Final unit at Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant permanently shut down

Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant, in Russia's Arctic north east, has been operating for 51 years in the permafrost zone, with its reactors operating for a combined 190 reactor-years, generating 11.6 billion kWh of electricity.

The first unit was shut down in 2018. The remaining three 12 MWe EGP-6 light water graphite-moderated reactors were taken offline during December.

Its capacity has been replaced by the floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, which has a capacity of 70 MW and which will be providing electricity and heat to the region.

Konstantin Kholopov, Director of the Bilibino NPP, said: "Shutting down all power units at the Bilibino NPP marks the first time Rosenergoatom has experienced a complete shutdown of a nuclear power plant in commercial operation."

Rosatom said that Bilibino's decommissioning experience will be unique, in terms of both the northern conditions and also because it is the first such Russian site to shut down its power units simultaneously. Unloading of the used nuclear fuel is expected to last about two years.

It is anticipated that once the used nuclear fuel has been removed for reprocessing - by around 2042 - decommissioning work will begin. This will involve the dismantling and decontamination of equipment and structures, and managing radioactive waste and is expected to last for more than a decade, with Rosatom saying it expects the site to be fully rehabilitated to "green lawn" conditions by 2055.