Mr. Belyaev Alexander, Chief Engineer, and Tszian Vladimir (Interpreter) speaking to pressmen before touring the plant. This picture was taken on 31st July 2023.
The journalists were selected from Ghana, South Africa, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Nigeria.
The visit was facilitated by Rosatom, the state atomic energy corporation of Russia.
The reporters were first briefed by Mr. Kashin Nikolai, Head of the Information Department, and Mr Belyaev Alexander, Chief Engineer, and were later conducted around the facility.
Mr. Tszian Vladimir (Left) and Mr. Belyaev Alexander (Right) Chief Engineer at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant is one of ten nuclear power plants being operated by Russia’s state-owned utility Rosenergoatom, the world’s second-biggest nuclear power generating utility.
The plant is a major producer of electrical power in the Russian North-West and currently generates electricity for more than 50 per cent of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast population.
It is the first Russian nuclear power plant to use the RBMK-1000 reactors (uranium–graphite nuclear reactors of channel type on thermal neutrons). Its construction started in July 1967 and the first unit was launched in December 1973.
In 2006, Rosenergoatom decided to build a power plant that uses the third generation VVER-1200 reactors to replace the RBMK-1000 units of the old plant.
Construction of the first unit of Leningrad NPP-2 began in October 2008, while start-up operations commenced in December 2017 with the loading of the first fuel assemblies into the reactor vessel.
Unit 1 achieved first criticality in December 2017. The unit was connected to the national grid and began producing electricity in March 2018. Unit 2 was commissioned in late 2020. This brings the total capacity of the two units to 2400 Megawatts.
This picture was taken by Michael Creg Afful on Monday, 31st July,2023, during a visit to Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant in St. Petersburg, Russia.