Crimean nuclear power plant in 1920. Crimean nuclear power plant. A history of major mismanagement. Dismantling of the Crimean NPP

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

The Crimean nuclear power plant has never been completed. Construction began in 1975. However, in the late 80s, construction was abandoned. Whether this was influenced by the events in Chernobyl, public protests, or simply problems with funding, now it probably does not matter. 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 has been completed, something will be completed, and some of them have only one foundation left.

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

The photo shows 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 LCD monitors in the 1980s. Probably more bulky equipment stood in their place.

A little bit of theory - how a nuclear power plant works. If you do not go into details, then everything is trite. In the reactor, uranium atoms are constantly fission, as a result of which heat is released, which heats the water. This water circulates in a circle (the first circuit) and outside the reactor heats other water (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 that generate electricity. After passing through the turbines, the steam is additionally 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. The general principle is 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 difficult, 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 first circuit.

And now, to give an idea of the scale of the entire structure - a photograph of one of these pumps compared to a person.

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

The cylindrical containment area, the yellow polar crane, primary circuit pumps and steam generators are clearly visible. A man can be seen on the floor above the reactor. To the right of the reactor block is the turbine hall.

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.

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 the cables hang. This crane could rotate, moving along the guides along the station's containment area. I’m afraid to imagine what a roar there 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, 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.

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

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

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

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 make loud assessments of such situations. I think this can already be considered history. So it was and nothing to do. Who knows, maybe it's for the best, maybe for the worst. 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 nuclear power plant. As many as 6 power units were built at this nuclear power plant, 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 staggering.

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 for historical) and Chernobyl nuclear power plants are mine, the rest are taken from various sources. Below are links to them, and related information, as well as information for thought. Most of the links are wikipedia.

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

Bashkir NPP
Some infrastructure has been built, however, the construction of the reactor block (except for the foundation) has not begun. A photo from a mothballed boiler room. On the right is the square foundation of the reactor block.

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

Crimean nuclear power plant
See above.

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

Tatar nuclear power plant
A part of the infrastructure was erected, the construction of the reactor block began, but they did not manage to build much, apparently they did not even reach the beginning of the construction of the containment zone.

Voronezh AST
Probably the most completed project after the Crimean NPP. There are plans to complete the building. 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 the protection is unknown. There are vague plans for conversion to a CHP plant

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 structures is low.

Zarnowiec NPP (Poland)
The construction is frozen, the readiness of the structures is low.

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

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

Crimean NPP is an 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 city 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 into 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 crane "Kroll" 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 nuclear power plant 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 vacationers 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 hermetic zone 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, constantly 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 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 power unit building, 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 against radiation even in the event of 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. "

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 Soviet Union... 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. A 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 nuclear power plant. 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's like heating water over a fire in a saucepan without a lid or in a closed thermo-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 in the ground for nine floors, then 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 more 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 produced 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 they began to plunder the Crimean nuclear power plant. 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 nuclear power plant, and he will answer: "Crimea needs a nuclear power plant."

"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'm 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 nuclear power plant. The passage sounded two opposing points of view.

80%, second - 18%).

Crimean nuclear power plant

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
Reactor type	VVER-1000
Operating reactors	0
Closed reactors	4
On the map

Category on Wikimedia Commons

Construction history

The first design surveys were carried out in 1968. Construction began 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 - metallurgy, machine-building, chemical. The design capacity of the Crimean NPP is 2 GW (2 power units of 1 GW each) with the possibility of a subsequent increase in capacity up to 4 GW - the standard design provides for the placement of 4 power units with VVER-1000/320 reactors on the plant site.

In November 1980, the construction of the nuclear power plant was declared a Republican shock Komsomol construction site, and on January 26, 1984 - the All-Union shock construction project. After the construction of the satellite town of Shchelkino, the embankment of the reservoir and auxiliary facilities, the construction of the nuclear power plant itself began in 1982. A temporary line was laid from the Kerch branch of the railway, and at the height of construction, two echelons of building materials a day arrived along it. In general, the construction proceeded without significant deviations from the schedule with the planned start-up 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, transport and construction and installation operations were to be carried out inside the reactor compartment:

during the construction of a nuclear power plant: operations for moving and storing equipment (parts of the reactor, steam generator casings, pressure compensator, main circulation pipelines and pumps, etc.), and then installing them at design sites.
after the start-up of the station: carry out transport-technological and repair work for the maintenance of the 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 conventional thermal power plants. From current state the site of the Crimean nuclear power plant cannot be restored. It also used the project of the 1960s, while now the construction of the nuclear power plant is carried out according to the projects of the 2000s. Building a completely new nuclear power plant can be more cost effective than rebuilding an old one, but architectural projects for nuclear power plants of small and medium capacity, at present, no. On the other hand, the nuclear power plant, especially in the context of the constant attempts by the Ukrainian authorities to blockade 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 site of the NPP construction. State Council of the Republic of Crimea for Property and land relations gave consent to the local property ministry to write off the unfinished Crimean nuclear power plant from the balance sheet "by demolition." At the same time, the building materials obtained as a result of the dismantling of the object are planned to be used for the construction of a transport crossing through the Kerch Strait.

The Crimean NPP was entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most expensive nuclear reactor [ ]. This is due to the fact that, in contrast to the Tatar NPP and Bashkir NPP of the same type, which were shut down at the same time, it had a higher degree of readiness at the time of the construction stop.
In 1986, an experimental (the first in the USSR) solar power plant SES-5 was built nearby. Near it, on the eastern shore of the Aktash reservoir, there is also an experimental wind farm Yuzhenergo and eight old non-working experimental wind turbines installed back in Soviet times. Not far from it is the 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 nuclear power plant Stendal 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 of the Stendal NPP was 85%. Its only significant difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers for cooling, and not a reservoir. By 2010, the Stendal nuclear power plant was almost completely dismantled. A pulp and paper mill was opened on the territory of the former nuclear power plant, the cooling towers were dismantled in 1994 and 1999. With the help of excavators and heavy construction equipment, the dismantling of the reactor shops is completed.
The NPP starred in many films, of which the most famous was F. Bondarchuk's Inhabited Island, which was filmed there in 2007 (photo of the station in the film frame).

Information about power units

Power unit	Reactor type	Power		Start construction	Connecting to the network	Commissioning	Closing
Power unit	Reactor type	Clean	Gross	Start construction	Connecting to the network	Commissioning	Closing
Crimea-1	VVER-1000/320	950 MW	1000 MW	01.12.1982
Crimea-2	VVER-1000/320	950 MW	1000 MW	1983 year	Construction stopped 01/01/1989
Crimea-3	VVER-1000/320	950 MW	1000 MW	Construction did not start
Crimea-4	VVER-1000/320	950 MW	1000 MW	Construction did not start

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, a whole city was erected -. 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.

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. A metal door half a meter thick was dragged away long ago. There is no radiation hazard, since they did not have time to deliver nuclear fuel. Free admission, no security.

"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 city was laid - Shchelkino, named after the Soviet atomic physicist. This is a village in which nuclear scientists and their families were supposed to live. When, in June 1981, I arrived in the Leninsky District, at the site of the future station, one might say, wheat was still growing and they were just starting to dig a pit. I was sent here from the Kola nuclear power plant. 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.

Photo by Oleg Stonko

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 the Crimea with fresh water and not depend on. 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):

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 Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev rested in the summer. As a result, a scary story was inflated from this.

The Crimean nuclear power plant was mistakenly compared with the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. After all, these are two different types of reactors. RBMK-1000 was used in Chernobyl, and VVER-1000 in Crimea. I will not go into subtleties. But it's like heating water over a fire in a saucepan without a lid or in a closed thermo-dish. The difference is huge.

Photo by Oleg Stonko

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

50 tons of steam per hour

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

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. Aktash was supplied with water from the 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 educations. 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.

"Crimea needs a nuclear power plant"

Sergey Varavin, senior turbine control engineer, director of the KP Management Company Shchelkinsky Industrial Park:

Photo by Oleg Stonko

Now the project is included in the Federal Target Program for the 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 nuclear power plant, and he will answer: "Crimea needs a nuclear power plant."

"All Crimeans would be sick with cancer"

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

Photo by Oleg Stonko