Monthly Highlights from the Russian Arctic, October 2024
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.
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Reactor unit no.1 shutdown at Smolensk NPP
Publish date: April 17, 2001
Written by: Rashid Alimov
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Reactor unit no.1 shutdown at Smolensk NPP
The failure caused by a human error.
Reactor unit no.1 at Smolensk NPP was shut down after a malfunction at its electrical system on April 16th at 8:45 a.m., RIA Novosti reported, referring to Rosenergoatom press service.
Reactor unit no.1 had been under scheduled repair for the past five months. On Monday it was started up, but soon after the reactor reached the rated capacity of 1000 MW, it had to be shut down. Press service said that power reduction had been made correctly, radiation levels were reported to be normal. The press service also said the malfunction was caused by an operator error.
Smolensk NPP operates on three units with RBMK-1000 type reactors. Its total capacity is 3,000 MW. This year Smolensk NPP has already produced 4,968mn kW/hour, which is exceeding the planned rates by 105mn kW/hour. But malfunctions have already occurred lately: a failure was revealed in steam generator no.3 of the second reactor unit on March 6th.
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Bellona Nuclear Digest. October 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Putin leaves Kazakhstan without deal to build nuclear plant
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