Why did they abandon the nuclear power plant in the Crimea. Gloomy shadows of an unfinished nuclear power plant in the Crimea. The history of the appearance of the object

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- Shchelkino. 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. The metal door, half a meter thick, was dragged away long ago. There is no radiation danger, since they did not have time to deliver nuclear fuel. 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 Kirill Shchelkin. 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. Indeed, in Soviet times, 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 ik. And there seemed to be money, but the party had doubts and some party members were against it. And then rushed to Chernobyl nuclear power plant and 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 Feodosia and Kerch with hot water, to 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 not depend on water from the Dnieper. 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 at the dacha. 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 of 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 had to be cooled 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 person had two higher educations. 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: "Crimea needs a nuclear power plant."

“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 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 about using nuclear energy in energy. 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.

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.

Crimean NPP location: Republic of Crimea, the city of Shelkino -,

Status: Abandoned nuclear power plants

Abandoned Crimean NPP

The Crimean NPP is a nuclear power plant unfinished during the USSR, located in the Crimea on the Kerch Peninsula, not far from the city of Shchelkino, on the banks of the Aktash salt reservoir. The project is of the same type with such nuclear power plants as . The construction of the Crimean nuclear power plant was largely stopped for a reason. At the time construction was stopped, the first power unit was 80% ready, the second 18%. Because of so high degree readiness Crimean NPP was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most expensive unfinished nuclear reactor.

The idea of building a nuclear power plant for the needs of the Crimea was born in 1968, and already in 1975 the first stone was laid. The design capacity of the Shchelkino NPP was 2,000 MW, with a subsequent increase to 4,000 MW (construction of two additional power units) at reactors of the VVER-1000/320. In addition to the station itself, work was carried out to build a satellite city - Shchelkino, as well as a reservoir. The planned launch date was 1989. Nevertheless, first in 1987 it was decided to suspend construction, and in 1989 to freeze it completely.

At the moment, the main part of the structure of the Crimean NPP has been dismantled. From 1995 to 1999, discos of the Kazantip Republic festival were held in the turbine department of the Crimean NPP under the slogan “Atomic Party in the Reactor”. In addition, many feature films were shot on the territory of Shchelkino and the nuclear power plant, for example, “Inhabited Island” by Fyodor Bondarchuk. Also, many local paintball and airsoft clubs play here. Access to the territory of the nuclear power plant is free. Local entrepreneurs even organized excursions to the territory of the nuclear power plant in Shchelkino.

All this is not surprising, because nuclear fuel has never been delivered to the territory of the Crimean NPP, therefore there is no possibility of radiation contamination.

Oddly enough, solar and wind power plants are located next to the nuclear power plant.

How to find the abandoned Crimean NPP?

First, let's find the city of Shchelkino on the map of Crimea

And on the second map you will see where the nuclear power plant itself is located, near the city of Shchelkino.

Crimean NPP - the great unfinished

The construction of the Crimean NPP was frozen at a high degree of readiness of the facility ... What is it? A prudent and wise move, the ability to sacrifice a lot to save even more in the future? Or is it a manifestation of flagrant mismanagement and simply a crime against the state, against Crimea and Crimeans?

The question is all the more relevant now, when the Zaporozhye NPP, which supplies the peninsula with electricity, is located on the other side state border and when the energy independence of the new federal district as part of the Russian Federation is one of the most difficult tasks.

In February 1969, the Minister of Energy and Electrification of the USSR P. S. Neporozhny instructed the Teploelektroproekt Institute to analyze possible options for locating a nuclear power plant in Crimea and submit a feasibility study of the best of these options to the Scientific and Technical Council of the Ministry of Energy. As a result of the survey work, it was proposed to build a nuclear power plant on the northern coast of the Kerch Peninsula near Cape Kazantip and the salty Aktash Lake, which was planned to be used as a cooling pond for condensers of steam turbine plants. This proposal was accepted and approved by the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR on July 26, 1977.

The technical design of the Crimean NPP was developed by the Kharkov branch of the Teploelektroproekt Institute of the Glavniiproekt of the USSR Ministry of Energy and Electrification. In September 1978, the project was ready. Then, for two years, its refinement continued, and finally, in November 1980, the Crimean NPP project was approved by the USSR Ministry of Energy and Electrification.

In accordance with the project, the station was to consist of two power units with an electric capacity of 1000 MW each. This was enough to provide electricity to the entire Crimean peninsula, as well as creating a reserve for the subsequent development of the industry of the region - metallurgical, machine-building, chemical. In the future, it was envisaged to place two more power units of 1000 MW each on the territory of the NPP and bring the total capacity of the station up to 4000 MW.

The main equipment of each NPP power unit under the project included: a water-to-water power reactor VVER-1000, four main circulation pumps GTsN-195, four horizontal steam generators PG-1000, steam turbine K-1000-60/3000, electric generator TVV-1000-4 with a voltage of 24 kV and a power of 1000 MW.

Simultaneously with the planning of work on the creation of a nuclear power plant, the terms for creating the appropriate infrastructure were approved. In October 1978, on the southern outskirts of the fishing village of Mysovoye, stretching from the coastal steppe to the ridge at Cape Kazantip, a working settlement for the builders of the Crimean NPP was laid out, designed for 20 thousand inhabitants.

It all started with the first high-rise building and a dormitory, then an access road was laid for the village of Lenino - a nuclear power plant construction base, and a post office was built. In subsequent years, the number of apartment buildings constantly increased, the following were built: a school for one and a half thousand students, a kindergarten, the Samarlinskoe reservoir was created to provide drinking and technical water.

The village grew rapidly and soon began to resemble Small town. In the spring of 1982, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, it was given the name Shchelkino, in honor of Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1953 in the department of physical and mathematical sciences, the first supervisor and chief designer of the nuclear center Chelyabinsk-70 (Snezhinsk).

The construction of the first block of the Crimean NPP began in 1981. According to the plan, the construction of the power plant was to be completed in 1989. The cost of the project was 751.5 million rubles in 1984 prices. 650 million rubles were allocated for production facilities, for facilities housing construction, health care, culture and education - about 100 million rubles. The technical and economic indicators of the Crimean NPP corresponded to the advanced technical developments in the world nuclear power industry in the 1970s-1980s.

In Shchelkino, intensive construction of houses and roads began; a powerful boiler house was laid. The city was populated by young nuclear specialists (graduates of Kyiv universities) and experienced employees of operating Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

Workers, among whom there were many young people, were drawn to the construction site of the station. Valery Anatolyevich Shtogrin was appointed head of construction. The popularity of the object under construction was so great that in 1984 the construction of the Crimean NPP received the status of the All-Union Komsomol shock. From the Kerch branch railway a temporary line was laid, and at the height of construction, two echelons of building materials a day arrived along it. Moreover, this very considerable amount was mastered in approximately the same period of time. An experimental solar power plant with a capacity of 5 MW was built next to the nuclear power plant - it was supposed to become a backup source of electricity for the nuclear power plant.

In the reactor building of the first unit, a unique polar crane was installed at the design site, with the help of which lifting, transport and construction operations were to be carried out inside the reactor compartment. During the construction of the NPP, it was needed for storing equipment (parts of the reactor, steam generator housings, compensator, main circulation pipelines and pumps, etc.), and then installing them at the design site. After the launch of the station - in order to carry out transport, technological and repair work maintenance of a nuclear reactor.

The creation of a new energy facility was on the rise, construction proceeded without significant deviations from the schedule with the planned launch of the first reactor in 1989, nothing foreshadowed trouble.

But April 26, 1986 came. At 1:24 a.m., a powerful thermal explosion of the RBMK-1000 channel uranium-graphite nuclear reactor occurred at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In terms of the number of deaths and injuries as a result of this accident, as well as in terms of economic damage, the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is regarded as the largest in the world. world history nuclear energy.

How Chernobyl disaster influenced the fate of the Crimean NPP? Less than a month had passed since the accident, as articles began to appear in the press about the extreme danger of nuclear energy in general and about the inadmissibility of building the Crimean nuclear power plant in particular. A large number of people took part in the discussion. Ecologists and "greens" of all stripes were especially active. Even those who did not understand the fundamental difference between the Chernobyl channel uranium-graphite reactor RBMK-1000 and the pressurized pressurized water reactor VVER-1000, which was to be used at the Crimean NPP (KAES), entered into the dispute.

Rather quickly, the opponents of the KNPP moved from ordinary environmental protests to “scientifically based” statements about the inadmissibility of building a facility on the Kerch Peninsula due to the fact that the selected site is located in the zone of tectonic faults resulting from the shift of tectonic plates at their junctions. It is believed that such zones are the most probable places for earthquakes.

The Crimean peninsula and the entire coast Krasnodar Territory are located in a zone where the formation of the relief is still ongoing, so earthquakes here are a common thing. Numerous historical treatises that have survived to this day describe some especially destructive cataclysms on the peninsula.

To get a feel for the tense atmosphere of disputes about the fate of the Crimean NPP in the 1980s, it is enough to turn to the archives of the press. One of the main platforms for controversy was the magazine "Change".

In the article "Crimea: a zone of special risk?", published in No. 21 in 1988, Valery Mitrokhin, a member of the Writers' Union of the USSR, wrote:

In May of this year, an all-Union conference was held in Yalta dedicated to environmental issues Crimea. All participants of the meeting were unanimous in their attitude to the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Crimea. Here are just some of the statements of scientists.

M. Ya. Lemeshev, doctor economic sciences, Professor (AS USSR):

- There is a difficult, alarming ecological situation in Crimea. How to fix the situation? In no case should the construction of new industrial enterprises be allowed, no matter how much the apparent benefits justify it. Immediately stop the construction of the nuclear power plant. It affects not only the Crimea, but also the Caucasus, the Sea of Azov.

G. G. Polikarpov, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR):

- The choice of a place for a future nuclear power plant does not stand up to criticism. The station is planted on a fault where there is a danger of increased seismic activity. Drainage and flooding are no less dangerous. Even normal work The nuclear power plant threatens to kill the fish stocks of the Sea of Azov... In the event of an accident, the likelihood of which is increasing all over the world, the consequences for the small Crimea will be catastrophic. It is known that after the accident in Chernobyl, the design and construction of the Odessa Nuclear Power Plant, Minsk, Chigirinsk, Krasnodar nuclear power plants, the fifth and sixth units of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were stopped. With even greater reason, such a decision should be made in regard to Crimea.

V. M. Lyakhter, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Laureate of the Prize of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (NIIS Hydroproject, Moscow):

- In Crimea ideal conditions to get energy from the wind. The Kerch Peninsula is very promising, the slopes of the yayla over Yalta, - the “gate of the wind” - Alushta, the vicinity of Sevastopol. Before the war, the world's largest wind power plant successfully operated in Balaklava. In Moscow, a project was developed for a unique installation of five thousand kilowatts. Alas, the authors of these works suffered a hard fate during the years of the cult. The project also died. But today we can offer Crimea wind power machines for one hundred and one thousand kilowatts, which we have developed and are implementing. According to our calculations, ten to twelve installations of a thousand kilowatts will make it possible to shut down all the boiler houses in the South Coast. Ten cars will cost four million rubles. Compare with nuclear power plant costs.

In the same year, in addition to the Yalta meeting, many discussions were held at the most different levels. Scientists, designers, builders of the station took part in them.

Deputy Director of the Institute mineral resources E. P. Tikhonenkov stated that the studies carried out to assess the seismic hazard in the zone of the Crimean NPP do not meet the requirements of the IAEA. The NPP industrial site is located on the most seismically active site. At the stage of preparing a feasibility study, only deep wells were drilled to 15–18 m. Such a depth did not allow tracing the occurrence of inclined limestone layers. Mud volcanism is a significant danger. A well was drilled at Cape Kazantip, in which mud was encountered at a depth of 147 m. And Kazantip is practically a mud volcano that has not yet erupted.

Mitrokhin's article also reports on violations committed during construction.

When in frosty December 1982 the first cube of concrete was laid with great fanfare in the foundation of the reactor shop of the future nuclear power plant, it was said that the builders were laying high-strength concrete in the foundation, because otherwise it was unsuitable here. Even then, everyone knew that at first it was necessary to pour this very foundation continuously in order to get a monolith. And what? From the very first days, work at this facility was carried out with violations. necessary requirements, the continuous pouring mode was not maintained, and the concrete itself was not always of the required quality. So it turned out not a monolithic structure, but layered cake. The performers do not hide this. Moreover, do not hesitate to call a spade a spade. Some believe that an object of this quality will never be accepted for operation, while others say: they say, our job is to complete the amount of work.

And they did it - in the reactor compartment, some nodes were assembled several times, the pipeline of the industrial circuit low pressure of the hermetic zone, due to design inconsistencies, was reworked within four months.

At the beginning of 1988, about 300 technological pipelines were made with defects. Repair of joints during the installation process was carried out many times - instead of the permissible double. Installation guide technical equipment and pipelines of the reactor compartment was entrusted to young specialists who do not have experience in such installation. And yesterday's electric welders worked as masters for welding technological pipelines!

Of particular concern was such a section of the reactor compartment as the Bora tank, which is part of the accident localization system. And here the welding is done no matter. Among other things, the stainless steel sheet for the cladding of the room turned out to be such that, even with visual inspection, about 15 tons of metal were rejected. Other types of control are not provided for by the project ...

The welding of the bottom with the shell is especially bad. Because of the 100% marriage, the station management did not accept the work. In this form, the tanks remained in the monolithic room. The carbon lining - the bottom of the hermetic zone - separating the hermetic part of the reactor compartment from the non-hermetic part, which is part of the accident localization system, was made in winter, in rain and mud, digested many times and was also covered with concrete, despite the prohibitions of V. I. Tansky, the director of the nuclear power plant.

Soil pressure sensors show that the reactor room rests unevenly on the soil - the strongest pressure is at the central point of the foundation. That is, the base of the reactor, as it were, stands at the top of the pyramid. During an earthquake, the reactor can simply collapse.

Of course, there was a feasibility study. But it caused bewilderment even among non-specialists. In this document, for example, it was reported that there were no large settlements in the forty-kilometer zone of the nuclear power plant. Say, the largest villages are located only in the south-western direction, towards Feodosia. I counted both settlements and the number of inhabitants. There are about 60 villages and villages in this zone, and over 50 thousand people live in them. Immediately outside the zone (44 km) - Feodosia with its extensive resorts. Moreover, the Feodosia Bay with the famous "Golden Beach" falls into the forty-kilometer zone along with part of the Black Sea. 54 km from the nuclear power plant - Kerch. Simferopol is 150 km away. Moreover, regional center And South coast Crimea are located on the main direction of the winds prevailing in the area of the future nuclear power plant! The coasts of the Arabatsky and Kazantip bays are a resort area in which boarding houses, rest houses, and pioneer camps are located.

In the area where the nuclear power plant is located, there are reserves: the floodplain of the river Seven Kolodezey, Astana plavni, Cape Kazantip. It is not difficult to guess what awaits them in the near future. Here is a very recent fact. As a result of the flood, the cooling pond of the nuclear power plant (Lake Aktash) overflowed. The dam, washed by the builders, collapsed. Salt water has flooded the man-made forest, which is dying.

It is possible that over time, radioactive particles will begin to accumulate in the groundwater under the station and the cooling pond, since groundwater is directly connected with Azov. These particles will sooner or later penetrate into the sea. Confirmation of this possibility can be "read" in the feasibility studies.

The article says that in the summer of 1986, scientists from the Institute of Mineral Resources and the Department of Seismology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR conducted field studies, which make it possible to assert that fault tectonics in the area of construction of the Crimean NPP is widely developed. The fault (North-Aktashsky), having a displacement width of up to 150 m and dipping to the northwest at an angle of 65–80°, passes in the immediate vicinity of the construction site, and movements along it continue at the present time. The area is in zone 7 points. The designs of nuclear power plants are designed for 8–9 points. But with such a low quality of construction, such a margin of safety is a fiction. Warping of NPP structures is possible.

They added fuel to the fire and 25 tremors with a force of four points, which were registered from April 8 to April 10, 1987 in the construction area of the Crimean nuclear power plant. For the first time in the history of seismic observations, the epicenter was located in the Sea of Azov…

The young foreman of the nuclear power plant, Alexander Lyutkevich, sent a sarcastic response to the article “Crimea: a zone of special risk?” to the editorial office of Smena. He gave a list of headlines from Crimean newspapers before and after May 1988. Before: “Grow, atomic!”, “Nuclear is growing”, “Steps of a large construction site”, “Atom will be peaceful”, “Village full of sun”.

They even printed the following verses:

... I hear a first-grader spelling out:

Lenin, Motherland, progress,

Work, mom, communism, nuclear power plants ...

After: “The resort and the nuclear power plant are incompatible”, “We are strongly against it!”, “Is the goal noble?”.

Later, in September 1989, another voluminous material was published in this magazine under the heading "An Alternative to Krymbas". Its author, Vladimir Animisov, visited the “All-Union Komsomol construction site” and talked with the builders of the Crimean NPP. The journalist was shown the reactor, walked around the power unit, and was told about the protection systems. Vyacheslav Vaiskam, the shift supervisor, became Ned. “Before Chernobyl, there was a principle - give energy at any cost. First of all, plan! - said V. Vaiskam. - Violations were committed at all nuclear power plants. It was enough to stick a piece of cardboard instead of a relay to turn off the protection. Management turned a blind eye to this. If you held the block - well done! And if he turned off the block according to the instructions, he risked getting scolded: “You could pull out the block!” Here, on Krymskaya, such violations are simply technically impossible. Everything is on microprocessors, under a seal.”

The following arguments were also made:

N. P. Bereza, Head of Inspectorate of Gosatomenergonadzor:

- How does the Crimean NPP differ from the Chernobyl one? There there was one barrier between man and fuel, here there are three. In Crimea, a fundamentally different type of reactor is VVER-1000, and not RBMK. In addition, the reactor itself is enclosed in a hermetic reinforced concrete shell - this is the same sarcophagus.

O. Kozak, electrician, chairman of the board labor collective NPP:

- Some kind of mass nihilism has appeared - to close everything, to deny ... Well, we will close the station. And in the Crimea, before the year 2000, two million square meters housing. Where to get energy? To reconstruct treatment facilities at factories, electricity is also needed.

V. I. Tansky, NPP Director:

- The public demands a referendum on our station. Now it is meaningless, since the opinion is known in advance: “close!”. And I would suggest this option: let's put the first power unit into operation - and then we will stop construction. And the whole million kilowatts will be used for social and cultural life. We will close the boiler houses, transfer the transport to electric traction, give electricity agriculture. And then we'll have a referendum. I am convinced that even if it shakes 12 points, the entire Crimea will fail, one nuclear power plant will remain unscathed. However, already at five points, the reactor automatically turns off.

Despite their conviction, none of the builders of the nuclear power plant was going to fight to the death for this facility. If the government decided to convert the station into a training center, then that would have happened. But such a center would create new problems: after all, it would also consume energy, and quite a lot, up to 40 MW. This would exacerbate the already large energy deficit in the Crimea.

The article “Alternative to Krymbas” by V. Anisimov is completed by a number of rhetorical questions: “And if 10 points are confirmed and there is no nuclear power plant? This will not remove, but will add problems! Shchelkino, Kerch, Feodosia are not designed for such seismicity. In the heat of controversy, this was somehow forgotten. And now it is time to urgently develop options: what will have to be done? Demolish entire cities and rebuild? Strengthen old houses?

So, in the USSR, the construction of a large number of nuclear power plants, nuclear thermal power plants and nuclear heat supply stations was stopped. The reasons for this were the Chernobyl disaster and the subsequent powerful public pressure, as well as unfavorable economic situation in the country. As a result, in 1989-1990, the construction of the Crimean, Bashkir, Tatar and Rostov nuclear power plants was stopped. The construction of the Crimean NPP was terminated when the first block was 80% ready, and the second - 18%.

On October 25, 1989, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the conversion of the Crimean NPP under construction into the Training Complex for the training of operating and maintenance personnel of nuclear power plants. The subsequent history of the Crimean NPP is associated with several of its re-profiling and privatization of construction in progress, which was carried out by the State Property Fund of Ukraine and the Property Fund of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

By the time the construction of the Crimean NPP was stopped, about $100 million had been spent on it. Approximately another $50 million worth of materials remained in warehouses.

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. The Council of Ministers was supposed to sell the received property of the station, and use the money to solve the social and economic problems of the Leninsky district of Crimea, in particular, the city of Shelkino.

The objects of sale were: a reactor compartment, a block pumping station, a workshop building, a cooler at the Aktash reservoir, a dam at the Aktash reservoir, a supply channel with a water intake reservoir, an oil-diesel facility of the station, a diesel generator station. In early 2005, a representative office of the Crimean Property Fund sold the reactor department of the Crimean NPP for $207,000 legal entity, whose name has not been released.

The most absurd thing in this story with the sale of the reactor compartment was what the new owner did with the acquired reactor vessel - the most complex creation of the mind and hands of many people who worked on its creation. The body was not only not loaded with nuclear fuel, but was not even installed in the shaft prepared for it. In the best traditions of post-Soviet mismanagement, the reactor vessel delivered to the construction base of the Crimean NPP was simply lying in the bushes, waiting in the wings. And now the hour has come. By a ruthless hand, it was cut into pieces and scrapped, like a rusty pipe or a waste piece of metal that no one needed.

One can imagine the state of people who escaped from their native places to the Azov steppe to build a nuclear power plant, and then suddenly remained out of work. Shchelkino is a satellite town of the Crimean NPP. What to do in this "satellite" when the station is gone? After all, this is not about a construction team that can move and quickly find new job. We are talking about 14,000 specialists of various professions, left to the mercy of fate.

After the construction of the nuclear power plant stopped, residential buildings continued to be built in Shchelkino. In 2000, a bus station was built here, and in 2003 a gas boiler house was commissioned ...

sunset on Azov coast Crimea - probably one of the most beautiful phenomena on our planet. If you look west along the coastline from the Novootradnoye village, your eyes will be fixed on the sun setting behind the hills of the Kazantip peninsula. The sun quickly, as always in the south, leans towards the earth, and just at the moment when it touches the horizon line, a gigantic silhouette becomes clearly visible against its background, and above it - a thin cross, similar to a cemetery.

This is how a person who went on a summer vacation to Shchelkino before 2003 could write.

The silhouette is the first power unit of the Crimean NPP, a titanic structure made of concrete and metal. Krest is a unique K-10000 crane developed in 1978 by the Danish company Kroll Kranes А/S. Only 15 units of such cranes were produced (13 were purchased by the USSR, 2 cranes were bought by the USA). This double-tower self-propelled full-slewing crane on rails was intended for the construction of industrial structures with a mass of mounted elements up to 240 tons. In September 2003, the crane was dismantled, removed from the site of the unfinished Crimean nuclear power plant and sold to Middle Eastern buyers.

Prior to 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.

The same crane "Kroll" was involved in the construction of the 4th power unit of the Khmelnytsky NPP in the city of Netishyn, earlier the buildings of the Zaporizhzhya NPP and the South-Ukrainian NPP were erected with cranes of this type.

The first thing that attracts attention on the territory of the Crimean station is traces of looting and devastation. Just as famously as with the reactor vessel, metal hunters dealt with the control panel of the power unit, the metal structures of the reactor compartment, the condenser cooling system, the engineering building, the equipment of the transport corridor, and much more. They say that the copper cable and cupronickel pipes were taken out of the construction site in whole trains.

In the reactor hall, the cylindrical shaft of the reactor darkens. Everything that is possible has long been cut off in the mine, and its bottom is littered with debris. They even stole the handrails used to inspect the mine. Above is a containment made of reinforced concrete.

The containment, designed to prevent the release of radioactive substances into the environment during severe reactor accidents, is made high-strength. The "prospectors" could not cope with the reinforced concrete structure, and were forced to be content with reinforcement mined from thin slabs. The method is simple: several slabs are lifted by the surviving crane higher and dumped onto a monolithic platform. The concrete of the slabs shatters into pieces, and the remaining reinforcement is handed over to scrap metal.

To pull metal out of finished engineering structures, they use an even simpler method - they crush everything with bulldozer buckets.

Dark stairs lead to the platform where the snail of the main circulation pump lies. Judging by the notch of the thick-walled stainless steel pipe, an attempt was made to separate the device into parts, but this task proved overwhelming for the cutters. Nearby is another similar snail, which no one has tried to cut.

Rising higher, you can see the foundation of the second power unit of the KNPP. A lot of public funds were also spent on its creation with the satisfaction of all the requirements for strength and seismic resistance. Now nobody needs him.

From 1995 to 1999, the festival of electronic and club music "Republic of KaZantip" was held every summer on the territory of the KNPP. Thousands of young people gathered on the beaches of the Sea of Azov, and parties and discos were held in the turbine hall of the first power unit. The advertising slogan read: "Nuclear party in the reactor." Windsurfing and kitesurfing competitions are held nearby every year. This place served film set many feature films, the most famous of which today is Fyodor Bondarchuk's "Inhabited Island".

Over the past years, no one has found a use for tens of thousands of people left to vegetate and survive on the deserted coast of Azov. In the late 1980s, up to 30 thousand people lived in Shchelkino, and today - no more than 7 thousand. Of the 5.5 thousand apartments, 2.5 thousand are empty.

There are no street names in Shchelkino. Only the numbers of houses, of which there are only about a hundred. Here for a long time there was no street lighting, heating, and the garbage chutes in the houses were welded a long time ago. The city has no money to solve these problems. Life here boils only in summer, because locals switched to providing recreation for visitors. In winter, Shchelkino turns into a ghost town. At the same time, the city does not leave any unpleasant sensations; people, despite the problems they have to deal with on a daily basis, remain cordial and willingly tell stories about the once "all-Union Komsomol" construction, although these stories are not very funny.

The sea is 200 m from the city limits. Cape Kazantip is a seven-minute drive away. Around Shelkino summer cottages: who managed to line up during the construction of the KNPP - that one has good buildings; those who received plots later - they have nothing at all (at best, toilets from elevator blocks).

The outlook for the city is dim. Probably the only one available this moment the direction is the development of Shchelkino as a resort region and the provision of conditions for tourists to relax.

| | The Crimean NPP is the most expensive unfinished nuclear reactor in the world. For the sake of servicing the power plant, a whole city was erected on the Kerch Peninsula -. An associated infrastructure was created. Specialists from all over the Soviet Union were invited. 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. The further fate of the still surviving buildings frightens with its predictability.

Photo by Oleg Stonko

“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. Indeed, in Soviet times, 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.

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

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 Feodosia and Kerch with hot water, to 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 with fresh water and 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 a secret facility, 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.

Photo by Oleg Stonko

The same water-cooled nuclear reactors are used in submarines. The type is the same, only smaller in size. In 1988, there were 350 nuclear submarines in the Soviet Union. 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.

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 they have forgotten such words - “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. Without it, not a single nuclear power plant is 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. Aktash received water from the 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 person had two higher educations. Aerobatics specialists 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.

“Crimea needs a nuclear power plant”

Sergey Varavin, senior turbine control engineer, director of KP Managing Company Shchelkinsky Industrial Park:

Photo by Oleg Stonko

Now the project has been included in the Federal Target Program for the Development of Industrial Parks in 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: "Crimea needs a nuclear power plant."

“All Crimeans would have cancer”

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

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.

In 1990, the film "Who Needs an Atom" was released. We are talking about the use of nuclear energy in the energy sector. 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.