. Current situation. 2015

According to the information of the Crimean government, the construction of nine power plants has begun in the region, and there are no nuclear ones among them. For the most part, these are mobile steam-gas power plants. Also, in the next 3-5 years, it plans to build two additional thermal power plants in Crimea, which should cover all the needs of the region for electricity. There are no plans for the construction of a new nuclear power plant or the resumption of construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant in Shchelkino in the Crimean government.

This abandoned facility is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive nuclear reactor in the world. which was never built.
The construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant began in 1975, and it was supposed to provide electricity to the entire Crimea. In 1984, it was even declared the All-Union Komsomol construction site. In the midst of construction, two (!!!) echelons of building materials were mastered per day.
But in 1987, a famous fur animal settled in these places. There are two reasons - the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the unfavorable economic situation in the USSR. The readiness of the station at that time was almost 80% ...
I will give more detailed information at the end of the post, after the pictures. In the meantime, look what is happening with one of the biggest unfinished buildings of the USSR today


2. We drive up to the station. Administrative building and observation tower

3. Broken bricks and crumbs of concrete everywhere. In the background - the first power unit and the engineering building

4. Engineering building of the station. Satellite dishes hint that there are people here

5. And here we have the first power unit. There is also a unique giant crane. Only he no longer builds the station, but destroys it.
Here I want to stop a little. The fact is that during the construction of the reactor building of the first power unit, a unique polar crane, the Danish Kroll K-10000, was already installed. With the help of this crane, further lifting and transport and construction and installation operations were to be carried out inside the reactor compartment. It was the tallest crane in Europe. In 2003, the State Property Fund sold it for ... 310 thousand hryvnias with a starting price of 440. Even if it was scrapped, it would have cost more.
Prior to its dismantling, the high-rise crane was used for base jumping. The jumps were carried out from the lower (80 m) and upper (120 m) booms of the crane.
Today, a similar crane is installed here, but smaller in size for dismantling the station. You can estimate its size against the backdrop of a standing "nine".

6. And this is what this station is for today ... A powerful technique that looks like a toy against the background of a concrete monster is crumbling its body, extracting metal fittings from there. We will return here, but for now we will go to the reactor room.

7. We enter the power unit. The scale and thickness of the walls with shutters is impressive

8. Transport corridor of the power unit

9. Entrance to the reactor zone. Arm-thin metal.

10. There, thick cables go inside the reactor and cutting sounds are heard. There's metal being cut out

11. The reactor control panels are at the end

12. And there was the reactor itself... We look at it from the lower corridor. The ends of the cooling pipes are visible

13. A bolt found here. Obviously not from a children's designer. Surprised almost complete absence corrosion over so many years - only an oxidized surface

14. Let's go back to the faucet.

15. Cabin

16. Rollers. Under each pair - a narrow gauge railway

17. Pipes are cut like sausage. Only not on the table, but on the metal

18. One of the pipes was adapted for a change house

19. There are many techniques. She's in demand

20. But this junk has been standing here for a long time

21. Cylinders here are like replaceable batteries in a TV remote control

22. Destroyed external transition from the engineering building to the power unit

23. What remains after the work of "metalworkers"

24. Shock built, shock break

25. It is somewhat reminiscent of the chimneys of stoves in the Belarusian villages burned by the Nazis.

28. Panorama of the site under the engineering building. Everything is cut here

29. Panorama of the metal cutting site

Some information from Wikipedia:
By the time the construction of the station was stopped, 500 million Soviet rubles were spent on the construction of the nuclear power plant in 1984 prices. Approximately another 250 million rubles worth of materials remained in the warehouses. The station began to be slowly pulled apart for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal. There is evidence that surveys were carried out in the early 1990s, the purpose of which was to "adjust" additional geological justification for the closure of the Crimean NPP. However, this was only a formal reason - by the end of the 80s, the situation in the economy of the USSR worsened so much that almost all major construction projects were curtailed, both in the energy sector and in industry, transport, and urban planning.
From 1995 to 1999, discos of the Republic of KaZantip festival were held in the turbine department.
In 1998-2000, the subsidiary Vostochno-Krymskaya energy company» sold the property of the station for UAH 2.204 million. By February 1, 2003, only a special building, a block of workshops, a reactor department and an oil-diesel facility remained on the balance sheet of the Eastern Crimean Energy Company.

In 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine transferred the Crimean NPP from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy to the Council of Ministers of Crimea. Further, the Crimean Council of Ministers was to sell the received property of the nuclear power plant, and the money was to be used to solve the social and economic problems of the Leninsky district of Crimea, and in particular the city of Shchelkino.
After that, the remaining parts of the Crimean NPP were to be sold: the reactor compartment, the block pumping station, the workshop building, the cooler at the Aktash reservoir, the dam of the Aktash reservoir, the supply channel with the water intake reservoir, the oil-diesel facilities of the station, diesel generator station. Further, it is known that in early 2005 the Representative Office of the Crimean Property Fund sold the reactor section of the Crimean NPP for UAH 1.1 million ($207,000) legal entity, whose name has not been revealed.
There is evidence that the VVER-1000 reactor, which was never installed in the room prepared for it, was cut into scrap in 2005
The nuclear power plant was filmed in many films, of which the most famous was filmed there in 2007 "Inhabited Island" by F. Bondarchuk
Nuclear fuel was not imported here, so the nuclear power plant does not pose a radiation hazard.

A little-known fact: the station has an almost complete twin - the abandoned unfinished Stendal nuclear power plant 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990. By the time the construction was stopped, the readiness of the first power unit was 85%. Its only significant difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers for cooling, and not reservoirs. At present, the Stendal nuclear power plant (2010) has already been almost completely dismantled. A pulp and paper mill now operates on the territory of the former station, the cooling towers were dismantled in 1994 and 1999. With the help of excavators and heavy construction equipment, the disassembly of the reactor shops is being completed.

My previous photo essays:

Crimean NPP - the great unfinished

The construction of the Crimean NPP was frozen at a high degree of readiness of the facility ... What is it? A prudent and wise move, the ability to sacrifice a lot to save even more in the future? Or is it a manifestation of flagrant mismanagement and simply a crime against the state, against Crimea and Crimeans?

The question is all the more relevant now, when the Zaporozhye NPP, which supplies the peninsula with electricity, is located on the other side state border and when the energy independence of the new federal district as part of the Russian Federation is one of the most difficult tasks.

In February 1969, the Minister of Energy and Electrification of the USSR P. S. Neporozhny instructed the Teploelektroproekt Institute to analyze possible options for locating a nuclear power plant in Crimea and submit a feasibility study of the best of these options to the Scientific and Technical Council of the Ministry of Energy. As a result of the survey work, it was proposed to build a nuclear power plant on the northern coast of the Kerch Peninsula near Cape Kazantip and the salty Aktash Lake, which was planned to be used as a cooling pond for condensers of steam turbine plants. This proposal was accepted and approved by the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR on July 26, 1977.

Technical project The Crimean NPP was developed by the Kharkov branch of the Teploelektroproekt Institute of the Glavniiproekt of the USSR Ministry of Energy and Electrification. In September 1978, the project was ready. Then, for two years, its refinement continued, and finally, in November 1980, the Crimean NPP project was approved by the USSR Ministry of Energy and Electrification.

In accordance with the project, the station was to consist of two power units with an electric capacity of 1000 MW each. This was enough to provide electricity to the entire Crimean peninsula, as well as to create a reserve for the subsequent development of the region's industry - metallurgical, machine-building, chemical. In the future, it was envisaged to place two more power units of 1000 MW each on the territory of the NPP and bring the total capacity of the station to 4000 MW.

The main equipment of each NPP power unit under the project included: a pressurized water power reactor VVER-1000, four main circulation pumps GTsN-195, four horizontal steam generators PG-1000, steam turbine K-1000-60/3000, electric generator TVV-1000-4 with a voltage of 24 kV and a power of 1000 MW.

Simultaneously with the planning of work on the creation of a nuclear power plant, the terms for creating the appropriate infrastructure were approved. In October 1978, on the southern outskirts of the fishing village of Mysovoye, which stretches from the coastal steppe to the ridge at Cape Kazantip, a working settlement for the builders of the Crimean NPP was laid out, designed for 20 thousand inhabitants.

It all started with the first high-rise building and a dormitory, then an access road was laid for the village of Lenino - a nuclear power plant construction base, and a post office was built. In subsequent years, the number of apartment buildings constantly increased, were built: a school for one and a half thousand students, Kindergarten, the Samarlinskoye reservoir was created to provide drinking and technical water.

The village grew rapidly and soon began to resemble small city. In the spring of 1982, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, it was given the name Shchelkino, in honor of Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1953 in the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, the first scientific leader and chief designer of the nuclear center Chelyabinsk-70 (Snezhinsk).

The construction of the first block of the Crimean NPP began in 1981. According to the plan, the construction of the power plant was to be completed in 1989. The cost of the project was 751.5 million rubles in 1984 prices. 650 million rubles were allocated for industrial facilities, and about 100 million rubles were allocated for housing construction, health care, culture and education. The technical and economic indicators of the Crimean NPP corresponded to the advanced technical developments in the world nuclear power 1970-1980s.

In Shchelkino, intensive construction of houses and roads began; a powerful boiler house was laid. The city was populated by young nuclear specialists (graduates of Kiev universities) and experienced employees of operating Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

Workers, among whom there were many young people, were drawn to the construction site of the station. Valery Anatolyevich Shtogrin was appointed head of construction. The popularity of the object under construction was so great that in 1984 the construction of the Crimean NPP received the status of the All-Union Komsomol shock. A temporary line was laid from the Kerch branch of the railway, and at the height of construction, two echelons of building materials per day arrived along it. Moreover, this very considerable amount was mastered in approximately the same period of time. An experimental solar power plant with a capacity of 5 MW was built next to the nuclear power plant - it was supposed to become a backup source of electricity for the nuclear power plant.

A unique polar crane was installed in the reactor building of the first block at the design site, with the help of which lifting, transport and construction operations were to be carried out inside the reactor compartment. During the construction of the NPP, it was needed for storing equipment (parts of the reactor, steam generator housings, compensator, main circulation pipelines and pumps, etc.), and then installing them at the design site. After the launch of the station - to carry out transport, technological and repair work on the maintenance of a nuclear reactor.

The creation of a new energy facility was on the rise, construction proceeded without significant deviations from the schedule with the planned launch of the first reactor in 1989, nothing foreshadowed trouble.

But April 26, 1986 came. At 1:24 a.m., a powerful thermal explosion of the RBMK-1000 channel uranium-graphite nuclear reactor occurred at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In terms of the number of dead and injured as a result of this accident, as well as the economic damage, the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is regarded as the largest in the entire history of nuclear energy in the world.

How did the Chernobyl disaster affect the fate of the Crimean NPP? Less than a month had passed since the accident, as articles began to appear in the press about the extreme danger of nuclear energy in general and about the inadmissibility of building the Crimean nuclear power plant in particular. A large number of people took part in the discussion. Ecologists and "greens" of all stripes were especially active. Even those who did not understand the fundamental difference between the Chernobyl channel uranium-graphite reactor RBMK-1000 and the pressurized pressurized water reactor VVER-1000, which was to be used at the Crimean NPP (KAES), entered into the dispute.

Rather quickly, the opponents of the KNPP moved from ordinary environmental protests to “scientifically based” statements about the inadmissibility of building a facility on the Kerch Peninsula due to the fact that the selected site is located in the zone of tectonic faults resulting from the shift of tectonic plates at their junctions. It is believed that such zones are the most probable places for earthquakes.

The Crimean peninsula and the entire coast of the Krasnodar Territory are located in a zone where the formation of the relief is still ongoing, so earthquakes here are a common thing. Numerous historical treatises that have survived to this day describe some especially destructive cataclysms on the peninsula.

To get a feel for the tense atmosphere of disputes about the fate of the Crimean NPP in the 1980s, it is enough to turn to the archives of the press. One of the main platforms for controversy was the magazine "Change".

In the article "Crimea: a zone of special risk?", published in No. 21 in 1988, Valery Mitrokhin, a member of the Writers' Union of the USSR, wrote:

In May of this year, an all-Union conference was held in Yalta dedicated to the environmental problems of Crimea. All participants of the meeting were unanimous in their attitude to the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea. Here are just some of the statements of scientists.

M. Ya. Lemeshev, doctor economic sciences, Professor (AS USSR):

- There is a difficult, alarming ecological situation in Crimea. How to fix the situation? Under no circumstances should the construction of new industrial enterprises no matter what apparent benefits justify it. Immediately stop the construction of the nuclear power plant. It affects not only the Crimea, but also the Caucasus, the Sea of ​​Azov.

G. G. Polikarpov, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR):

- The choice of a place for a future nuclear power plant does not stand up to criticism. The station is planted on a fault where there is a danger of increased seismic activity. Drainage and flooding are no less dangerous. Even the normal operation of a nuclear power plant threatens to destroy fish stocks Sea of ​​Azov… In the event of an accident, the likelihood of which is increasing all over the world, the consequences for the small Crimea will be catastrophic. It is known that after the accident in Chernobyl, the design and construction of the Odessa Nuclear Power Plant, Minsk, Chigirinsk, Krasnodar Nuclear Power Plants, the fifth and sixth units of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant were stopped. With even greater reason, such a decision should be made in regard to Crimea.

V. M. Lyakhter, doctor technical sciences, Professor, Laureate of the Prize of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (NIIS Hydroproject, Moscow):

- The Crimea has ideal conditions for obtaining energy from the wind. The Kerch Peninsula is very promising, the slopes of the yayla over Yalta, - the “gate of the wind” - Alushta, the vicinity of Sevastopol. Before the war, the world's largest wind power plant successfully operated in Balaklava. In Moscow, a project was developed for a unique installation of five thousand kilowatts. Alas, the authors of these works suffered a hard fate during the years of the cult. The project also died. But today we can offer Crimea wind power machines for one hundred and one thousand kilowatts, which we have developed and are implementing. According to our calculations, ten to twelve installations of a thousand kilowatts will make it possible to shut down all the boiler houses in the South Coast. Ten cars will cost four million rubles. Compare with nuclear power plant costs.

In the same year, in addition to the Yalta meeting, many discussions were held at various levels. Scientists, designers, builders of the station took part in them.

Deputy Director of the Institute of Mineral Resources E.P. Tikhonenkov said that the studies conducted to assess the seismic hazard in the Crimean NPP zone do not meet the requirements of the IAEA. The NPP industrial site is located on the most seismically active site. At the stage of preparation of the feasibility study, deep wells were drilled only to 15–18 m. Such a depth did not allow tracing the occurrence of inclined limestone layers. Mud volcanism is a significant danger. A well was drilled at Cape Kazantip, in which mud was encountered at a depth of 147 m. And Kazantip is practically a mud volcano that has not yet erupted.

Mitrokhin's article also reports on violations committed during construction.

When in frosty December 1982 the first cube of concrete was laid with great fanfare in the foundation of the reactor shop of the future nuclear power plant, it was said that the builders were laying high-strength concrete in the foundation, because otherwise it was unsuitable here. Even then, everyone knew that at first it was necessary to pour this very foundation continuously in order to get a monolith. And what? From the very first days, work at this facility was carried out with violations of the necessary requirements, the regime of continuous pouring was not maintained, and the concrete itself was not always the right quality. So it turned out not a monolithic structure, but a layer cake. The performers do not hide this. Moreover, do not hesitate to call a spade a spade. Some believe that an object of this quality will never be accepted for operation, while others say: they say, our job is to complete the amount of work.

And they did it - in the reactor compartment, some units were assembled several times, the pipeline of the low-pressure industrial circuit of the hermetic zone was redone for four months due to design discrepancies.

At the beginning of 1988, about 300 technological pipelines were made with defects. Repair of joints during the installation process was carried out many times - instead of the permissible double. Installation guide technical equipment and pipelines of the reactor compartment was entrusted to young specialists who do not have experience in such installation. And yesterday's electric welders worked as masters for welding technological pipelines!

Of particular concern was such a section of the reactor compartment as the Bora tank, which is part of the accident localization system. And here the welding is done no matter. Among other things, the stainless steel sheet for cladding the room turned out to be such that even with visual control about 15 tons of metal were rejected. Other types of control are not provided for by the project ...

The welding of the bottom with the shell is especially bad. Because of the 100% marriage, the station management did not accept the work. In this form, the tanks remained in the monolithic room. The carbon lining - the bottom of the hermetic zone - separating the hermetic part of the reactor compartment from the non-hermetic part, which is part of the accident localization system, was made in winter, in rain and mud, digested many times and was also covered with concrete, despite the prohibitions of V. I. Tansky, the director of the nuclear power plant.

Soil pressure sensors show that the reactor room rests unevenly on the soil - the strongest pressure is at the central point of the foundation. That is, the base of the reactor, as it were, stands at the top of the pyramid. During an earthquake, the reactor can simply collapse.

Of course, there was a feasibility study. But it caused bewilderment even among non-specialists. In this document, for example, it was reported that there were no large settlements in the forty-kilometer zone of the nuclear power plant. Say, the largest villages are located only in the south-western direction, towards Feodosia. I counted and settlements, and the number of inhabitants. There are about 60 villages and villages in this zone, and over 50 thousand people live in them. Immediately outside the zone (44 km) - Feodosia with its extensive resorts. Moreover, the Feodosia Bay with the famous "Golden Beach" falls into the forty-kilometer zone along with part of the Black Sea. 54 km from the nuclear power plant - Kerch. Simferopol is 150 km away. Moreover, the regional center and the southern coast of Crimea are located in the main direction of the winds prevailing in the area of ​​the future nuclear power plant! The coasts of the Arabatsky and Kazantip bays are a resort area in which boarding houses, rest houses, and pioneer camps are located.

In the area where the nuclear power plant is located, there are reserves: the floodplain of the river Seven Kolodezey, Astana plavni, Cape Kazantip. It is not difficult to guess what awaits them in the near future. Here is a very recent fact. As a result of the flood, the cooling pond of the nuclear power plant (Lake Aktash) overflowed. The dam, washed by the builders, collapsed. Salt water has flooded the man-made forest, which is dying.

It is possible that over time, radioactive particles will begin to accumulate in the groundwater under the station and the cooling pond, since groundwater is directly connected with Azov. These particles will sooner or later penetrate into the sea. Confirmation of this possibility can be "read" in the feasibility studies.


The article says that in the summer of 1986, scientists from the Institute of Mineral Resources and the Department of Seismology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR conducted field studies, which make it possible to assert that fault tectonics in the area of ​​construction of the Crimean NPP is widely developed. The fault (Severo-Aktashsky), having a displacement width of up to 150 m and dipping to the northwest at an angle of 65–80°, passes in the immediate vicinity of the construction site, and movements along it continue at the present time. The area is in zone 7 points. The designs of nuclear power plants are designed for 8–9 points. But with such a low quality of construction, such a margin of safety is a fiction. Warping of NPP structures is possible.

They added fuel to the fire and 25 tremors with a force of four points, which were registered from 8 to 10 April 1987 in the construction area of ​​the Crimean nuclear power plant. For the first time in the history of seismic observations, the epicenter was located in the Sea of ​​Azov…

The young foreman of the nuclear power plant, Alexander Lyutkevich, sent a sarcastic response to the article “Crimea: a zone of special risk?” to the editorial office of Smena. He gave a list of headlines from Crimean newspapers before and after May 1988. Before: “Grow, atomic!”, “Nuclear is growing”, “Steps of a large construction site”, “Atom will be peaceful”, “Village full of sun”.

They even printed the following verses:

... I hear a first-grader spelling out:

Lenin, Motherland, progress,

Work, mom, communism, nuclear power plants ...

After: “The resort and the nuclear power plant are incompatible”, “We are strongly against it!”, “Is the goal noble?”.

Later, in September 1989, another voluminous material was published in this magazine under the heading "An Alternative to Krymbas". Its author, Vladimir Animisov, visited the “All-Union Komsomol construction site” and talked with the builders of the Crimean NPP. The journalist was shown the reactor, walked around the power unit, and was told about the protection systems. Vyacheslav Vaiskam, the shift supervisor, became Ned. “Before Chernobyl, there was a principle - give energy at any cost. First of all, plan! - said V. Vaiskam. - Violations were committed at all nuclear power plants. It was enough to stick a piece of cardboard instead of a relay to turn off the protection. Management turned a blind eye to this. If you held the block - well done! And if he turned off the block according to the instructions, he risked getting scolded: “You could pull out the block!” Here, on Krymskaya, such violations are simply technically impossible. Everything is on microprocessors, under a seal.”

The following arguments were also made:

N. P. Bereza, Head of Inspectorate of Gosatomenergonadzor:

- How does the Crimean NPP differ from the Chernobyl one? There there was one barrier between man and fuel, here there are three. In Crimea, a fundamentally different type of reactor is VVER-1000, and not RBMK. In addition, the reactor itself is enclosed in a hermetic reinforced concrete shell - this is the same sarcophagus.

O. Kozak, electrician, chairman of the board labor collective NUCLEAR PLANT:

- Some kind of mass nihilism has appeared - to close everything, to deny ... Well, we will close the station. And in Crimea, two million square meters of housing must be built before the year 2000. Where to get energy? To reconstruct treatment facilities at factories, electricity is also needed.

V. I. Tansky, NPP Director:

- The public demands a referendum on our station. Now it is meaningless, since the opinion is known in advance: “close!”. And I would suggest this option: let's put the first power unit into operation - and then we will stop construction. And the whole million kilowatts will be used for social and cultural life. We will close the boiler houses, transfer the transport to electric traction, give electricity agriculture. And then we'll have a referendum. I am convinced that even if it shakes 12 points, the entire Crimea will fail, one nuclear power plant will remain unscathed. However, already at five points, the reactor automatically turns off.

Despite their conviction, none of the builders of the nuclear power plant was going to fight to the death for this facility. If the government decided to convert the station into a training center, then that would have happened. But such a center would create new problems: after all, it would also consume energy, and quite a lot, up to 40 MW. This would exacerbate the already large energy deficit in the Crimea.

The article “Alternative to Krymbas” by V. Anisimov is completed by a number of rhetorical questions: “And if 10 points are confirmed and there is no nuclear power plant? This will not remove, but will add problems! Shchelkino, Kerch, Feodosia are not designed for such seismicity. In the heat of controversy, this was somehow forgotten. And now it is time to urgently develop options: what will have to be done? Demolish entire cities and rebuild? Strengthen old houses?

So, in the USSR, the construction of a large number of nuclear power plants, nuclear thermal power plants and nuclear heat supply stations was stopped. The reasons for this were the Chernobyl disaster and the subsequent powerful public pressure, as well as the unfavorable economic situation in the country. As a result, in 1989-1990, the construction of the Crimean, Bashkir, Tatar and Rostov nuclear power plants was stopped. The construction of the Crimean NPP was terminated when the first block was 80% ready, and the second - 18%.

On October 25, 1989, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the conversion of the Crimean NPP under construction into the Training Complex for the training of operating and maintenance personnel of nuclear power plants. The subsequent history of the Crimean NPP is associated with several of its re-profiling and privatization of construction in progress, which was carried out by the Fund state property Ukraine and the Property Fund of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

By the time the construction of the Crimean NPP was stopped, about $100 million had been spent on it. Approximately another $50 million worth of materials remained in warehouses.

In 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine transferred the Crimean NPP from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy to the Council of Ministers of Crimea. The Council of Ministers was supposed to sell the received property of the station, and use the money to solve the social and economic problems of the Leninsky district of Crimea, in particular, the city of Shelkino.

The objects of sale were: a reactor compartment, a block pumping station, a workshop building, a cooler at the Aktash reservoir, a dam at the Aktash reservoir, an inlet channel with a water intake reservoir, an oil-diesel facility of the station, a diesel generator station. In early 2005, a representative office of the Crimean Property Fund sold the reactor department of the Crimean NPP for $207,000 to a legal entity whose name was not disclosed.

The most absurd thing in this story with the sale of the reactor compartment was what the new owner did with the acquired reactor vessel - the most complex creation of the mind and hands of many people who worked on its creation. The body was not only not loaded with nuclear fuel, but was not even installed in the shaft prepared for it. In the best traditions of post-Soviet mismanagement, delivered to building base At the Crimean NPP, the reactor vessel was just lying in the bushes, waiting in the wings, And now the hour has come. By a ruthless hand, it was cut into pieces and scrapped, like a rusty pipe or a waste piece of metal that no one needed.

One can imagine the state of people who escaped from their native places to the Azov steppe to build a nuclear power plant, and then suddenly remained out of work. Shchelkino is a satellite town of the Crimean NPP. What to do in this "satellite" when the station is gone? It's not about construction team that can move and quickly find new job. We are talking about 14 thousand specialists different professions abandoned to the mercy of fate.

After the construction of the nuclear power plant stopped, residential buildings continued to be built in Shchelkino. In 2000, a bus station was built here, and in 2003 a gas boiler house was commissioned ...

The sunset on the Azov coast of Crimea is probably one of the most beautiful phenomena on our planet. If you look west along the coastline from the Novootradnoye village, your eyes will be fixed on the sun setting behind the hills of the Kazantip peninsula. The sun quickly, as always in the south, leans towards the earth, and just at the moment when it touches the horizon, a gigantic silhouette becomes clearly visible against its background, and above it - a thin cross, similar to a cemetery.

This is how a person who went on a summer vacation to Shchelkino before 2003 could write.

The silhouette is the first power unit of the Crimean NPP, a titanic structure made of concrete and metal. Krest is a unique K-10000 crane developed in 1978 by the Danish company Kroll Kranes А/S. Only 15 units of such cranes were produced (13 were purchased by the USSR, 2 cranes were bought by the USA). This double-tower self-propelled full-slewing rail-mounted crane was intended for the construction of industrial structures with a mass of mounted elements up to 240 tons. In September 2003, the crane was dismantled, removed from the site of the unfinished Crimean nuclear power plant and sold to Middle Eastern buyers.

Prior to dismantling, the high-rise crane was used for base jumping. The jumps were carried out from the lower (80 m) and upper (120 m) booms of the crane.

The same crane "Kroll" was involved in the construction of the 4th power unit of the Khmelnytsky NPP in the city of Netishyn, earlier the buildings of the Zaporizhzhya NPP and the South-Ukrainian NPP were erected with cranes of this type.

The first thing that attracts attention on the territory of the Crimean station is traces of looting and devastation. Just as famously as with the reactor vessel, metal hunters dealt with the control panel of the power unit, the metal structures of the reactor compartment, the condenser cooling system, the engineering building, the equipment of the transport corridor, and much more. They say that the copper cable and cupronickel pipes were taken out of the construction site in whole trains.

In the reactor hall, the cylindrical shaft of the reactor darkens. Everything that is possible has long been cut off in the mine, and its bottom is littered with debris. They even stole the handrails used to inspect the mine. Above is a containment made of reinforced concrete.

A containment designed to prevent the release of radioactive substances into environment in severe accidents of the reactor, it is made high-strength. The "prospectors" could not cope with the reinforced concrete structure, and were forced to be content with reinforcement mined from thin slabs. The method is simple: several slabs are lifted by the surviving crane higher and dumped onto a monolithic platform. The concrete of the slabs shatters into pieces, and the remaining reinforcement is handed over to scrap metal.

To pull metal out of finished engineering structures, they use an even simpler method - they crush everything with bulldozer buckets.

Dark stairs lead to the platform where the snail of the main circulation pump lies. Judging by the notch of the thick-walled pipe from of stainless steel, an attempt was made to divide the device into parts, but this task turned out to be overwhelming for the carvers. Nearby is another similar snail, which no one has tried to cut.

Rising higher, you can see the foundation of the second power unit of the KNPP. A lot of public funds were also spent on its creation with the satisfaction of all the requirements for strength and seismic resistance. Now nobody needs him.

From 1995 to 1999, the festival of electronic and club music "Republic of KaZantip" was held every summer on the territory of the KNPP. Thousands of young people gathered on the beaches of the Sea of ​​Azov, and parties and discos were held in the turbine hall of the first power unit. The advertising slogan read: "Nuclear party in the reactor." Windsurfing and kitesurfing competitions are held nearby every year. The same place served as a film set for many feature films, the most famous of which today is “Inhabited Island” by Fyodor Bondarchuk.

Over the past years, no one has found a use for tens of thousands of people left to vegetate and survive on the deserted coast of Azov. In the late 1980s, up to 30 thousand people lived in Shchelkino, and today - no more than 7 thousand. Of the 5.5 thousand apartments, 2.5 thousand are empty.

There are no street names in Shchelkino. Only the numbers of houses, of which there are only about a hundred. Here for a long time there was no street lighting, heating, and the garbage chutes in the houses were welded a long time ago. The city has no money to solve these problems. Life here is in full swing only in the summer, as the locals have switched to providing recreation for visitors. In winter, Shchelkino turns into a ghost town. At the same time, the city does not leave any unpleasant sensations; people, despite the problems they have to deal with on a daily basis, remain cordial and willingly tell stories about the once “all-Union Komsomol” construction site, although these stories are not very funny.

The sea is 200 m from the city limits. Cape Kazantip is a seven-minute drive away. Around Shchelkino summer cottages: those who managed to build during the construction of the KNPP - that one has good buildings; those who received plots later - they have nothing at all (at best, toilets from elevator blocks).

The outlook for the city is dim. Perhaps the only direction available at the moment is the development of Shchelkino as a resort region and the provision of conditions for tourists to relax.


| | A couple of days ago, I posted a report on a visit to the Crimean NPP (some people might not see photos due to problems on the server, but now everything should be fine).

The Crimean nuclear power plant was never completed. It began to be built in 1975. However, in the late 80s, construction was abandoned. Whether the events in Chernobyl, public protests, or simply funding problems influenced this, it probably does not matter now. Be that as it may, the almost finished station was abandoned and will never be completed. By the way, they abandoned not only her, there were several more. And everyone's fate is different. Something was completed, something will be completed, and from some only the foundation remained.

But we have a rather rare opportunity to see how it all could look like, since a number of stations of this type were nevertheless completed.


In the photo - the power unit of the Rovno NPP, and the power unit of the Crimean NPP.

And this is what the main control room looks like. If you look closely, you can see that the instrument panels are almost identical. Of course, there were no liquid crystal monitors in the 80s. Probably in their place was more bulky equipment.

A little bit of theory - how a nuclear power plant works. If you do not go into details, then everything is trite. The reactor is constantly fissile uranium atoms, resulting in the release of heat, which heats the water. This water circulates in a circle (primary circuit) and heats other water outside the reactor (in the second circuit), and this happens inside the steam generators. That, in turn, turns into steam and turns the turbines that turn the generators, and even those then generate electricity. After passing through the turbines, the steam is further cooled to turn it back into water. For cooling, another circuit with cold water taken from the reservoir is used. That is why most nuclear power plants are built near large bodies of water. General principle similar to a conventional thermal power plant, the main difference is that instead of "firewood" a nuclear reaction is used.

Of course, as elsewhere, it’s simple on the fingers, but in practice everything is insanely complicated, but I think whoever wants to will climb into this jungle himself :)

And here is the schematic, already in relation to the type of reactor in question (VVER-1000). In the center is the reactor itself. The four large cylinders are the steam generators. Conical devices (I circled one of them in red) are pumps that drive water along the primary circuit.

And now, to give an idea of ​​the scale of the entire structure, here is a photograph of one of these pumps compared to a human.

This photo shows a layout of a station of this type:

The cylindrical containment zone, the yellow polar crane, the primary circuit pumps and steam generators are clearly visible. On the floor above the reactor, you can see a little man. To the right of the reactor block is a machine room with turbines.

And this is a real steam generator:

At the Crimean nuclear power plant, they did not have time to deliver, as well as the reactor. They were brought and laid on the grass. So they lay there until 2005, when two people came with autogen and turned the reactor into scrap metal in a few days.

But, during the construction, they managed to install a polar crane. Here it is - a huge colossus under the ceiling of the containment area, from which cables hang. This crane could rotate, moving along the rails along the containment area of ​​the station. I'm afraid to imagine what a roar it was. With the help of this crane, it was planned to install equipment, and in the future, to carry out maintenance of the reactor.

Also, during the construction, a unique tower crane was used, one of the largest in the world, with a lifting capacity of 240 tons. It stood until the mid-2000s, after which it was sold for scrap. In the photo, this is the tallest crane. By the way, please note that the engine block attached to the reactor block was built in structures, but at present it is completely destroyed.

It should be noted that this is not the only nuclear power plant abandoned during the construction phase.

This is how, for example, the power unit (5 and 6 if I'm not mistaken) of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, unfinished for obvious reasons, looks like.

In addition, it should be noted that cases of stopping construction were not only in the USSR. For example, on March 28, 1979, there was an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, as a result, the construction of the Forked River station was first suspended, and subsequently finally stopped.

The unfinished reactor block of the Stendal NPP, GDR, of the same type as the Crimean NPP, has now been completely dismantled.

Personally, I would not like to give high-profile assessments of such situations. I think this can be considered history. So it was and nothing could be done. Who knows, maybe it's for the better, maybe for the worse. If we talk about the current state of affairs, then of course it is insanely sorry to see how the Crimean nuclear power plant is being destroyed. But, apparently, selling metal is more profitable than, for example, organizing a museum.

Finally, I will give a photo of the Zaporozhye NPP. At this nuclear power plant, as many as 6 power units were built, identical to the Crimean nuclear power plant. It is difficult to imagine the scale of this entire enterprise, while the scale of even one block is amazing.

I did not have a goal to tell everything - you will find this information yourself if you are interested. I have provided only a small part of the information. Photos of the Crimean (except historical) and Chernobyl nuclear power plants are mine, the rest are taken from various sources. Below are links to them, and to related information, as well as information for thought. Most of the links are Wikipedia.

UPD: decided to collect information about the real state of unfinished nuclear power plants.
A similar question interested me immediately after visiting the Crimean NPP, several years ago. But then it was difficult to find information on the real state of some nuclear power plants. Now it has become much easier.

Bashkir NPP
Some infrastructure has been built, however, the construction of the reactor block (except for the foundation) has not started. Photo from the mothballed boiler room. The square foundation of the reactor block is visible on the right.

Kostroma NPP/Central NPP
The situation is similar to the previous one, or even worse. In fact, these are just concrete ruins in the forest.

Crimean NPP
See above.

Odessa APEC
Some infrastructure has been built, the construction of the reactor block, apparently, has not begun.

Tatar NPP
A part of the infrastructure has been erected, the construction of the reactor block has begun, but not much has been built, apparently, they have not even reached the start of the construction of the containment area.

Voronezh AST
Probably the most completed project after the Crimean NPP. There are plans to complete the facility. Currently, it is heavily guarded, funds are allocated for conservation.

Gorky AST
Also, pretty much a block built. It is located in a protected area, but the internal state and severity of protection is unknown. There are vague plans to convert to CHP

NPP Belene (Bulgaria)
Construction was frozen, then resumed. At the moment, the status is not known, probably frozen again. However, in any case, the readiness of the facilities is low.

NPP Zharnowiec (Poland)
Construction is frozen, the readiness of facilities is low.

NPP Juragua (Cuba)
One of the blocks has been built almost completely, the second has just begun. These are blocks of a slightly different type than the Crimean NPP (and most other unfinished NPPs). VVER-440 reactor of lower power. Judging by the pictures from space, the station is of great interest, moreover, most likely it is not particularly guarded (although the devil knows what they have there and how). However, unfortunately, due to its remoteness, all this is more theoretical. I will probably look for more information about this station.

NPP Stendal (East Germany)
The reactor block was largely built, but was completely dismantled in the late 2000s.

 

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