News

Leningrad NPP reactor No. 4 shut down for two years

Publish date: July 8, 1998

Written by: Thomas Nilsen

Reactor No. 4 at Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant was shut down on June 30 for two years of reconstruction work. According to Interfax, the reconstruction will cost about $300 million.

Currently, only two of the four reactors at Leningrad NPP are operating. Reactor No. 3 was shut down for repairs in 1996, but will be back on the grid in August this year. Over the last years, the number of incidents among the high-risk RBMK reactors in Russia and Ukraine has increased. Both Kursk NPP and Chernobyl NPP had emergency shutdowns of RBMK reactors this spring. Leningrad NPP was the first civilian nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union to start operating RBMK reactors. The first reactor has been in operation since 1973. Reactor No. 4, which was shut down last week, has been operating since 1981.