Moscow aiming to boost share of electricity generated by reactors to around 25%
A ceremony has been held to mark the pouring of first concrete for the foundation of the reactor building at Unit 4 of the Leningrad 2 nuclear power station on the Gulf of Finland in Russia, state nuclear corporation Rosatom said.
The new unit, known as Leningrad 2-4 and also as Leningrad-8, will be a VVER-1200 pressurised water reactor with a net capacity of 1,150 MW.
First concrete was poured for Unit 2-3 (Unit 7) at Leningrad in March 2024.
The start of construction of Leningrad 2-4 means Russia now has five commercial nuclear power plants being built.
The others are Kursk 2-1 and Kursk 2-2 in western Russia, Leningrad 2-3 and the Brest-OD-300 Generation IV pilot demonstration plant in Seversk, southwest Siberia.
The Leningrad site has four units in operation and two that are permanently shut down. The operational units are Leningrad-3 and Leningrad-4, Leningrad 2-1 and Leningrad 2-2.
Leningrad-1 and Leningrad-2, both Soviet-era RBMK-1000 light-water graphite units, were permanently shut down in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
Leningrad-3 and Leningrad-4, also Soviet-era RBMK-1000 light-water graphite units, are scheduled for closure.
More Construction Starts Planned This Year
Rosatom said Leningrad, on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland some 70 km to the west of St Petersburg, is the largest nuclear power station in Russia in terms of installed capacity with 4,400 MW.
According to International Atomic Energy Agency data, Russia has 36 nuclear plants in commercial operation. They provided about 18% of Russia’s electricity production in 2023, but Moscow has plans to increase that share to around 25%.
Andrey Petrov, Rosatom’s first deputy director-general for nuclear energy and president of its ASE JSC engineering division, said that as early as this year Russia will start the construction of new nuclear plants at the Smolensk and Kola nuclear sites and complete engineering surveys for a Generation IV unit at Beloyarsk.
Over the next two decades, Rosatom will work at new sites in Siberia, the Ural region and the Far East, Petrov said.
