Atomic in the Crimea. Abandoned nuclear power plant in the Crimea. NPP on the map of Crimea

Filming, electronic music festival and parties of extreme sportsmen - perhaps not a single abandoned construction site of the times Soviet Union did not live such a rich cultural life. The townspeople took curious tourists to the station, put musical equipment in the turbine section, and used the crane for base jumping - parachuting from towers, bridges and other fixed objects. Now it is difficult to imagine that a quarter of a century ago, everything could have turned out completely differently.

For the creation of the Crimean nuclear power plant by 1984, 500 million Soviet rubles were allocated, another half of the same amount was spent on building materials. At that time - colossal money. The station even got into the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most expensive nuclear reactor. In fact, the Tatar and Bashkir nuclear power plants were being built simultaneously with it, according to the same project, and the station near Shchelkino became the record holder only because it had the highest readiness for launch. In 1987, when the project was frozen, the first power unit was 80% completed.

It was planned that the station would not only meet the need for the entire Crimea in electricity, but also lay the foundation for the development of industry on the peninsula - metallurgical, machine-building and chemical. The design capacity of the NPP was 2000 MW with the possibility of a subsequent increase to 4000 MW. Use a natural reservoir as a coolant - the salty Aktash lake. During construction, canals were dug connecting the lake with the station's reactor.

Dismantling of the Crimean NPP

1986 was fatal for the Crimean nuclear power plant, when the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred - the largest in the history of mankind. technological disaster... After it, the construction of 10 nuclear power plants in the Soviet Union was mothballed. The second reason for the freezing of the grand project was the country's faltering economy. And in 1989, the final decision was made to abandon the launch of the nuclear power plant. The property of the station began to be sold, or even pulled apart for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal.

In September 2003, a unique Danish crane Kroll was sold almost for a pittance - the same cranes were used in the construction of the Khmelnytsky, Zaporozhye and South-Ukrainian nuclear power plants. In Shchelkino, in recent years, it was used only by base jumpers, which jumped with a parachute from the lower (80m) and upper (120m) steles.

The station itself became a place of pilgrimage for residents of the city and tourists who willingly went there, knowing: it poses no radiation hazard, because a nuclear reactor was never installed in it. But if you decide to take a walk through the ruins of one of the largest construction projects of the 20th century, you still cannot forget about caution. We must carefully look under our feet: there are a lot of through technological holes in the floor. In addition, do not grasp the wires with your hands, many of which are still energized.

It is curious that the satellite city of Shchelkino, which was erected for the builders and maintenance personnel of the station, managed to survive the closure of the nuclear power plant. Located on the sea, next to the nature reserve, it has become a favorite resort for many.

Crimean nuclear power plant - chronology of events

1968 year- First design calculations

1975 year- the satellite town of Shchelkino appears

1982 year- construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant starts

1987 year- The project is suspended

1989 year- Closure of the Crimean NPP

1995 year- The first disco of the festival "Republic of KaZantip" on the territory of the station

year 2001- "Respublika KaZantip" moves to the village of Vesyoloye (the city of Sudak)

2007 year- Several episodes of Fyodor Bondarchuk's film "Inhabited Island" are being filmed at an abandoned nuclear power plant.

Alternative energy for the Crimean nuclear power plant

Not far from the abandoned station are the remains of an experimental tower-type solar power plant. It began to be built at the same time as the station; it was planned that it would serve as a backup source of electricity for the Crimean nuclear power plant.

The plant's capacity was supposed to be 5 MW, but expectations did not come true. Contrary to the project, the reflector guidance system consumed 95% of the energy generated by the station, the construction turned out to be meaningless.

Crimean nuclear power plant in Shchelkino on video

Crimean NPP - unfinished nuclear power plant, located near the town of Shchelkino on the shore of the salt Aktash reservoir, its reservoir - a cooler

The plant was built according to the same plan as the currently operating Khmelnitskaya NPP (Ukraine), Volgodonskaya NPP (Russia) and Temelin NPP (Czech Republic). The almost completed nuclear power plant was abandoned after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (the readiness of the first power unit was 80%, the second - 18%). The first design calculations were carried out in 1968. Construction started in 1975. It was planned to provide the entire Crimean peninsula with electricity, as well as to lay the foundation for the further development of the Crimean industry - metallurgy, machine-building, chemical. The design capacity of 2,000 MW (2 power units) with the possibility of further increase to 4,000 MW: the basic design assumes the location of 4 power units with VVER-1000/320 reactors at the station site.

After the creation of the satellite town of Shchelkino, the embankment of the reservoir and household facilities, the construction of the station itself began in 1982. From the Kerch branch railroad a separate line was stretched, and on the hottest days of construction, two echelons of materials a day came here. In the photo, the village of Shchelkino:

In general, the construction proceeded without major deviations from the schedule with the expected launch of the first reactor in 1989. The staggering economic situation in the country, along with the tragedy in Chernobyl, led to the fact that by 1987 the project was first suspended, and in 1989 they finally abandoned the launch of the station. By this time, 500 million Soviet rubles in the 1984 equivalent had already been allocated for the construction of the nuclear power plant. The warehouses stored materials for another 250 million rubles. The station was gradually pulled apart for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal. Witnesses say that in the early 90s, studies were carried out, the purpose of which was to justify the closure of the Crimean nuclear power plant from a geological point of view. Nevertheless, and this was only a simple excuse - by the end of the 80s, the situation in the economy of the USSR became so bad that almost all large-scale construction projects in all spheres were closed.

After the construction was stopped, the Crimean NPP quickly fell into disrepair, almost everything was dismantled and taken out. Here are the events to celebrate:

From 1995 to 1999, discos of the famous Kazantip electronic music festival were held in the turbine hall (turbine room)
In September 2003, the Property Fund sold the unique Danish Kroll crane brought in for installation nuclear reactor, for 310 thousand hryvnia with a starting price of 440 thousand hryvnia. Before its sale, the huge crane was used for base jumping. We jumped from the lower (80 meters) and upper (120 meters) booms of the crane. A similar "Kroll" crane was involved in the construction of the 4th power unit of the Khmelnitsky NPP in the city of Netishin, earlier the same cranes helped build the buildings of the Zaporizhzhya NPP and the South Ukrainian NPP

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 the ARC. Then, the Council of Ministers of Crimea had to sell the property of the nuclear power plant, and the money had to be spent on solving social and economic problems of the Leninsky district of Crimea, especially the town of Shchelkino.
The remaining parts of the Crimean NPP were to be sold out gradually: reactor compartment, block pumping station, workshops, a cooler at the Aktash reservoir, the dam of the Aktash reservoir, a supply channel, oil-diesel facilities of the station, a diesel generator station. It is also known that at the beginning of 2005, the Representative Office of the Crimean Property Fund sold the reactor department of the Crimean NPP for UAH 1.1 million ($ 207,000) legal entity, whose name is not advertised.
There is evidence that the VVER-1000 reactor, which was never installed in the room intended for it, was cut into scrap metal in 2005.
The NPP starred in many films, among which the most famous was Fyodor Bondarchuk's "Inhabited Island" filmed here in 2007 (a scene from the film in the photo)

Fuel was not delivered to the station, so it does not pose a radiation hazard.

Interesting facts about the nuclear power plant:

The Crimean NPP was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most expensive nuclear power plant. The reason is that, unlike the Tatar NPP and Bashkir NPP of the same type, which were shut down at the same time, at the time of the construction stop, it had the highest degree of readiness for launch
Nearby was built solar power plant... By and large, this station was only experimental: its capacity is 5 MW. Many difficulties surfaced during the operation of this station. One of them - the reflector guidance system almost completely (95%) consumed the energy generated by the station. There were also difficulties in washing mirrors. Soon this station ceased to exist and was also plundered. Near it, on the eastern side of the shore of the Aktash reservoir, there is also an experimental wind power station YuzhEnergo, which includes 15 wind turbines with a capacity of 100 kW each. Next to it are 8 old experimental wind turbines of the East Crimean Wind Power Plant, installed back in Soviet times and not working at the moment.
Little-known fact: the station has an almost identical twin - the abandoned unfinished nuclear power plant Stendal 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, which was being built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990. By the time the construction was completely stopped, the readiness of its first power unit was 85%. Its only key difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers as a cooling system, and not a reservoir. At present, the Stendal NPP has been almost completely dismantled. A pulp and paper mill is now operating in this area, the cooling towers were dismantled in 1994 and 1999. Using excavators and heavy construction equipment the dismantling of the reactor shops is almost completed.

What is the dead station now? Several photos from shelkino.com

NPP engineering block with collapsed external passage to the reactor

A hatch above the transport entrance, through which containers with uranium were to be lifted

The reactor cooling system, or rather what is left of it

The main control panel of the reactor of the Crimean NPP

The insides of the station are mercilessly carved out by fairly impoverished local residents

On the dome of the nuclear power plant. Freshwater lake Aktash from which cooling channels were dug

6 sedimentation tanks

NPP water supply system

Crane with a lifting capacity of 300 tons

People live here and even ride horses

Whether it is good or bad that there is no nuclear power plant in Crimea, it is difficult to judge. We all remember the Chernobyl disaster and its consequences, and it’s probably all the same for the best that it was not possible to build a nuclear power plant on the peninsula. And Shchelkino, meanwhile, has not turned into another ghost town due to its convenient location near the sea. Every summer crowds of tourists come here and storm the remains of the great Soviet construction site, which are melting before our eyes - so quickly they cut scrap metal here.

For those who aspired to get to the Hermozone of the station, several parting words were published from the organizers of the KaZantip festival (90s)

- 1. Never do this.
- 2. We understand that you are unlikely to follow the first advice, therefore:
- a) lace up your Martens well, or whatever you put on there in very bad weather, take warm, not very expensive things;
- b) charge new batteries in your flashlight;
- c) Bring a few more crazy people with you, no more than five people, as well as food and water for a couple of days.
- 3. Be sure to find an experienced stalker among the local residents - he probably knows many ways to get into the containment area without breaking his spine.
- Many are afraid of radiation. She is not there. But you have every chance of not returning home, therefore, going on this journey, say goodbye to your loved ones and relatives.
- Since the station was almost completed, always look under your feet - there are many open openings.
- Do not touch the wires - some of them are still energized.
- Climbing the numerous stairs and holding onto the railing is also not recommended, because many of the structures are temporary. But in general, the containment area is quite reliable, since it is designed to withstand a direct fall of an enemy aircraft. In this sense, you are completely safe.

Andrey Manchuk's story (Newspaper in Kiev) about the campaign to the Hermetic Zone:

“Having received a modest bribe, the guards give us a large lantern with backup batteries and open one of the doors to the huge building of the power unit, which is popularly known as the“ reactor ”. Strictly speaking, the reactor filling has not been here for a long time - everything was sent back to Russia in the late eighties. However, all other entourage of the containment area remained in place - although over the past years various businessmen have pulled out thousands of tons of valuable metal and cables from the ruins of the nuclear power plant. Fortunately for fans of industrial giants, monolithic reactor structures made of ultra-strong alloys cannot be cut by any autogenous device. There is no need to protect them - the guards, as a rule, make sure that young people do not climb here. After all, this threatens accidents and very often - with an extremely sad outcome. However, these functions are usually performed by guard dogs.

In the ten-story building of the power unit, impenetrable darkness. The flashlight beam constantly snatches out deep holes in the floor underfoot. Wandering along endless corridors, where the remains of some complex equipment still lie, we come to the containment zone - the heart of the nuclear power plant. It is a huge all-metal cylinder, which was supposed to protect from radiation even in an accident at the reactor. To get inside, we climb through two huge round doors - guards estimate their weight at seven tons - and climb the stairs to where it was supposed to place the industrial site of the reactor. The insides of the power unit have a completely unique look - something similar can be seen only in the computer toy "Half Life". The dome over the containment area was never lowered, and therefore at night you can contemplate a magnificent picture of the southern starry sky in the round crater of an atomic volcano. Traveling here with a local nuclear scientist - a failed nuclear power plant worker - you can find out where the reactor core should have been, where the uranium rods would have dropped, and what level of gamma radiation should have been where people walk freely today. Anyone who has been to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and understands what hellish forces are contained in such objects will appreciate this story.

Climbing onto the roof of the power unit, we enjoyed the Azov landscape, swans wintering here, the remains of the experimental solar and wind power plants, as well as the Sivash oil platform, located two miles from the coast - it was possible to swim here by chartering a fishing boat for fifty dollars or ... a border boat ... Acid graffiti was applied everywhere - in 1995-1999, the legendary KaZantip rave festival was held here, which made this region famous throughout the former USSR. "

[: RU] I will start my story about Crimea with an unfinished nuclear power plant, which is located near the city of Kerch. It was this nuclear power plant that could play an important role in the life of the entire Crimean peninsula and become a cheap source of energy for future industries that were planned to be located on the peninsula. Alas, now the nuclear power plant has become just a good source of metal, and, most likely, already for foreign manufacturers.

By chance I met a person who received Active participation in the construction of the station. I forgot to ask his name, his story was so interesting, but I managed to take a photograph of him.

Crimean nuclear power plant

“As after the war, but there was such beauty,” the elderly man said this phrase several times during our conversation. They planned to turn Crimea into a paradise for tourists, and provide local residents with jobs in new industries. It was planned to launch trolleybuses from the city of Kerch all the way to Sevastopol (now such buses run between Yalta and the nearest villages). To carry out all these plans, a sufficient amount of electricity was needed. In 1975, they began to build a nuclear power plant, having previously prepared the city of the Shchelkino satellite.

Crimean nuclear power plant

By the way, the construction was completed, they even managed to start the reactor, and a polar crane was installed in the building for the installation of heavy equipment. The launch of the station was planned for 1989, but ... The 1986 catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant left its mark. Only this imprint has left not so much on the nuclear power industry as on the already undermined economic situation in the country. Here a huge "thank you" must be said to Mikhail Sergeevich, who received Nobel Prize for the collapse of the country and now lives happily behind the cordon.

Crimean nuclear power plant

Further, the history of the most expensive nuclear power plant in the world went downhill. From 1995 to 1999, the Republic of KaZantip festival was held on the territory of the nuclear power plant. Then the Vostochno-Crimean Energy Company began to sell the equipment for the power plant. It is not clear only why the company was called "Energy Company".

Would be called honestly - "Company for the sale of metal left by the Soviet Union." The remains of the nuclear power plant were transferred to the Council of Ministers of the Crimea and should be sold out in order to invest money in the city of Shchelkino. But the signs with the words "private property" make you wonder whether a private owner needs to invest in the city of Shchelkino?

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

And this is already a real steam generator: They did not have time to install them at the Crimean nuclear power plant, as well as the reactor. They were brought in and laid on the grass.

So they lay there until 2005, when two people came with an autogenous generator and turned the reactor into scrap metal in a few days.

In 2005, the reactor was sawn off with an autogenous machine, then taken out to ferrous metal. All equipment was also removed from the control rooms and handed over to ferrous metal. It seems that in a couple of years nothing at all will be left of the station.

The station has an almost complete twin - the abandoned unfinished nuclear power plant Stendal 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, which was 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 a reservoir.
The place where the reactor was supposed to be installed.

Currently given type reactors is the most widespread in its series - 31 operating reactors (out of 54 VVER reactors), which is 7.1% of total operated in the world power reactors of all types.
The entrance to the pressurized zone - the pressurized door has long been gone.

If someone is going to go there, be sure to take a flashlight and look under your feet, there are a lot of technical through holes in the floor.

Technical holes for cables and communications. Previously, there was equipment here.

A crane is used for dismantling, and earlier, for construction, another crane was installed - a polar one. It was one of the tallest cranes in the world with a lifting capacity of 240 tons, in height it was almost 2 times higher than the crane in the photo. The crane was disassembled and sold for use.

In early 2005, the Representative Office of the Crimea Property Fund sold the reactor department of the Crimean NPP for UAH 1.1 million ($ 207,000) to a legal entity whose name was not disclosed. Now the station is continuously working on dismantling and transporting parts of the block to ferrous metal.

The Crimean nuclear power plant was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive nuclear reactor in the world.

From 1995 to 1999 discos of the Republic of KaZantip festival were held in the turbine department. The advertisement read: "Atomic Party in a Reactor."

It was planned to use the Aktash reservoir as a cooling pond, on the bank of which the station was built.

The plant was supposed to have 2 VVER-1000 reactors with a rated power of 1000 MW each.

Railway lock designed primarily to replace nuclear fuel at nuclear power plants.

We look up from the airlock. A large crane is visible, which once knew how to move in a circle and lift everything right up to the reactor itself.

A place for a reactor, which was never brought here.

Some kind of mobile transformer, apparently.

Reactor pit.

Top view. Visible faucet and stainless steel walls

One of several boilers of unknown purpose, most likely part of the reactor cooling system.

Again, stainless steel

Splash pools.

Crimean nuclear power plant

The Crimean nuclear power plant is the most expensive unfinished nuclear reactor in the world. For the sake of servicing the power plant on the Kerch Peninsula, an entire city was erected - Shchelkino. A passing infrastructure was created. Specialists from all over the Soviet Union were invited. Less than a year was not enough to start the reactor, then Crimea would be able to provide itself with electricity on its own.
Little is left of the Crimean nuclear power plant. On a huge territory, abandoned and dilapidated buildings. The remains of the workshops are densely covered with grass and trees. Things that had even the slightest value were dug up, torn out and taken out. The nuclear reactor, the shaft skin and the control panel of the nuclear power plant were cut into non-ferrous metal. And if precious metals and equipment were taken away in the first place, then today you can only profit from iron in concrete slabs.

A hundred meters from the reactor shop, several people in robes are monotonously dismantling another building. A tractor pulls down a wall, a crane carries a concrete slab to the ground, where workers break it. They want to get to the armature hidden inside. Only the foundation and a pile of stone chips remained from the concrete workshop. The further fate of the still-preserved buildings is frightening with its predictability.

Photo by Oleg Stonko

A huge gray box of the reactor shop dominates over the territory of the facility. The workshop is two nine-storey buildings high and over 70 meters wide, built on a six-meter foundation. You can enter it through a huge round hole. The metal door, half a meter thick, was dragged away long ago. There is no radiation hazard, since nuclear fuel did not have time to deliver. Free admission, no security.

The building accommodates 1,300 rooms, box-rooms for various purposes and, accordingly, sizes. The inside of the boxes is empty and dusty. Scraps of wires are hanging somewhere, rubbish is lying around. Light does not penetrate into the reactor shop at all. Heavy silence, belated echo of footsteps and the enclosed space of the premises thicken the atmosphere. It is disturbing to be here. Random rustles are unnerving. Nevertheless, you are in no hurry to leave the reactor. This can be summed up in one phrase: "Terribly interesting."

"Everything was done slowly in Crimea"

Vitaly Toropov, head of the reactor department:

- Scientists and specialists have been working on the project of the Crimean nuclear power plant since 1968. In 1975, a satellite town was laid - Shchelkino, named after the Soviet atomic physicist Kirill Shchelkino. This is a village in which nuclear scientists and their families were supposed to live. When in June 1981 I arrive in the Leninsky district, on the spot future station, one might say, the wheat was still spike and they were just beginning to dig a pit. I was sent here from the Kola NPP. Indeed, in Soviet times, as it was: after studying at the university, you start with the lowest positions, then you rise higher. Nobody would have appointed me the head of the shop right away.

According to the plan, the power plant was to start working in four years and ten months. But the leadership was recruited in advance: senior engineers and heads of four main departments. That was the rule. They were supposed to control the flow of documentation, equipment, monitor the progress of construction and installation work, and gradually recruit personnel. The salary during this period was, of course, small.

It was important for me to understand the geography of the workshop. When the reactor is operating, you have a few seconds to avoid receiving a lethal dose of radiation. You need to act instantly, know exactly where which valve is. Even in a complete blackout, you should be able to work by touch, like submariners.

In 1986, the reactor was supposed to be launched, but due to the low pace of construction, they did not have time. I associate this with the specifics of Crimea. Everything was done slowly here. For example, they managed to build one kindergarten a year. And it seemed that there was money, but the party doubted and some party members were against it. And then it exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the construction died out. A wave of discontent arose. Many believed that Crimea would become the second Chernobyl.

Photo by Oleg Stonko

In 1988 I was sent to Cuba, where I worked for three years at the nuclear power plant in Juragua. When I returned, the station had already been closed and torn apart. Its readiness was about 90 percent. There was less than a year left for installation and commissioning. If they had time to start, the station would not have been closed. In addition, equipment for two more units was stored in the warehouses. Moreover, the equipment is of high quality, with imported parts. If Vladimir Tansky, the director of the Crimean NPP, had taken control of the situation and kept the course of events, nothing would have been stolen. It was necessary to wait until the hype with Chernobyl dies down, becomes less flashy.

We planned to build four reactor units, each of which would generate one million megawatts. One million was enough for Crimea, so the first block was built to stop the overflow of electricity from the mainland. The second block was needed to provide Feodosia and Kerch with hot water, to rid the peninsula of coal dependence and boiler houses. By means of the third block, they wanted to desalinate seawater. The whole world is doing this. We wanted to fill Crimea with fresh water and not depend on water from the Dnieper. The fourth block is for sale, to the Caucasus, to earn money.

"The Crimean nuclear power plant was mistakenly compared with the Chernobyl nuclear power plant"

Anatoly Chekhuta, master of instrumentation and automation (instrumentation):

- I arrived at the station as soon as the direction was given: I wanted to get an apartment early. Later it was possible not to be in time. My specialization is the maintenance and operation of various control and measuring equipment. Prior to that, he worked for ten years at a nuclear power plant in Tomsk. It was a secret facility, and in official documents it was listed as a chemical plant. Upon arrival in Shchelkino, I had a radiation level of 25 roentgens. Five years later, it dropped to 15. Now, probably, there is already nothing. Although for a long time the level of 5 roentgens was stable.

One of the problems with the closure of the Crimean nuclear power plant is general secrecy. There was a lack of publicity. In Soviet times, nothing was disclosed: projects, research, data. When environmentalists raised a wave of indignation in 1986, they did not have official information, so any assumptions could be made. Even the most ridiculous. As an example, in the event of an accident at a nuclear power plant with a constant southeast wind, radioactive fallout could fall on Foros. Where in the summer Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev rested at the dacha. As a result, a scary story was inflated from this.

The Crimean nuclear power plant was mistakenly compared with the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It's two different types reactor. RBMK-1000 was used in Chernobyl, and VVER-1000 in Crimea. I will not go into subtleties. But it is as if water is heated over a fire in a saucepan without a lid or a closed thermal dish. The difference is huge.

Photo by Oleg Stonko

The reactor did not produce plutonium, but gave off steam. The steam turned the turbines, which produced electricity. If in Chernobyl the RBMK was buried nine stories in the ground, the Crimean VVER was neatly placed on a small platform. There was a three-stage protection system. The reactor room was covered with a continuous layer of reinforced concrete. In an emergency, the doors were hermetically closed, air was sucked out of the room. In an explosion in a vacuum, the pressure was zero. So there could be no catastrophe. By the way, the building of the reactor shop could withstand a direct collision with a jet plane.

The same pressurized water nuclear reactors are used at submarines... The type is the same, only the size is smaller. In 1988 in the Soviet Union nuclear boats there were 350 pieces. And so far not a single accident has happened. From the point of view of physics and construction, it is a very reliable apparatus.

Another argument of the opponents of the construction was the lack of research into the location of the nuclear power plant. Specifically - seismic. Allegedly, the reactor was erected on the site of a tectonic fault, and an accident could occur with small tremors. But later, in 1989, when independent Italian seismologists arrived, they concluded that at least ten reactors could be built, there is no fault. This means that the Soviet specialists were right, and the place was chosen well. The reactor itself was built to withstand a magnitude nine earthquake. But it was already too late and the station was closed.

50 tons of steam per hour

Andrey Arzhantsev, head of the heat supply section of the Central Heating and Heating Complex:

- TsTPK is a workshop for heating and underground communications. Under my leadership there was a start-up and standby boiler room or PRK. To put it simply, the start-up and standby boiler house is four boilers that produced 50 tons of steam per hour. Due to this, hot water and heat were supplied to Shchelkino. Now such words have been forgotten in the city - "hot water", but before the tap was 75 degrees.

The main purpose of the PRK is the start-up and adjustment of turbines, the heating of the reactor. No nuclear power plant is built without it. But having completed their task, the boiler room is dismantled, and on its basis, for example, a gym is created.

Photo by Oleg Stonko

The basic project of the Crimean "Atomka" was special. This was not available anywhere else at that time. The turbines had to be cooled with sea water. We planned to take water from the Aktash reservoir and use it as a cooling pond. Water came to Aktash from Sea of Azov... That is, there was an unlimited supply. As a result, the nuclear power plant generated clean energy.

After the closure of the nuclear power plant, Shchelkino gradually dies out. I think there is no need to explain what happens to the city when it loses its main enterprise. The population dropped from 25 thousand to 11. In terms of intellectual potential, Shchelkino was considered the most developed place in Crimea. Here every second had two higher education... Aerobatics specialists from all over the Soviet Union. And instead of the industrial heart of the peninsula, Shelkino becomes a resort village. What you see now is a tenth of what the city could become. There are not even streets here, the houses are simply numbered. Of the sights - the market, the city council and housing and communal services.

Some nuclear scientists leave, others stay. Those who had somewhere to return left have left. All over the Union, the construction of nuclear power plants is being frozen. There was no work. Here at least the apartment remained. Of course, no one worked in their specialty. I am now the director of the boarding house.

"Crimea needs a nuclear power plant"

Sergey Varavin, senior engineer of turbine management, director of KP " Management Company Shchelkinsky Industrial Park:

- It is difficult to say who was right and who was to blame for the fact that the Crimean nuclear power plant was being plundered. The property was redistributed between customers and contractors. About a hundred companies were involved in the construction. Each of them wanted their money back, so the equipment was sold out. In addition, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, something was perceived as gratuitous, so they dragged what they could. There was no high-profile case on this matter, so there is no need to talk about embezzlement. Now you can't figure it out.

Photo by Oleg Stonko

The land was redistributed among the participants in the construction. Someone refused the plots, someone left. Part of the territory remained in the hands of owners and tenants, the rest became the property of the city. An industrial park is planned to be created on the site belonging to the City Council. The project began to be created in 2007. But due to lack of funding, it was never implemented.

Now the project has entered the Federal target program development of industrial parks in Crimea. One billion 450 thousand rubles will be allocated for the development of the business plan. Our task is to prepare everything for the future investor. Collect all documents, equip the territory, create infrastructure, and so on. So that you just have to start construction. The focus is very different: from a gas turbine station to an agricultural complex.

But ask any operator of our NPP, and he will answer: “ Nuclear power station Crimea needs it. "

"All Crimeans would be sick with cancer"

Valery Mitrokhin, poet, prose writer, essayist, member of the Writers' Union of Russia:

- Immediately after becoming a member of the Writers' Union, I am sent to the construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant. There I am writing a book of essays "The Solst builders". Three chapters are controversial. They are devoted to the problems that could arise as a result of the construction of the station. I was accused of undermining the material condition of the country. About a billion rubles have already been spent on the facility. At the then exchange rate, one dollar was equal to 80 kopecks, that is, it looked from the bottom up. A lot of money. Therefore, the NPP is rightfully considered the most expensive unfinished construction in the world.

The book about the builders of the sun was published in 1984. I refused to throw out the chapters, for this they stopped publishing me for ten years, and were not allowed on the regional television and radio air.

There were problems, contractors and nuclear specialists knew about them. All were silent. When I started digging deeper, communicating with specialists, I came across such a volume of information that it was impossible not to write about it. It threatened to be disastrous. If they had built a station even in all respects, a second Chernobyl would have happened.

The first is that the hired workers were cheating. Some norms were not followed, mistakes were made. For example, they confused the brand of cement. If you look at buildings today, they are crumbling, concrete is crumbling. And not much time has passed. I saw with my own eyes how they built a "glass" under the reactor. There is no talk of any tightness. There would be leaks. A microscopic hole would be enough to irradiate the soil within a radius of tens of kilometers.

Photo by Oleg Stonko

The second is the specificity of the Crimean seismicity. We are shaken every year. Tremors are small, but they are there. And there is a tectonic fault. It runs from Feodosiya Bay to Kazantip Bay. The two plates are constantly in contact with each other. While the construction of the power plant was going on, not far from the coast, an island appeared and disappeared in the Sea of Azov. A vivid confirmation of my argument. It is unclear why seismologists concealed such facts.

The third is the cooling of the turbines by means of a reservoir. I will explain it on my fingers. Water enters the station, cools the turbines, returns to Aktash and again to the station. It constantly circulates and gets dirty. To avoid this, they make an exit to the Sea of Azov. Now the water is constantly being renewed. But at what cost? Ten years later, Azov turns into an atomic swamp. The Azov Sea is connected with the Black Sea. This means that a little later he will suffer the same fate. The next step is the Mediterranean Sea. Not to mention evaporation and precipitation. By this time, all Crimeans would be sick with cancer.

Having learned about everything, I become one of the founders of the environmental movement. I accept to travel around Crimea with my book. Understand that environmentalists did not inflate the problem from scratch, being afraid of Chernobyl. There were complaints. There were no answers. We wanted to save the peninsula. Of course, the project was good, the reactor was excellent and modern, but the location was wrong. I am sure of that.

In 1990, the film Who Needs an Atom was released. We are talking about the use of nuclear energy in the energy sector. It is noteworthy that one of the fragments of the picture is devoted to the problems of the Crimean NPP. The passage sounded two opposing points of view.

On the coast of the Azov Sea in Crimea, 75 kilometers west of Kerch, there is a rather popular resort town of Shelkino. Vacationers appreciate it for its good ecology, spacious beaches and ideal conditions for families with children. One of the main centers in Crimea for surfing and paragliding is located in Shchelkino. The legendary Cape Kazantip is located near the village. This, perhaps, is all that this small town in the north-east of the Crimean peninsula is known for.

However, there is another interesting object in Shchelkino, which usually passes by the attention of most ordinary tourists. We are talking about the unfinished and abandoned Crimean nuclear power plant - one of the most curious and mysterious places on the peninsula.

Not all vacationers who come to Shchelkino know that this Azov resort owes its appearance to the Crimean nuclear power plant. Initially, Shchelkino was built as a satellite city of the nuclear power plant and its main population was planned to be made up of the plant's personnel. The name was also chosen taking into account its main purpose - the city was named after the famous nuclear physicist Kirill Shchelkin.

However, fate decreed otherwise, and today's Shchelkino is a small town whose residents live mainly on income from resort business... But first things first…

In our today's article, we will tell you about the history of the construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant in Shchelkino, and also talk about the prospects for the resumption of nuclear power on the peninsula.

The idea to build a nuclear power plant in Crimea originated in the political and scientific circles of the Soviet Union in the post-war years. One of the reasons was the notorious resource shortage of the Crimean peninsula. The appearance of a nuclear power plant in Crimea would close the problem of supplying the region with energy once and for all.

The development of the Crimean NPP project began in the late 60s, and already in 1975, the construction of the station and the satellite city began directly.

The construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant was carried out in the traditional for the USSR style of "all-Union construction". Many engineers, nuclear physicists and builders gathered from all over the country on the Azov coast of Crimea. The station in Shchelkino was built according to a standard, already tested design. The same nuclear power plants have already been built in Khmelnytsky, Volgodonsk and in the Czech Republic.

Initially, it was planned that two power units with a capacity of 1 GW each would be built at the nuclear power plant in Shchelkino, while the maximum demand for electricity in Crimea is about 1200 MW. However, already during the construction process, the project was expanded to four power units with a capacity of 1 million megawatts each. You may ask why there is so much, because, as we have already mentioned, even one power unit per million megawatts would be enough for Crimea. However, the plans of the nuclear power plant builders were not limited only to the power supply of the peninsula. So, with the help of the second power unit, it was planned to provide Feodosia and Kerch with hot water. The third power unit was supposed to work on desalination of sea water on an industrial scale in order to save the Crimea from the shortage of fresh water. And finally, the fourth power unit was supposed to work "for export", supplying electricity to Krasnodar region and to the Caucasus.

Before starting the construction of the station, in the immediate vicinity of it, a satellite city was built, called Shchelkino. The main construction of the city was completed in 1978. From that time on, the city began to be actively populated. The main backbone of its inhabitants was made up of newcomers, while the real intellectual elite of the country came to Shchelkino for permanent residence.

The construction of the nuclear power plant itself began in 1982 - during the period of relatively prosperous times of the Brezhnev stagnation.

For the needs of the grandiose construction, a railway line was extended from the Kerch branch towards Shchelkino, along which trains loaded with building materials... By 1987, the main work had been completed, and the reactor was already scheduled to start up at the first power unit in 1989.

However, the political and economic crisis that began in the country intervened in the plans of the nuclear scientists, which led to the fall of the Soviet empire. However, the collapse of the USSR was far from the main reason for stopping construction. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant played a key role in the closure of the Shchelkin nuclear power plant project.

At the very moment when the construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant had already reached the finishing stage, Chernobyl burst out. The terrible tragedy that played out in the Kiev region very much frightened the world community. Nuclear power and everything that was connected with it suddenly became the object of the most steadfast attention. On this wave in the Crimea, an active campaign began against the further construction of a nuclear power plant in Shchelkino. One of the arguments of the activists of this campaign was the fact that Crimea is an earthquake-prone zone and in the event of an earthquake, a nuclear monster trapped in reactors could get out of control.

However, many experts believe that the hysteria inflated around this topic had no serious grounds, since the Crimean and Chernobyl nuclear power plants were fundamentally different, both in the type of reactors used and in the system of protection against emergency situations. Many nuclear engineers have argued and continue to assert that the reactors of the Crimean nuclear power plant, in terms of design, were extremely reliable and safe to use.

However, single voices in defense of the plant were drowned in the general chorus of opponents of the construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant. Under pressure from the public and circumstances, in 1987 all work on the construction of the station was stopped, despite the fact that by that time the first power unit of the nuclear power plant was already almost 80% ready. At the time of the construction stop, construction materials worth 250 million Soviet rubles were still stored in warehouses in the Shchelkino area. An enormous sum for those times!

Most of all the residents of the city of Shelkino were disappointed with the decision to mothball the construction site. After all, the refusal of further construction of the station for many of them meant the collapse of the plans and hopes associated with further work... When it became obvious that the Crimean NPP project was finally buried, many packed up and left Shchelkino, where, apart from the failed NPP, there was no production.

However, despite the decision of a part of the population to leave Shchelkino, a significant part of the population remained. The city was saved ... by the sea. Rather, the fact that Shchelkino is located in a fairly good place on the Azov coast. If not for this factor, Shchelkino, with a high degree of probability, would have turned into a ghost town.

However, despite its "resort status", Shchelkino, by and large, is a depressed city with very vague prospects. The population of the city has decreased from 25 thousand to 11 and continues to decline.

After the construction stopped, the failed nuclear power plant began to gradually decline and be plundered. The amount of material resources invested in the Crimean NPP turned out to be so huge that the most valuable components were sold and taken apart until recently. All the most "delicious" was sold for a lot of money, and local residents and visiting guest performers stole the station for trifles. The reactor, which was cut into scrap metal in 2005, did not escape the sad fate.

The very territory of the failed nuclear power plant was chosen by active youth. So, in the 90s, discos of the famous Kazantip rave festival were held in the turbine section of the station. And base jumpers regularly jumped from the tall booms of the Danish Kroll crane, which was bought for the installation of a nuclear reactor.

The unfinished Crimean nuclear power plant also managed to play the role of a cinematic platform. Here episodes of several films were filmed, the most famous of which was Fyodor Bondarchuk's film "Inhabited Island".

Today the territory of the nuclear power plant and its internal space are quite suitable for filming films based on the plot of the famous computer game Half Life.

By the way, the territory of the unfinished nuclear power plant in Shchelkino is open to the public, and therefore, if you are a fan of non-traditional tourist routes, then you will be very interested here. But be careful and extremely attentive - an unfinished man-made object is fraught with many dangers.

By the way, contrary to numerous rumors, the Crimean NPP does not pose a radiation hazard, since nuclear fuel was not brought here.

As for the prospects for resuming the construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant in Shchelkino, they are still very vague. Relatively recently, Rosatom indicated its interest in this topic and even held consultations. However, to date, no decisions have been made regarding the revival of the Crimean NPP construction project and, in all likelihood, will no longer be made, due to economic feasibility. According to experts, it is easier and cheaper to build a new plant than to try to restore the destroyed and plundered nuclear power plant in Shchelkino.

An interesting fact: the Crimean nuclear power plant has a twin station. This is the unfinished nuclear power plant Stendal, located west of Berlin in Germany. From 1982 to 1990, it was built in the GDR according to a similar project. Like the nuclear power plant in Shchelkino, its German "sister" was also 85% ready.

That's all, enjoy your stay in Crimea!