Due to energy problems in the Crimea, after its annexation to Russia, the question "Will it be completed?" sounds regularly. We decided to consider all the problems in this situation and assess the need for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea.

Crimean NPP will be completed

Articles with a title confirming the desire of Rosatom to complete the construction of the only nuclear power plant in the Crimea near the city of Shchelkino after the republic joined Russia appeared in almost every publication. However, in reality, the situation with the resumption of nuclear power plant construction is not so simple.

Let's start with the history of the Crimean NPP. In short, the station was to become the main supplier of electricity for a growing industry Soviet Crimea a couple of decades ago. The first brick during the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea was laid in 1975. However, it has become one of key factors stopping the construction of the almost finished Crimean NPP - the first power unit was 80% ready, the second 18%. The resumption of the construction of the station has not been started since then.

Crimean NPP. Our days. Photo

The territory of the Crimean NPP was used for several years for music festival Kazantip, was noted in the filming of the film "Inhabited Island". And local entrepreneurs lead excursions around the territory of the abandoned Crimean nuclear power plant.

Information that the Crimean NPP will be completed was received from Valery Chaly, Deputy CEO Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Research named after Razumkov. Such a question, according to him, was raised between Rosatom and the Crimean government. At the same time, Chaly notes that the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea will have a negative impact primarily on the recreational prospects of the peninsula.

Crimean NPP will not be completed

Representatives of Rosatom further denied information about the resumption of construction of a nuclear power plant in Crimea, received by the media from Valery Chaly.

In their opinion, the construction of the Crimean NPP is inexpedient, it is much more logical to develop thermal energy in the region, as well as alternative energy sources - solar panels, wind energy.

Firstly, the site prepared for the Crimean NPP in the 1970s does not meet the standards for the construction of modern nuclear power plants. Therefore, it is more logical to build a station in a new place, and not resume the construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant. Moreover, from the point of view of safety, the place of construction was not initially chosen as the most successful one.

Abandoned Crimean NPP. Photo

Secondly, due to the problems of the current relations between Russia and Ukraine, providing Crimea with electricity is subject to great risks, since the main supplier at the moment is not the region itself, but Ukraine. The supply of electricity from Russia has not yet been established. Due to the need to resolve this issue in a short time, the construction of a nuclear power plant is not the most best idea- with an average construction period of 5 years.

Thirdly, as mentioned above, the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea will adversely affect its recreational component, due to environmental risks.

Construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea. Current situation. 2015

According to the information of the Crimean government, the construction of nine power plants has begun in the region, and there are no nuclear ones among them. For the most part, these are mobile steam-gas power plants. Also, in the next 3-5 years, plans to build two additional thermal power plants, which should cover all the needs of the region in electricity. There are no plans for the construction of a new nuclear power plant or the resumption of construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant in Shchelkino in the Crimean government.

The north of the Kerch Peninsula is not the Tauris that we used to imagine - with palaces, ancient ruins, boarding houses and comfortable beaches. The Leninsky district is better known for the "Kazantip" that raged here. By the way, with the departure of this festival, youth life does not fade: it is provided by other outrageous parties that are held "for old times' sake". And fashionable youngsters are attracted here by the urban landscape - thanks to which the USSR was called the "city of the future." Our topic is the Crimean nuclear power plant, which remained unfinished.

Where is the station located in Crimea?

On the map of the Crimean east, a huge ledge between and bays is clearly visible. Its pommel is , an oval is visible a little to the south. Everything between them is the village of Shchelkino and its agricultural district. However, part of the suburb still became industrial, because there is a partially dismantled nuclear power plant.

NPP on the map of Crimea

Open map

The history of the appearance of the object

Construction of the most expensive (at that time) project in the region nuclear energy began in 1975, and its development as early as 1968. According to the design capacity, the future enterprise was supposed to take place between the Balakovo and Khmelnitsky stations - it was designed for 2 GW. Since 1984, the installation of a nuclear power plant has been declared a nationwide shock construction site, thanks to which the “satellite city” of Shchelkino appeared. Now it has faded and looks more like a village.

Here, for the first time, such world know-how as a polar crane (bridge cargo unit of circular action) and the first in the USSR solar station SES-5 were applied. The Crimean nuclear power plant in the Leninsky district was 80% ready when the news came of the accident at the Chernobyl power plant and all work was first suspended and then frozen (three years later).

How did you not want to use the object afterwards?! After the organizers of Kazantip, the unfinished complex was exploited by extreme clubs offering base jumping to everyone (parachute jumps from low altitudes). In the late 1990s They decided to sell the industrial site to one of the Swedish energy companies.

On this moment- in the "new Russian era" - on the territory of the "failed" Crimean nuclear power plant, the disposal of its constituent structures is taking place. Future plans Russian ministry power industry - the creation of an industrial park here, in no way connected with the use of hazardous nuclear fuel. Perhaps this place will become a really famous landmark of Shchelkino and the whole Crimea.

If you are a connoisseur of the terrible, not the beautiful, for example, a fan of post-apocalyptic quests or a digger, then you have come to the right place. On the territory of the Shchelkinskaya NPP, visitors will see gloomy urban landscapes, viewing which in Ukrainian times cost tourists 50 hryvnias - the guards of the abandoned enterprise acted as guides and cashiers.
Licensed guards were needed to ensure that the dismantling of the enterprise took place in an organized manner, and not with the help of an army of "metal hunters".

So why was the local nuclear power plant never completed? After all, the inhabitants of Crimea desperately needed their own electricity even during the Soviet era, and even more so now. Is it just because of the fear of repetition? Chernobyl tragedy? Discussions in Russian media are still underway. In fact, there were other reasons, such as problems with entering the object.

However, those who come here do not fill their heads with boring thoughts related to the economy. For them, reinforced concrete structures lying side by side and the remaining walls of the main power unit are a location for amazing adventures and a backdrop for "fantastic" photos. Everyone aspires to the turbine department, where from 1996 to 1999. The "Kazantip Republic" held parties under the slogan "Atomic Party in the Reactor", and the now fashionable Fyodor Bondarchuk filmed the film "Inhabited Island". The silhouette of the power unit "lit up" in the frames of other films. It remains to add that travelers should not be afraid of radiation - in Soviet years they did not have time to place the raw materials here, although they took them all the way to Shchelkino.

How to get (get) to the nuclear power plant?

You can get to the dismantled object without reaching Shchelkino for several kilometers. The final point of the route is the shore of the Aktash reservoir (lake), the road to which starts from the Cherry-96 garden society ().

If the card is for you best helper, then here is the route to the sights laid on it:

Open map

Note to the tourist

  • Address: p. Shelkino, Leninsky district, Crimea, Russia.
  • Coordinates: 45.391925, 35.803441.

The abandoned nuclear power plant in the Crimea is a bright end to the vacation spent in Shchelkino. Look at the photo of the grandiose landscape, reminiscent of the scenery for a large-scale alien invasion. Inverted modules, remnants of giant units scattered everywhere, gray concrete boxes, a power unit baring its teeth with empty openings - isn't this a place for an “acidic” selfie that you will be proud of ?! In conclusion, we also offer a video about him, enjoy watching!

This abandoned facility is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive nuclear reactor in the world. which was never built.
The construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant began in 1975, and it was supposed to provide electricity to the entire Crimea. In 1984, it was even declared the All-Union Komsomol construction site. In the midst of construction, two (!!!) echelons of building materials were mastered per day.
But in 1987, a famous fur animal settled in these places. There are two reasons - a disaster on Chernobyl nuclear power plant and unfavorable economic situation in USSR. The readiness of the station at that time was almost 80% ...
More detailed information I will give at the end of the post, after the pictures. In the meantime, look what is happening with one of the biggest unfinished buildings of the USSR today


2. We drive up to the station. Administrative building and observation tower

3. Broken bricks and crumbs of concrete everywhere. In the background - the first power unit and the engineering building

4. Engineering building of the station. satellite dishes imply that there are people here

5. And here we have the first power unit. There is also a unique giant crane. Only he no longer builds the station, but destroys it.
Here I want to stop a little. The fact is that during the construction of the reactor building of the first power unit, a unique polar crane, the Danish Kroll K-10000, was already installed. With the help of this crane, further lifting and transport and construction and installation operations were to be carried out inside the reactor compartment. It was the tallest crane in Europe. In 2003, the State Property Fund sold it for ... 310 thousand hryvnias with a starting price of 440. Even if it was scrapped, it would have cost more.
Prior to its dismantling, the high-rise crane was used for base jumping. The jumps were carried out from the lower (80 m) and upper (120 m) booms of the crane.
Today, a similar crane is installed here, but smaller in size for dismantling the station. You can estimate its size against the backdrop of a standing "nine".

6. And that's what this station is for today ... A powerful technique that looks like a toy against the background of a concrete monster crumbles its body, extracting metal fittings from there. We will return here, but for now we will go to the reactor room.

7. We enter the power unit. The scale and thickness of the walls with shutters is impressive

8. Transport corridor of the power unit

9. Entrance to the reactor zone. Arm-thin metal.

10. There, thick cables go inside the reactor and cutting sounds are heard. There's metal being cut out

11. The reactor control panels are at the end

12. And there was the reactor itself... We look at it from the lower corridor. The ends of the cooling pipes are visible

13. A bolt found here. Obviously not from a children's designer. Surprised almost complete absence corrosion over so many years - only an oxidized surface

14. Let's go back to the faucet.

15. Cabin

16. Rollers. Under each pair - a narrow gauge railway

17. Pipes are cut like sausage. Only not on the table, but on the metal

18. One of the pipes was adapted for a change house

19. There are many techniques. She's in demand

20. But this junk has been standing here for a long time

21. Cylinders here are like replaceable batteries in a TV remote control

22. Destroyed external transition from the engineering building to the power unit

23. What remains after the work of "metalworkers"

24. Shock built, shock break

25. It is somewhat reminiscent of the chimneys of stoves in the Belarusian villages burned by the Nazis.

28. Panorama of the site under the engineering building. Everything is cut here

29. Panorama of the metal cutting site

Some information from Wikipedia:
By the time the construction of the station was stopped, 500 million Soviet rubles were spent on the construction of the nuclear power plant in 1984 prices. Approximately another 250 million rubles worth of materials remained in the warehouses. The station began to be slowly pulled apart for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal. There is evidence that surveys were carried out in the early 1990s, the purpose of which was to "adjust" additional geological justification for the closure of the Crimean NPP. However, this was only a formal reason - by the end of the 80s, the situation in the economy of the USSR worsened so much that almost all major construction projects were curtailed, both in the energy sector and in industry, transport, and urban planning.
From 1995 to 1999, discos of the Republic of KaZantip festival were held in the turbine department.
In 1998-2000, the East Crimean Energy Company, a subsidiary established on the basis of the nuclear power plant, sold the station's property for 2.204 million hryvnias. By February 1, 2003, only a special building, a block of workshops, a reactor department and an oil-diesel facility remained on the balance sheet of the Eastern Crimean Energy Company.

In 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine transferred the Crimean NPP from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy to the Council of Ministers of Crimea. Further, the Crimean Council of Ministers was to sell the received property of the nuclear power plant, and the money was to be used to solve the social and economic problems of the Leninsky district of Crimea, and in particular the city of Shchelkino.
After that, the remaining parts of the Crimean NPP were to be sold: the reactor compartment, the block pumping station, the workshop building, the cooler at the Aktash reservoir, the dam of the Aktash reservoir, the supply channel with the water intake reservoir, the oil-diesel facilities of the station, diesel generator station. Further, it is known that in early 2005 the Representative Office of the Crimean Property Fund sold the reactor section of the Crimean NPP for UAH 1.1 million ($207,000) legal entity, whose name has not been revealed.
There is evidence that the VVER-1000 reactor, which was never installed in the room prepared for it, was cut into scrap in 2005
The nuclear power plant was filmed in many films, of which the most famous was filmed there in 2007 "Inhabited Island" by F. Bondarchuk
Nuclear fuel was not imported here, so the nuclear power plant does not pose a radiation hazard.

little known fact: the station has an almost complete twin - an abandoned unfinished nuclear power plant Stendal, 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990s. By the time the construction was stopped, the readiness of the first power unit was 85%. Its only significant difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers for cooling, and not reservoirs. At present, the Stendal nuclear power plant (2010) has already been almost completely dismantled. A pulp and paper mill now operates on the territory of the former station, the cooling towers were dismantled in 1994 and 1999. With the help of excavators and heavy construction equipment, the disassembly of the reactor shops is being completed.

My previous photo essays:

The Crimean NPP is the most expensive unfinished nuclear reactor in the world. For the sake of servicing the power plant on the Kerch Peninsula, they erected whole city- . An associated infrastructure was created. Experts were invited from all over Soviet Union. Less than a year was not enough to start the reactor, then Crimea would be able to provide itself with electricity on its own.
There is little left of the Crimean nuclear power plant now. A vast area of ​​abandoned and dilapidated buildings. The remains of the workshops are densely covered with grass and trees. Things that had even the slightest value were dug up, torn out and taken out. The nuclear reactor, the lining of the mine and the control panel of the nuclear power plant were cut into non-ferrous metal. And if precious metals and equipment were taken away in the first place, today you can profit only from iron in concrete slabs.

A hundred meters from the reactor shop, several people in uniforms are monotonously dismantling another building. The tractor destroys the wall, the crane carries the concrete slab to the ground, where it is smashed by workers. They want to get to the rebar hidden inside. From the concrete shop, only the foundation and a pile of stone chips remained. Further fate still surviving buildings frightens with its predictability.


Photo by Oleg Stonko


The huge gray box of the reactor shop dominates the territory of the facility. The workshop, as high as two nine-story buildings and over 70 meters wide, was built on a six-meter foundation. You can enter it through a huge round hole. metal door half a meter thick was dragged away a long time ago. There is no radiation hazard because nuclear fuel failed to deliver. Entrance is free, there is no security.

The building contains 1,300 rooms, box-rooms for various purposes and, accordingly, sizes. Inside the boxes is empty and dusty. Pieces of wires are hanging somewhere, garbage is lying around. Light does not penetrate into the reactor shop at all. The heavy silence, the belated echo of footsteps and the closed space of the rooms thicken the atmosphere. Being here is unsettling. Random noises are annoying. Nevertheless, you are not in a hurry to leave the reactor. It can be summed up in one phrase: "Terrifyingly interesting."

“In Crimea, everything was done slowly”

Toropov Vitaly, head of the reactor shop:

- Scientists and specialists have been working on the project of the Crimean nuclear power plant since 1968. In 1975, a satellite city was laid - Shchelkino, named after the Soviet nuclear physicist. This is a settlement in which nuclear scientists and their families were supposed to live. When in June 1981 I arrived in the Leninsky district, at the site of the future station, one might say, wheat was still earing and they were just beginning to dig a foundation pit. I was sent here from the Kola NPP. After all, in Soviet time as it was: after studying at the university, you start from the lowest positions, then you rise higher. No one would immediately appoint me the head of the shop.

According to the plan, the power plant was to operate in four years and ten months. But the management was recruited in advance: senior engineers and heads of the four main workshops. Such was the rule. They had to control the receipt of documentation, equipment, monitor the progress of construction and installation work, and gradually recruit personnel. The salary during this period was paid, of course, small.

It was important for me to understand the geography of the workshop. When the reactor is operating, you have a few seconds not to receive a lethal dose of radiation. You need to act instantly, to know exactly where which valve is located. Even in the blackout mode, you have to be able to feel like a divers.

In 1986, the reactor was supposed to be launched, but due to the slow pace of construction, they did not have time. I attribute this to the specifics of the Crimea. Here everything was done slowly. For example, in a year they managed to build one kindergarten. And there seemed to be money, but the party had doubts and some party members were against it. And then it exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the construction stalled. There was a wave of discontent. Many believed that Crimea would become the second Chernobyl.


Photo by Oleg Stonko


In 1988, I was sent to Cuba, where I worked for three years at the nuclear power plant in Juragua. When I returned, the station had already been closed and torn apart. It was about 90% complete. Less than a year left for installation and commissioning. If they had time to launch, the station would not have been closed. In addition, equipment for two more units was stored in warehouses. Moreover, the equipment is high-quality, with imported parts. If Vladimir Tansky, the director of the Crimean NPP, took the situation under control and kept the course of events, nothing would be stolen. It was necessary to wait until the hype with Chernobyl subsides, becomes less flashy.

We planned to build four reactor blocks, each of them would generate one million megawatts. One million was enough for Crimea, so the first block was built in order to refuse the overflow of electricity from the mainland. The second block was needed to provide hot water Feodosia and Kerch, rid the peninsula of coal dependence and boiler houses. Through the third block, they wanted to desalinate sea ​​water. The whole world is doing it. We wanted to fill the Crimea fresh water and do not depend on . The fourth block is for sale, to the Caucasus, to earn money.

“The Crimean NPP was erroneously compared with Chernobyl”

Anatoly Chehuta, master of instrumentation and automation (KIPiA):

- I arrived at the station as soon as they issued a referral: I wanted to get an apartment early. Later it could not be done. My specialization is the maintenance and operation of various control and measuring equipment. Prior to that, he worked for ten years at a nuclear power plant in Tomsk. It was secret object, and in official documents it was listed as a chemical plant. Upon arrival in Shchelkino, I had an exposure level of 25 roentgens. Five years later, it dropped to 15. Now, probably, there is nothing. Although for a long time the level of 5 roentgens was stable.

One of the problems of the closure of the Crimean nuclear power plant is the general secrecy. There was a lack of publicity. In Soviet times, nothing was disclosed: projects, research, data. When environmentalists raised a wave of indignation in 1986, they did not have official information, so any assumptions could be made. Even the most ridiculous ones. As an example, in the event of an accident at a nuclear power plant with a constant southeast wind radioactive fallout could fall on Foros. Where Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev rested in the summer. As a result, a terrible story was blown out of this.

The Crimean nuclear power plant was mistakenly compared with Chernobyl. After all, these are two different types reactor. In Chernobyl, they used RBMK-1000, in Crimea - VVER-1000. I will not go into details. But it's like heating water over a fire in a saucepan without a lid or a closed thermal dish. The difference is huge.


Photo by Oleg Stonko


The reactor did not produce plutonium, but produced steam. The steam turned the turbines, which produced electricity. If in Chernobyl the RBMK was buried nine floors into the ground, then the Crimean VVER was neatly placed on a small platform. There was a three-stage protection system. The reactor room was covered with a continuous layer of reinforced concrete. In an emergency, the doors were hermetically closed, air was sucked out of the room. In an explosion in a vacuum, the pressure was zero. So there could be no disaster. By the way, the building of the reactor shop could withstand a direct collision with a jet aircraft.

The same water-cooled nuclear reactors are used in submarines. The type is the same, only smaller in size. In 1988 in the Soviet Union nuclear boats there were 350 pieces. And so far there has not been a single accident. From the point of view of physics and design, it is a very reliable device.

Another argument of the opponents of the construction was the lack of exploration of the location of the nuclear power plant. Specifically, seismic. Allegedly, the reactor was built on the site of a tectonic fault, and with small tremors, an accident could occur. But later, in 1989, when independent Italian seismologists arrived, they concluded that at least ten reactors could be built, there was no fault. So, the Soviet experts were right, and the place was chosen well. The reactor itself was built to withstand a magnitude nine earthquake. But it was already late, and the station was closed.

50 tons of steam per hour

Andrey Arzhantsev, head of the heat supply section of the TsTPK:

- TsTPK is a workshop for thermal and underground utilities. Under my leadership there was a start-up-reserve boiler house or PRK. If it is easier to explain, then the start-up boiler house is four boilers that produced 50 tons of steam per hour. Due to which hot water and heat were supplied to Shchelkino. Now in the city such words have been forgotten - " hot water”, and earlier it was 75 degrees in the tap.

The main purpose of the PRK is the commissioning of turbines, the heating of the reactor. None without her nuclear power plant is not being built. But having completed their task, the boiler house is dismantled, and, for example, a gym is created on its basis.


Photo by Oleg Stonko


The basic project of the Crimean "atomic" was special. There was nothing like this at that time. The turbines were to be cooled by sea water. We planned to take water from the Aktash reservoir and use it as a cooling pond. In Aktash, water came from Sea of ​​Azov. That is, there was an unlimited supply. As a result, nuclear power plants produced environmentally friendly energy.

After the closure of the nuclear power plant, Shchelkino gradually dies out. I think there is no need to explain what happens to the city when it loses its main enterprise. The population decreased from 25 thousand to 11. In terms of intellectual potential, Shchelkino was considered the most developed place in the Crimea. Here every second had two higher education. Specialists aerobatics from all over the Soviet Union. And instead of the industrial heart of the Shelkino peninsula, it becomes a resort village. What you see now is a tenth of what the city could become. There are no streets here, the houses are simply numbered. Of the attractions - the market, the city council and housing and communal services.

Some nuclear scientists are leaving, others are staying. Those who had somewhere to return left. Throughout the Union, the construction of nuclear power plants is being frozen. There was no work. Here at least the apartment remained. Of course, no one worked in the specialty. I am currently the director of a boarding house.

“Crimea needs a nuclear power plant”

Sergey Varavin, senior turbine control engineer, director of KP " Management Company"Shchelkinsky industrial park":

- It is difficult to say who was right and who was to blame then that the Crimean nuclear power plant began to be plundered. The property was redistributed between customers and contractors. About a hundred firms were involved in the construction. Each of them wanted their money back, so the equipment was being sold. In addition, after the collapse of the Union, something was perceived as free, so they dragged what they could. There was no high-profile case on this matter, so there is no need to talk about embezzlement. Now it's no longer clear.


Photo by Oleg Stonko


The land was redistributed among the construction participants. Someone refused the plots, someone left. Part of the territory remained in the hands of owners and tenants, the rest became the property of the city. It is planned to create an industrial park on the site owned by the City Council. The project started in 2007. But due to lack of funding, it was never implemented.

Now the project is included in the Federal target program development of industrial parks in the Crimea. One billion 450 thousand rubles will be allocated for the development of the business plan. Our task is to prepare everything for the future investor. Collect all documents, equip the territory, create infrastructure and so on. All that's left is to start building. The focus is very different: from a gas turbine station to an agricultural complex.

But ask any operator of our nuclear power plant, and he will answer: “ Nuclear Power Plant Crimea needs it."

“All Crimeans would have cancer”

Valery Mitrokhin, poet, prose writer, essayist, member of the Writers' Union of Russia:

- Immediately after being accepted as a member of the Writers' Union, I was sent to the construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant. There I am writing a book of essays "Sun Builders". Three chapters are controversial. They are devoted to the problems that could arise as a result of the construction of the station. I was accused of undermining the material condition of the country. About a billion rubles have already been spent on the facility. At the then rate, one dollar was equal to 80 kopecks, that is, looked from the bottom up. A lot of money. Therefore, a nuclear power plant is rightfully considered the most expensive unfinished project in the world.

A book about the builders of the sun was published in 1984. I refused to throw out the chapters, for which they stopped publishing me for ten years, they did not allow me to broadcast on the regional television and radio.

There were problems, contractors and nuclear scientists knew about them. Everyone was silent. When I began to dig deeper, to communicate with specialists, I came across such a volume of information that it was impossible not to write about it. It threatened disaster. If they had built the station, even in all respects, there would have been a second Chernobyl.

First, hired workers were hacking. Some norms were not respected, mistakes were made. For example, they mixed up the brand of cement. If you look at buildings today, they are crumbling, concrete is crumbling. And not much time has passed. I saw with my own eyes how they built a "glass" under the reactor. There is no mention of any tightness. There would be leaks. A microscopic hole would be enough to irradiate the soil within a radius of tens of kilometers.


Photo by Oleg Stonko


The second is the specificity of the Crimean seismic. We are shaken every year. Tremors are small, but they are. And there is a tectonic fault. It runs from the Feodosia Bay to the Kazantip Bay. Two plates are constantly in contact with each other. While the construction of the power plant was going on, not far from the coast, in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, an island appeared and disappeared. A clear confirmation of my argument. It is not clear why seismologists hid such facts.

The third is the cooling of turbines with the help of a reservoir. Let me explain with my fingers. Water enters the station, cools the turbines, returns to Aktash and back to the station. It constantly circulates and gets dirty. To avoid this, they make an exit to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. Now the water is constantly updated. But at what cost? Ten years later, Azov turns into an atomic swamp. The Sea of ​​Azov is connected to the Black Sea. So, a little later, he will suffer the same fate. Next up is the Mediterranean. Not to mention evaporation and precipitation. By this time, all Crimeans would have had cancer.

Having learned about everything, I become one of the founders of the environmental movement. I begin to travel with my book in the Crimea. Understand, environmentalists did not inflate the problem from scratch, afraid of Chernobyl. There were claims. There were no answers. We wanted to save the peninsula. Of course, the project was good, the reactor was excellent and modern, but the wrong place was chosen. Of this I am sure.

In 1990, the film "Who Needs an Atom" was released. It's about on the use of nuclear energy in the power industry. It is noteworthy that one of the fragments of the picture is devoted to the problems of the Crimean NPP. There are two opposing points of view in the passage.

Crimean NPP is an unfinished nuclear power plant located near the city of Shchelkino on the banks of the salty Aktash reservoir, its reservoir - cooler

The plant was built according to the same plan as the currently operating Khmelnitsky NPP (Ukraine), Volgodonsk NPP (Russia) and Temelin NPP (Czech Republic). The almost completed nuclear power plant was abandoned after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (the readiness of the first power unit was 80%, the second - 18%). The first design calculations were carried out in 1968. Construction started in 1975. It was planned to provide electricity to the entire Crimean peninsula, as well as lay the foundation for the further development of the Crimean industry - metallurgical, machine-building, chemical. The design capacity is 2000 MW (2 power units) with the possibility of further increase to 4000 MW: the basic design assumes the location of 4 power units with VVER-1000/320 type reactors at the plant site.

After the creation of the satellite town of Shchelkino, the embankment of the reservoir and household facilities, the construction of the station itself began in 1982. From the Kerch branch railway a separate line was laid out, and during the hottest days of construction, two echelons of materials a day came here. In the photo, the village of Shchelkino:


In general, construction proceeded without major deviations from the schedule, with the expected start-up of the first reactor in 1989. The shaken economic situation in the country, along with the tragedy in Chernobyl, led to the fact that by 1987 the project was first suspended, and in 1989 they finally abandoned the launch of the station. By this time, 500 million Soviet rubles in the equivalent of 1984 had already been allocated for the construction of nuclear power plants. Materials for another 250 million rubles were stored in warehouses. The station was gradually taken apart for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal. Witnesses say that in the early 90s, studies were carried out, the purpose of which was to substantiate the closure of the Crimean NPP from a geological point of view. Nevertheless, and this was just a simple reason - by the end of the 80s, the situation in the USSR economy became so bad that almost all large-scale construction projects in all areas were closed

After the construction was stopped, the Crimean NPP quickly fell into disrepair, almost everything was dismantled and taken away. Here are the events worth noting:

  • From 1995 to 1999, the discotheques of the famous electronic music festival Kazantip were held in the turbine hall (turbine department).
  • In September 2003, the Property Fund sold a unique Danish Kroll crane, which was brought to install a nuclear reactor, for 310,000 hryvnias, with a starting price of 440,000 hryvnias. Prior to its sale, the huge crane was used for base jumping. We jumped from the lower (80 meters) and upper (120 meters) booms of the crane. A similar crane "Kroll" was involved in the construction of the 4th power unit of the Khmelnytsky NPP in the city of Netishyn, earlier the same cranes helped build the buildings of the Zaporizhzhya NPP and the South Ukrainian NPP



  • In 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine transferred the Crimean NPP from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy to the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Then, the Council of Ministers of Crimea was to sell the received property of the nuclear power plant, and the money was to be spent on solving the social and economic problems of the Leninsky district of Crimea, especially the city of Shchelkino
  • The remaining parts of the Crimean NPP were to be sold out gradually: the reactor compartment, the block pumping station, workshops, the cooler at the Aktash reservoir, the dam of the Aktash reservoir, the supply channel, the station's oil-diesel facilities, and the diesel generator station. It is also known that at the beginning of 2005 the Representative Office of the Crimean Property Fund sold the reactor department of the Crimean NPP for UAH 1.1 million ($207,000) to a legal entity whose name was not advertised.
  • There is evidence that the VVER-1000 reactor, which was never laid down in the room intended for it, was cut into scrap metal in 2005.
  • The nuclear power plant has starred in many films, among which the most famous was Fyodor Bondarchuk's "Inhabited Island" filmed here in 2007 (pictured is a scene from the film)


  • Fuel was not delivered to the station, so it does not pose a radiation hazard.

Interesting facts about nuclear power plants:

  • The Crimean NPP was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive nuclear power plant in the world. The reason is that, unlike the Tatarskaya NPP and the Bashkirskaya NPP, which were shut down at the same time, it had the most a high degree ready to launch
  • A solar power plant was built nearby. By by and large, this station was only experimental: its power is 5 MW. During the operation of this station, many difficulties surfaced. One of them, the reflector guidance system, almost completely (95%) consumed the energy generated by the station. There were also difficulties with washing mirrors. Soon this station ceased to exist and was also plundered. Near it, on the eastern side of the shore of the Aktash reservoir, there is also an experimental wind power plant YuzhEnergo, which includes 15 wind turbines with a capacity of 100 kW each. Next to it are 8 old experimental windmills of the East Crimean Wind Power Plant, installed back in Soviet times and currently not working
  • A little-known fact: the station has an almost identical twin - the abandoned unfinished Stendal nuclear power plant 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990. By the time the construction was completely stopped, the readiness of its first power unit was 85%. Its only key difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers as a cooling system, and not a reservoir. At present, the Stendal nuclear power plant has been almost completely dismantled. A pulp and paper mill now operates on the site, and the cooling towers were dismantled in 1994 and 1999. With the use of excavators and heavy construction equipment, the disassembly of the reactor shops has almost been completed.

What is a dead station at the present time? Some photos from shelkino.com



Engineering block of a nuclear power plant with a collapsed external transition to the reactor


The hatch above the transport entrance, through which containers with uranium were to be lifted

Reactor cooling system, or rather what is left of it


The main control panel of the Crimean NPP reactor

The insides of the station are mercilessly cut out by fairly impoverished locals


On the dome of the nuclear power plant. Freshwater lake Aktash from which cooling channels are dug


6 water sump


Water supply system for nuclear power plants


Crane with a lifting capacity of 300 tons

People live here and even ride horses


It is difficult to judge whether it is good or bad that there are no nuclear power plants in Crimea. We all remember Chernobyl disaster and its consequences, and probably still for the better that the nuclear power plant on the peninsula was never built. And Shchelkino, meanwhile, has not turned into another ghost town due to its favorable location near the sea. Every summer, crowds of vacationers come here and storm the remains of the great Soviet construction site, which are melting before our eyes - they cut scrap metal here so quickly.

For those who aspired to get into the Hermozone of the station, several parting words were published from the organizers of the Kazantip festival (90s)

    • 1. Never do this.
    • 2. We understand that you are unlikely to follow the first advice, therefore:
    • a) well lace up your Martens, or whatever you put on there in very bad weather, take warm, not very expensive things for you;
    • b) charge new batteries in your flashlight;
    • c) take a few more crazy people with you, no more than five people, as well as food and water for a couple of days.
    • 3. Be sure to find an experienced stalker among the locals - he probably knows many ways to get into the containment zone without breaking his spine.
    • Many people are afraid of radiation. She is not there. But you have every chance of not returning home, so when you go on this journey, say goodbye to your loved ones and relatives.
    • Since the station was almost completed, keep looking under your feet - there are many open openings.
    • Do not grab the wires - some of them are still under current.
    • Climbing numerous stairs and holding on to the railing is also not recommended, because many of the structures here are temporary. But in general, the containment area is quite reliable, as it is designed to withstand a direct fall from an enemy aircraft. In this sense, you are completely safe.


The story of Andrei Manchuk (Newspaper in Kiev) about the campaign in Hermozone:

“Having received a modest bribe, the watchmen give us a large flashlight with backup batteries and open one of the doors to the huge building of the power unit, which is popularly known as the "reactor". Strictly speaking, the reactor filling has long been gone - everyone was sent back to Russia back in the late eighties. However, all other surroundings of the containment area remained in place - although for past years all sorts of businessmen tore out thousands of tons of valuable metal and cables from the ruins of the nuclear power plant. Fortunately for fans of industrial giants, monolithic reactor structures made of superalloys cannot be cut by any autogenous. There is no need to protect them - the watchmen, as a rule, make sure that visiting young people do not climb here. After all, it threatens with accidents and very often - with an extremely sad outcome. However, these functions are usually performed by guard dogs.

There is impenetrable darkness in the ten-story building of the power unit. The flashlight beam constantly picks out deep gaps in the floor underfoot. Wandering through the endless corridors, where the remains of some complex equipment still lie, we come to the containment area - the heart of the nuclear power plant. It is a huge all-metal cylinder, which was supposed to protect against radiation even in the event of an accident at the reactor. To get inside, we climb through two huge round doors - the guards estimate their weight at seven tons - and climb ladders to where the reactor industrial site was supposed to be. The insides of the power unit have a completely unique look - something similar can only be seen in the computer toy "Half Life". The dome over the containment area was never lowered, and therefore at night you can see a magnificent picture of the southern starry sky in the round crater of an atomic volcano. Traveling here with a local atomic resident - a failed nuclear power plant worker - you can find out where the reactor core should have been, where the uranium rods would have dropped, and what level of gamma radiation should have been where people walk freely today. Anyone who has been to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and understands what hellish forces are contained in such objects will appreciate this story.

Having climbed onto the roof of the power unit, we enjoyed the Azov landscape, swans wintering here, the remains of the experimental Solar and Wind power plants, as well as the Sivash oil platform, located two miles from the coast - you could swim here by chartering a fishing boat or ... a border boat for fifty dollars . "Acid" graffiti is applied everywhere - in 1995-1999, the legendary rave festival "Kazantip" was held here, which glorified these regions throughout the former USSR. “