The circular structure, with a 44-metre diameter, measuring 10 metres high and weighing 227 tonnes, was installed in a process which took eight hours. The tier had been pre-assembled over recent months on a slipway near its permanent location, which Rosatom said "elimates the need for assembly and welding operations at height". The next stage will be to weld the tier in place.
Yevgeny Milushkin, Deputy Director for Capital Construction for Leningrad NPP-2, said: "Together with the general contractor, we carefully worked out all the stages of the upcoming operation, and also used the experience of constructing the previous two units in terms of engineering solutions. As a result, the complex technological lifting at the 3rd power unit was carried out with high quality."
Background
The Leningrad nuclear power plant is one of the largest in Russia, with an installed capacity of 4400 MWe, and provides more than 55% of the electricity demand of St Petersburg and the Leningrad region, or 30% of all the electricity in northwest Russia.
Leningrad 1 shut down in 2018 after 45 years of operation. Leningrad 2, also a 1000 MWe RBMK unit, started up in 1975 and was permanently shut down in November 2020. As the first two of the plant's four RBMK-1000 units shut down, new VVER-1200 units started up at the neighbouring Leningrad II plant. The 60-year service life of these fifth and sixth units (also known as Leningrad II-1 and Leningrad II-2) secures power supply until the 2080s. Units 7 and 8 (also known as Leningrad II-3 and Leningrad II-4) will replace units 3 and 4 as they are shut in the coming years.
The pouring of the first concrete for unit 7 in March 2024 marked the start of the main phase of construction of the new power unit, which is expected to generate power for 60 years, with the possibility of a 20-year extension.
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