This is explained by the fact that in Russia there is a centralized system of water heating of buildings, in the presence of which it is advisable to use nuclear power plants to obtain not only electrical, but also thermal energy.

The first projects of such stations were developed back in the 70s of the last century, however, due to the economic upheavals that occurred in the late 80s and severe public opposition, none of them was fully implemented.

Technology issues

At the same time, there is a rational grain in such an idea. The production of hot water and steam (low-temperature heat) for the needs of cities and industry consumes one and a half times more fuel than for electricity generation, while a significant part of the heat is generated by small, inefficient installations that burn the most valuable fuels - oil and gas.

According to some estimates, it is assumed that in the near future the annual consumption of low-temperature heat (it is also called low-potential) will reach very impressive figures. To generate this amount of heat would have to burn a huge amount of fuel.

The solution to the problem could be nuclear heat supply stations - AST. Their main feature is that such a high temperature potential of the primary coolant is not required here, as at nuclear power plants, because in the nuclear power plant it is not necessary to receive electricity, to obtain steam from the turbine, only heat is needed. This, of course, simplifies the reactor and reduces the cost of its operation. If we talk about water-cooled reactors, then the pressure in them decreases: not 160 atmospheres, for example, but 30, that is, much less, is needed. This is the first distinguishing feature.

In addition, the AST should have such a number of heat-removing circuits that the radioactive coolant could not get into the heating network in any way. For this, intermediate heat exchangers are built, etc. The parameters and modes of their operation are designed so that the stations fit into existing networks as additional heat sources. The creation of such powerful centralized sources makes it possible to dismantle obsolete installations operating on organic fuel, and to use technically advanced, but small ones, in the peak load mode, which most often occurs during the cold season. ACTs themselves can take on the basic part of the load.

In terms of controllability, ACT is a very flexible unit that does not impose any specific requirements on the management of heating networks in terms of regulating heat distribution, which is very important. In principle, ACT can also cover the peak load, but for a nuclear power plant, as for any capital-intensive equipment (capital investments are large, and the fuel component is small), the most economical mode is the maximum possible constant power, that is, the basic one.

As experts note, when this issue was discussed in the 1970s, everyone was very enthusiastic. It is clear that the use of atomic energy to produce low-temperature heat can have a huge effect. However, such projects had and still have a significant drawback. The fact is that if electrical energy can be transmitted without significant losses over tens and even hundreds of kilometers, then this is impossible for hot water: heat losses in heating mains (especially in ours) are very high. And this means that it is advisable to build AST in the immediate vicinity of cities or even within their boundaries. This implies an important requirement: NPPs must have a much higher level of safety than NPPs.

However, the features of the ACT reactor (the use of natural circulation and integral layout, as well as low pressure inside the vessel) make it possible to successfully solve the safety problem without excessive costs through a fairly simple design: the presence of a second, safety vessel, which does not exclude the possibility of inspecting the main, supporting vessel, does not weakens the requirements for its reliability, but allows, in case of extreme, unforeseen violations, to completely retain in its volume the entire filling of the reactor and the entire coolant containing radioactive substances.

Specialists cite a model of such an extreme event: if the main body ruptures, the internal volume now occupied by the coolant will increase slightly, respectively, the pressure will drop (by about 30 percent), although the water level will drop, but it will still cover the entire core and provide its cooling. Due to this correspondence between the characteristics of the operating and protective equipment, reliable cooling of the core is ensured.

This technology makes AST more environmentally friendly sources of heat supply than traditional CHP. Therefore, a whole series of such stations was planned in the Soviet Union, and work on the first stage has already begun. However, then Chernobyl struck, later the Soviet Union collapsed, and the plans could not be realized.

Unrealized plans and modern prospects

The first nuclear power plant to supply heat was the Siberian Nuclear Power Plant in Seversk, Tomsk Region. Since 1961, it has supplied, in addition to electricity, heat. As of the 2000s, the reactors provided 30-35 percent of the heat needed to heat one of the residential areas of Tomsk, and more than 50 percent for the city of Seversk and the Siberian Chemical Plant. In addition, the ADE-2 reactor operated in our country at the Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Combine, from 1964 until its shutdown in 2010, it supplied heat and electricity to the city of Zheleznogorsk.

Today, only a low-power (48 MW) Bilibino NPP in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug operates as a nuclear source of heat supply, supplying heat and electricity to the city of Bilibino (about 6 thousand inhabitants) and local mining enterprises.

In the Soviet Union, the construction of two more ASTs began: Voronezhskaya and Gorkovskaya (in present-day Nizhny Novgorod), and the Ivanovskaya AST project was completed, the construction of which did not have time to begin. Work ceased at the turn of the 1980s - 1990s. The main thing that was emphasized during the closure of the almost completed Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod nuclear heat supply stations was public protests in the conditions of post-Chernobyl radiophobia. As a result, the cities were left without normal sources of heat. It is noteworthy that the now deceased Boris Nemtsov closed the Nizhny Novgorod AST, transferring part of its premises to the distillery.

By the way, these nuclear power plants belonged to the then innovative project AST-500. In order to ensure high reliability and safety of the reactor plant, the following main technical solutions were laid down: natural circulation of the coolant in the primary circuit and a three-loop scheme of the reactor plant. The integrated layout of the primary circuit equipment made it possible to minimize the branching of the circuit and avoid the use of large-diameter pipelines, and the low specific energy intensity of the core contributed to an increase in the reliability of the core cooling and a decrease in the level of accident consequences. In addition, technical solutions ensured the preservation of the core under water in the event of a depressurization of the main reactor vessel and the localization of radioactive products due to the use of a double vessel. A high degree of protection of the reactor against accidents was ensured by the use of a new scheme of the heat removal system, which makes it possible to remove the residual energy release even if two out of three loops fail, as well as by a number of other circuit and layout solutions.

Reincarnation of an idea

So what? Is it possible to say that AST was abandoned solely because of the unfortunate circumstances? Not really. An unbiased analysis of the technical and economic indicators of nuclear heat supply stations revealed that they are poorly competitive with fossil fuel heat sources, because the prices for thermal energy are much lower than for electricity. And the payback period of such a station, if it is built on the terms of a commercial loan, is very long. In modern Russian conditions, this is a serious minus. But it cannot be said that the creation of nuclear heat supply stations in Russia was completely abandoned.
There is a variant of a small unattended AST based on the Elena reactor and a mobile (by rail) Angstrem reactor plant.

Finally, our country is currently building the head floating nuclear heat supply station Akademik Lomonosov, which is planned to be commissioned this autumn. Located off the coast of Chukotka, it will replace the capacity of the Bilibino nuclear power plant, which will be decommissioned in 2019. Rosenergoatom plans that the Akademik Lomonosov will become far from the only floating power plant, and in the future similar FNPPs will appear in other cities of the Far North and the Far East. So the idea of ​​nuclear heat supply stations lives and develops, and there are certainly prospects for this direction.

At one time, the President of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, Aleksandrov, said that the RBMK reactor (high-power channel reactor) could even be installed on Red Square in Moscow. But they put it in Chernobyl. In this sense, Moscow was simply lucky, because the nuclear scientists were completely sincerely convinced of the safety of this type of reactor.

Voronezh seems to be less fortunate. Thirty kilometers from the city, the first nuclear power plant in Russia was built, the reactors of which have already practically exhausted their resource and should be stopped within two years.

Back in 1979, another project appeared - to build in Voronezh, eight kilometers from the historical center of the city, the world's first nuclear heat supply station. Then the residents of Voronezh made a sharp protest, held a referendum and achieved a cessation of construction. However, this autumn, simultaneously with the beginning of the heating season in Voronezh, representatives of the city authorities again started talking about the resuscitation of the project for the construction of a nuclear heating plant.

Our Voronezh correspondent Mikhail Zherebyatiev tells about the history of construction.

Mikhail Zherebyatiev:

In 1979, by decision of the allied Council of Ministers, the construction of a nuclear boiler house began on the outskirts of Voronezh. At that time, the AST-500 project, developed by the Nuclear Industry Research Institute in Gorky, was going to be replicated throughout the USSR. Ten years later, on the wave of glasnost, the democratic community of Voronezh demanded that the local authorities refuse to complete the construction of the facility, which caused alarm among the townspeople, and the authorities sanctioned a plebiscite. On May 15, 1990, a referendum was held in Voronezh on the fate of the nuclear stoker. 96 percent voted for the construction and reconstruction of thermal power plants and boiler plants without building a nuclear power plant. But even after the referendum, until the end of 1992, construction work continued at the station.

The Russian energy crisis of the 2000 model led to the activation of Rosenergoatom's activities in the Voronezh direction. The concern again offered its services to the city. Two billion rubles for the completion of the nuclear boiler. Another billion - for the development of heating network infrastructure - the city and the region should get themselves.

At the same time, the fundamental issues of both economic and environmental order are still not clarified. For example, who will own the facility, under what conditions will the city begin to consume the heat produced by the station? After all, if the NPP is a nuclear facility, then, according to current regulations, it should be located at a distance of thirty kilometers from large settlements.

The most active supporters of the project in Voronezh intend to annul the results of a ten-year-old referendum in court after the December mayoral elections under the pretext that the population did not vote against AST, but for the development of a network of boiler houses.

Marina Katys:

In order to at least slightly clarify the position of representatives of local authorities, I called Vyacheslav Bachurin, deputy chairman of the municipal council of Voronezh. Vyacheslav Ivanovich agreed that at present there is no shortage of heat supply in Voronezh. This is due to the economic downturn and the fact that most of the city's large enterprises are not working. However, in the future, when the economic recovery begins in the region, there will be a shortage of heat.

Are you not embarrassed by the fact that this is the world's first thermal nuclear power plant and there were no trial models, and is being built right away in the city center?

Vyacheslav Bachurin:

This is far-fetched: that she is the first in the world. In Tomsk-27, or whatever, 67, there is such an experimental station that is working. But what is the most important thing in a nuclear power plant? This is a reactor. And this reactor is on the same Kursk nuclear submarine. But he didn't explode. In an extreme situation, he did not explode, right? But only this is a reactor, the power of which is reduced tenfold. That is, its reliability increases tenfold.

Marina Katys:

Most of the experts to whom I addressed do not see a direct relationship between a decrease in the power of a reactor and an increase in its reliability. But it is quite possible that Vyacheslav Ivanovich has other sources of information.

Alexei Yablokov, President of the Center for Environmental Policy of Russia, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes that the Voronezh nuclear power plant has no analogues.

Alexey Yablokov:

There are no nuclear power plants anywhere in the world. The closest analogue is the use of industrial plutonium production reactors in Tomsk-7 for heating residential areas. A specially made nuclear power plant does not exist anywhere, nowhere. This is the first project.

Marina Katys:

This is also confirmed by Professor Stanislav Kadmensky.

Stanislav Kadmensky: Initially, it was planned to build about four nuclear power plants of this type. In a memorandum on this matter, it was written that it would be useful to take the Moscow region as the location of these stations, because Moscow has a shortage of heat, ordinary boiler houses connected with gas or coal cannot cope with this. And even in the political sense it was useful to build one of the first stations in the suburbs. But, of course, this project was not implemented, and the first two stations began to build one in Gorky, in Nizhny Novgorod, and the other in Voronezh.

In Gorky, after Nemtsov's victory in the elections, construction was stopped, and the station was completely redesigned. In Voronezh, this station was under construction, and although there was a referendum in Voronezh, nevertheless, the construction of the station was not stopped.

Marina Katys:

And one of the reasons for this is the hostile attitude of the Voronezh authorities towards environmentalists. Vyacheslav Bachurin simply considers them illiterate people and hopes that in this case the Voronezh region will follow the example of France.

Vyacheslav Bachurin:

In France, they took it - and legally these environmentalists were removed. And the future must be judged by the end result. The end result of environmentalists is to return to the primitive order. They need to read more Vernadsky. Everything is bad for them. Isn't food bad if you overeat it? Yes? And unless you overdrink - is it not harmful? Isn't smoking harmful?

What is optimization? Maximum pleasure at minimum cost, right?

Marina Katys:

It is difficult to object to such a principle of optimizing all processes, however, Mr. Bachurin surprisingly reminds me of one of the characters of the Strugatsky brothers, namely, a professor who worked as a scientific consultant at the Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

As for the cost of building a nuclear power plant in Voronezh, at present this issue has not yet been finally resolved. According to Vyacheslav Bachurin, the project will require...

Vyacheslav Bachurin:

Probably, with all the recalculations - about 3 billion.

Marina Katys:

Is this money from the federal budget, or is the local budget also involved?

Vyacheslav Bachurin:

Well, that's how we deal. If, as you say, this is an experiment that is needed for the whole country, and the whole country should take care of it. If this is our problem, Voronezh, well, we need to get together with Voronezh ... But then we from this nuclear power plant should spend all the energy only on Voronezh. And we don't have to pay any taxes for this station... Do you understand? So that they don’t make requisitions from the nuclear power plant later.

Marina Katys:

That is - you want to say that the issue of funding has not yet been finally resolved?

Vyacheslav Bachurin:

Well, he made up his mind. Decided how? You can finance: Voronezh, for example, Minatom and the country's budget. Like this. Divide all these expenses into three.

Because, well, you understand: Voronezh alone will never pull such a construction. What is there to talk about? It must be stretched again for ten years. And it must be completed in two and a half years.

Marina Katys:

That is - 2003.

Vyacheslav Bachurin:

Yes, so that the next elections will be warm. Because the nuclear power plant gives a hundred million dollars in savings. One billion cubic meters of gas. Can you imagine what it is? One billion cubic meters of gas.

Marina Katys:

Saving natural gas is, of course, a good thing, although for a start it would be quite possible to confine ourselves to repairing urban heating networks, in which heat losses currently exceed 50 percent.

Here is what academician Alexei Yablokov says about this.

Alexey Yablokov:

The Novovoronezh nuclear power plant is the oldest nuclear power plant in Russia, well, if you don't talk about Obninsk, which was experimental there. There are two nuclear reactors on it, put out of action almost 12 years ago. Now the Ministry of Atomic Energy has made such a decision in the government - to extend the life of existing reactors.

There were several commissions, expert groups with the IAEA (this is the International Atomic Energy Agency, which differs in that it never gave any conclusions about the closure of nuclear plants). IAEA experts said: "It is impossible to bring their security up to the level of acceptable Western security by any alterations."

Marina Katys:

This whole idea with a nuclear heating plant, is it caused by the lack of energy in this region? Why, in fact, did they suddenly start talking about the need to build a nuclear heating plant? What, Voronezh cannot be heated in other ways?

Alexey Yablokov:

Analysis of heating networks showed a terrible state of heating systems. Just yesterday I spoke with my colleagues from Voronezh. In heating networks, up to half of the heat that is sent to these heating networks disappears.

A normal economic decision is to repair the heating systems. This will save half the heat that is now being wasted. And no heating station is needed. It will probably cost ten times less than the construction of a nuclear power plant.

Marina Katys:

By the way, in assessing the cost of construction, Academician Alexei Yablokov differs significantly from Vyacheslav Bachurin, Deputy Chairman of the Municipal Council of Voronezh.

Alexei Yablokov continues.

Alexey Yablokov:

It will be even more expensive than a conventional nuclear power plant. So, then it turns out that the construction of a conventional nuclear power plant is, just like that, two or three billion dollars. Dollars, not rubles!

Marina Katys:

Those are huge costs. How can the leadership of the Voronezh region participate in such an expensive project?

Alexey Yablokov:

Of course not. We know that Adamov came to Voronezh several times. We know that the governor of the Voronezh region, Shabanov, is the most "pro-nuclear" governor in all of Russia. They want to convince us that there is money to start construction. And when construction begins, they will have an argument: well, construction has begun. Give us some more money to continue this construction. This is a typical, Soviet type approach.

Marina Katys:

They would like to complete the construction of the nuclear heating plant and put it into operation by 2003. Is it real at all?

Alexey Yablokov:

This is absolutely unrealistic, 2003. In this regard, I have only one ... in 2003, the service life of these very old nuclear reactors that they have ends. Here it is 2002-2003. This is what I know.

Marina Katys:

But we must not forget that the real cost of this project should include waste disposal. According to experts, the apparent cheapness of nuclear energy in Russia is explained precisely by the fact that Minatom does not take into account the cost of disposing of spent nuclear fuel in its calculations. However, the municipal authorities of Voronezh are not embarrassed by this.

Here is what Vyacheslav Bachurin, deputy chairman of the municipal council, says about this.

Vyacheslav Bachurin:

Not only Voronezh, but the whole world is working on these problems. And all the submarines... And how many of them do we have? 150. After all, they are being disposed of, and even more so, the submarine fleet is now being reduced. Are disposed of.

Well, one more boat will be more. So what? This is problem? This is just artificially inflating the problem and focusing on it.

Marina Katys:

Professor of Voronezh University, nuclear physicist Stanislav Kadmensky disagrees with this.

Stanislav Kadmensky:

This station replaces conventional fuel (gas, fuel oil) with nuclear fuel. When it started to cost, atomic fuel was quite cheap, and it seemed that it was economical. Now nuclear fuel has a rather high price. The very economic profitability of such boiler houses is under a very strong question.

The whole world is not heated by nuclear energy. The whole world is heated by ordinary fuel. In America, according to Danish projects, coal-fired thermal stations have been built, which are quite environmentally friendly in the sense that there is preparation of fuel for combustion, filters ... The entire Western world is heated - with ordinary fuel.

Marina Katys:

The local authorities are not embarrassed by the results of the referendum held ten years ago.

Professor Kadmensky continues.

Stanislav Kadmensky:

More than 90 percent of those participating in the referendum voted against the nuclear power plant. For a while, its construction was stopped, although not completely. It was the first referendum, perhaps of this nature in Russia, but it was completely within the law.

Now they explain to us that when the referendum was held, there was no law on referendums...

Marina Katys:

Have your public organizations tried to apply to the Supreme Court with a demand to stop construction?

Stanislav Kadmensky:

No. The fact is that in our country it is, of course, all very inefficient. Such appeals, they are good in order to portray a certain pose or position or to attract attention. Seriously, this doesn't work.

Marina Katys:

Although, as Academician Yablokov is convinced, only another referendum can cancel the results of the past referendum.

Alexey Yablokov:

Recently, Putin, speaking about the construction of the Rostov nuclear power plant, said: "Well, of course, you can't build a plant if there is no full consent of the population." Something like that he said.

The results of a referendum can only be canceled by a referendum, and nothing else. Of course, in 1990 there was no law on referendums. The law on referendums appeared in 1995, but still, since the referendum was held, we have a strong reason to say: the people are against it, the people will not let this station be built.

Marina Katys:

Moreover, the repeatedly interrupted process of building the station led to inevitable in this case errors in the technology of this construction, and the communication equipment over the past decade has become obsolete. In addition, during the construction, significant changes were made to the project, which, from the point of view of Professor Stanislav Kadmensky, is simply unacceptable in the construction of nuclear facilities.

Stanislav Kadmensky:

From the point of view of the reasonable development of nuclear energy, there should be the following sequence: first, such a type of plant is built in some city, a nuclear city like our Novo-Voronezh, for example, where this option is being tested, experience is obtained, and then this plant begins to be replicated inside large settlements.

The fact is that, for objective reasons, a nuclear heat supply station should be close enough to the facility that it supplies heat, otherwise there will be large heat losses along the routes, and so on. Here, our nuclear power plant should be, well, about eight kilometers from the city center.

But, on the other hand, these stations had no analogues in their structure. They say that the analogues of these stations were reactors on nuclear submarines. They gave us as an analogue the VK-50 reactor, which worked or is operating in Dimitrovgrad, but the VK-50 mode of operation is boiling, but the reactor that is being built in Voronezh is not boiling. There is a difference in pressures, and therefore there is a difference in thermal conditions, and so on. The station, as an experimental one, the first station in the world was built without testing in the full version ...

We found out a lot of details related to the violation of environmental standards and technological provisions. And the most important thing is that during the construction process, a change in the project began, which, of course, made an amazing impression on us. This is not a canning factory where you can replace one tank with another. And changing the regime during the construction process is just a tragic situation, I think, for the construction of the world's first object of this class.

Marina Katys:

In addition, the construction of a nuclear power plant in a residential area of ​​the city, and even less than a kilometer from the reservoir, is a direct violation of Russian law.

Word to Academician Alexei Yablokov.

Alexey Yablokov:

The heat supply station is located eight kilometers from the center of Voronezh. Well, it's ridiculous to say that it is possible to build a nuclear reactor eight kilometers from the center of a city with a population of one million. This is prohibited by all existing regulations. Forbidden.

We have a law on atomic energy, a law on radiation safety. There is a law on the protection of the natural environment, which stipulates... There are norms and rules on how to build nuclear power plants. It stands on the banks of the Tsymlyansk reservoir (a federal body of water). It is impossible to build nuclear power plants on the banks of federal reservoirs.

Marina Katys:

However, nuclear power plants are still somewhat different from conventional nuclear power plants.

Professor Stanislav Kadmensky talks about the fundamental differences between these objects.

Stanislav Kadmensky:

The first difference is that these stations are located inside big cities. The second difference is that the water reactors of the base station, which is the Novovoronezh station, these reactors were quite consistently and intensively tested in these cities. And then gradually replicated in other cities and in other objects.

We have not seen anything like this in a heat supply station, a nuclear power plant. She immediately began to build in the city of Voronezh.

Generally speaking, it is safer in its design than an electric station. It is less powerful, it contains more circuits, well, and so on. Well, and, of course, there are differences in the processes themselves that occur in nuclear reactors, and in all thermal systems, and not just in the thermal systems of reactors. They are different. Safety is enhanced by the fact that it is a three-circuit system. (In nuclear power plants - a two-circuit system.)

However, the world's first operating station cannot be built in the city. During the construction process, the project was intensively refined and changed, which, generally speaking, does not climb into any gates.

This is a dangerous item.

Marina Katys:

But after all, in the Russian Federation there is Gosatomnadzor, whose duties include monitoring compliance with all the rules that guarantee the safety of the operation of nuclear facilities.

Why does this body not pay attention to construction in Voronezh? I am talking about this with Academician Yablokov, President of the Center for Environmental Policy of Russia.

Now, in principle, Gosatomnadzor oversees all processes related to the construction of the Ministry of Atomic Energy. Why does he not express any opinion on the construction of a nuclear power plant in the city of Voronezh?

Alexey Yablokov:

Gosatomnadzor is now in a very difficult position. There is a massive attack on him. The destruction of the State Ecology Committee and the Forest Service is only the beginning. Now Gosatomnadzor, according to the draft law, which has already passed the government discussion and is in the Duma, is trying to take away licensing and control. Now licensing of nuclear facilities is the prerogative of Gosatomnadzor. Control over nuclear facilities - too. Well, of course, for this he was created.

The amendment to the law on atomic energy, which is now in the State Duma, transfers these functions to Minatom. Just as it was done in 1995, the control functions of Gosatomnadzor over military reactors were transferred to the Ministry of Defense.

They want to bleed it, this Gosatomnadzor, and then turn it into a department of Minatom.

Marina Katys:

Do you want to say that the situation is repeating when the Ministry of Natural Resources was entrusted with the functions of control over its own activities? Will the same be with the Ministry of Atomic Energy, which will control its activities?

Alexey Yablokov:

Well, of course, it's the same scheme.

Marina Katys:

Does the Russian leadership really not understand that the closure of Gosatomnadzor, an independent agency that controls all nuclear facilities in the country, will lead to a rather negative reaction in the West?

Alexey Yablokov:

Of course, the West will not remain silent. I even think that the IAEA will oppose it.

By the way, when this issue was just started to be discussed, do you know who strongly advocated the preservation of Gosatomnadzor? Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Marina Katys:

In conclusion, I will quote a few lines from Alexei Yablokov's book "The Myth of the Safety of Nuclear Power Plants".

"On average, on the planet, every year, one person in a million is at risk of dying from a lightning strike. This risk is 10 to the -6th degree and is considered acceptable for man-made accidents. According to the Deputy Director General of the IAEA, Mr. Murogov, if there are 1,000 operating reactors in the world, then every ten years at nuclear power plants with a fairly high probability there will be serious accidents. Now there are 440 nuclear reactors in operation in the world.

Overview based on media materials

Prerequisites

The study of the possibility of using nuclear energy sources for heat supply began in the late 1970s. In 1976, the Gorky branch of the Teploelektroproekt Institute - GoTEP (currently OAO Nizhny Novgorod Engineering Company Atomenergoproekt) and the VNIPIenergoprom Institute developed the "Consolidated TED on the use of atomic energy for heat supply until 1990"), in which the economic feasibility of introducing nuclear energy sources into the heat supply sector was substantiated by ensuring significant savings in scarce gas and fuel oil; improving the environmental situation in cities; solving the problems of hydrocarbon fuel transportation.

At the same time, it was shown that for energy-deficient systems with high (more than 2000 Gcal/h) heat consumption, the optimal solution is the use of nuclear combined heat and power plants (NPP) with VVER-1000, and for medium-power systems with heat load coverage at the level of 1000-2000 Gcal/h that do not need additional electrical power - nuclear heat supply plants (NPP) with a capacity of approximately 500 MW. According to the "Consolidated TED ...", the construction of AST was expedient in 30-35 industrial and residential complexes of the country, 27 of them - in the European part.

After discussing this issue in the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Government of the USSR, the Minsredmash (that was the name of the nuclear industry) and the Ministry of Energy were given the task of creating a nuclear heat supply station with guaranteed safety to be located near large cities. OKBM (currently JSC OKBM Afrikantov) was appointed the chief designer of the reactor plant (RU), the developer of the feasibility study of the head stations in the city of Gorky (now the city of Nizhny Novgorod) and in the city of Voronezh - the aforementioned GoTEP. Scientific guidance was provided by the RRC "Kurchatov Institute". The development of AST, at the direction of the Government, was personally supervised by the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.P. Alexandrov.

The choice of sites for the construction of head NPPs in the cities of Gorky and Voronezh was due not only to the presence of problems with heat supply in these cities, but also to other reasons:

■ the developer of the reactor plant (OKBM) and the Polytechnic Institute, where specialists for the nuclear industry were trained at the Faculty of Physics and Technology, were located in Gorky;

■ near Voronezh, the Novovoronezh NPP was already operating, where all the head units of VVER were built, there was a personnel training center for NPPs and a powerful construction and installation department was located;

■ both cities were located on the banks of large navigable rivers, which made it possible to transport large-sized reactor plant equipment that was not transportable by rail.

Based on the results of the development in 1978 of the technical design of the AST-500 reactor plant and the feasibility study, in March 1979 a resolution was issued by the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the construction of two head heat supply stations in Gorky and Voronezh. At the same time, GI VNIPIET (Minsredmash) was appointed the General Designer of the Gorky AST, and GoTEP (Minenergo) was appointed the General Designer of the Voronezh AST.

The construction of the head AST in the cities of Gorky and Voronezh was started in 1982 and 1983. respectively.

The government of the USSR considered the appeals of the regional authorities of a number of large regions and cities regarding the construction of the nuclear heating plant (including Arkhangelsk, Ivanov, Bryansk, Yaroslavl, Khabarovsk) and positive decisions were made. The necessary feasibility studies and justifications were carried out for these regions of the GoTEP, and preparatory work on construction began in the Arkhangelsk region.

Reactor plant AST-500

AST-500 reactor plant is a reactor plant based on an integral pressurized water-cooled reactor with natural circulation of the primary coolant, safety housing and passive safety systems. Chief designer of the reactor plant - OKBM, scientific supervisor of the project - RRC "Kurchatov Institute".

Main technical characteristics of AST-500 reactor plant: reactor thermal power - 500 MW, thermal energy supply - 430 Gcal/h; the type of fuel used is uranium dioxide UO 2 .

The AST reactor is made according to an integrated circuit, i.e. the core, heat exchangers of the 1st and 2nd circuits, and the pressure compensator are located in the reactor pressure vessel. This decision made it possible to exclude pipelines of large diameter, which are dangerous from the point of view of rupture.

Water circulates in the reactor, which is the coolant of the primary circuit. The use of natural circulation of the coolant in the reactor pressure vessel eliminates the complex and dangerous for the core dynamic regimes that are typical for all reactors with forced circulation of the coolant.

The reactor core is recharged once every 2 years.

The compactness of the integral reactor made it possible to use a second hermetic safety case, designed for the pressure that is established when the reactor vessel is depressurized.

The transfer of thermal energy to the network is carried out through an intermediate (second) circuit and a network (third) circuit (Fig. 1).

The pressure in the network circuit is always higher than in the second circuit, which makes it possible to exclude the ingress of water from the second circuit into the network circuit in case of leaks in the network heat exchangers.

The reactor is equipped with passive safety systems that can be activated in accidents without operator commands in case of failure of automatic control systems and operate for a long time without power supply from outside.

The flow of fast explosive processes of the Chernobyl type in the AST reactor is fundamentally impossible.

The radiation consequences of the most severe accidents are limited and do not exceed the natural radiation background.

The reaction of nuclear scientists to Chernobyl was a deep analysis of the safety of nuclear energy sources and the development of projects for new generation reactors.

An analysis of the AST-500 project, carried out after the Chernobyl accident, showed that the main qualities of the new generation of reactors have already been embodied in the AST reactor. Among them:

■ intrinsic safety features based on the laws of nature;

■ security against human errors;

■ limited consequences of beyond design basis accidents.

Developed by Soviet engineers and scientists in the 1980s. technical solutions of the AST-500 reactor plant are currently widely used by foreign developers in the projects of advanced new generation plants.

Gorky AST

The construction of the Gorky AST (GAST), as noted above, began in 1982. The station site was located near the village of Fedyakovo and the Roika railway station in the Kstovsky district of the Gorky region, a few kilometers east of the Gorky city limits.

The station was built according to the project of GI VNIPIET and included two power units with AST-500 reactor unit with a unit thermal capacity of 500 MW. Each unit provided heat supply in the amount of 430 Gcal / h in the form of hot water with a pressure of up to 1.6 MPa and a temperature of up to 150 ° C. It was planned that the GAST would supply thermal energy to the Nagorny part of Gorky. When the GAST was put into operation, it was supposed to close about 300 low-efficiency boiler houses of various capacities in the Nagorny part of the city.

The structure of the DH system based on the main heat source GAST looked as follows:

■ base heat source - GAST with installed heat capacity of 1000 MW (2x500 MW);

■ peak boiler houses (PK) - five existing industrial and heating boiler houses with a thermal capacity of 35 to 750 MW;

■ main heat networks - circular with dead-end branches;

■ heat distribution stations (RST) for connecting main heat networks according to dependent and independent schemes.

The total heat load of the upland part of the city provided by the DH system was approximately 2380 MW.

Heat supply in the DH system based on GAST was planned in the amount of approximately 7.4 GWh, including 5.8 GWh from GAST (78%).

The heat output from the AST to the transit heating networks was provided by a heat carrier - network water with a maximum temperature of 150 ° C at an inlet temperature in the return pipeline of 70 ° C.

Large PCs were envisaged as "semi-peak" ones with the possibility of issuing free thermal power to transit heat networks in parallel with AST

The total length of transit heating networks from the GAST is about 30 km. The terrain is variable with absolute elevations from 90 to 200 m. Diameters of transit pipelines are 800, 1000 and 1200 mm. Pumping booster stations were located in the PCT.

When developing a DH system based on GAST, several new technological solutions were applied, including:

1. quantitative regulation of heat supply in transit heating networks with a constant temperature of the coolant in the supply pipelines: during the heating period - 150 ° C, in summer - 90 ° C;

2. Sequential switching on (off) and changing the thermal power of the PC at heat consumption levels of more than 1000 MW at outdoor temperatures below +3 ° C;

3. the scheme for connecting the PC to the AST through transit heating networks is parallel, and not the traditional serial one for distant heat supply;

4. heat storage in make-up water storage tanks (2 tanks of 10,000 m 3 each) for stable operation of the GAST.

It is worth noting here that for the heat supply of the riverside part of the city of Gorky, taking into account the fact that several small industrial cities are located nearby, it was proposed to build a nuclear power plant with VVER-1000 reactors to supply power not only to the riverside part of the city, but also to Dzerzhinsk, Zavolzhye, Pravdinsk, Balakhna and other settlements. Three options for the location of the NPP were adopted and a full range of survey work was carried out at all three sites. The corresponding feasibility study was developed by GoTEP in 1986, but these plans remained on paper.

The decisive stages in the construction of the GAST coincided with the Chernobyl events, the subsequent "breaking" of power structures and a fierce political struggle in the "perestroika" period.

In mid-1988, a public movement began in Gorky to stop the construction of the GAST (articles in the local press, demonstrations and rallies with slogans to ban the construction of the GAST, demands for a referendum).

The general attitude against the GAST could not be reversed by the positive conclusion of the international examination of the project and the station itself, conducted by the IAEA in 1989, although this examination was undertaken at the request of the public.

The Nizhny Novgorod Regional Council of People's Deputies, taking into account the opinion of the population, opposed the continuation of the construction of the station and in August 1990 adopted a decision "On the termination of the construction of the GAST".

The consequence of this decision was the order of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR dated November 29, 1990 No. 1345-R “On the termination of the construction of the Gorky AST” and the order of the USSR Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry (one of the next new names of Minsredmash) dated November 29, 1991 No. 523 “On the liquidation Directorate of GAST”, providing for the transfer of GAST to the balance of the city of Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod region.

By this time, two sets of reactor facility equipment had been manufactured and delivered to the plant, two reactor cores were manufactured, the total construction readiness for the buildings of the two units was 85-90%, the installation readiness of the equipment was about 70%, construction and installation work on the start-up complex of the first power unit, recruited and trained operational personnel, developed commissioning and operational documentation.

In accordance with the order of the Head of the Administration of the Nizhny Novgorod Region B.E. Nemtsov No. 3 dated December 5, 1991 and in accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Federal Law No. 161-FZ dated November 14, 2002 "On State and Municipal Unitary Enterprises", for the purposes of maximizing the use of the facilities of the industrial site of the Gorky AST and ensuring the safety of unique equipment for reactor plants, instead of the Directorate of the GAST under construction, the State Enterprise of the Nizhny Novgorod Region "Nizhny Novgorod Production and Energy Complex" was created (a subordinate enterprise of the Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities and the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Nizhny Novgorod Region).

In recent years, the premises of the Gorky AST (Fig. 2, 3) have been leased to private enterprises, including the Nizhny Novgorod ROOM Distillery. Heating networks from the Gorky AST have been almost completely dismantled.

In 2006 and 2008, the current Government of the Nizhny Novgorod region made several unsuccessful attempts to initiate the construction of a combined cycle CHPP (electric power 900 MW (2x450 MW), thermal power - 825 Gcal/h) on the basis of the unfinished AST.

Until now, the heat supply of the Nagorny part of the city, which makes up half of Nizhny Novgorod, is carried out from one large boiler house with a thermal capacity of about 700 Gcal / h, two boiler houses of 150 Gcal / h (which were planned to be transferred to the peak mode when the GAST was introduced) and many small boiler houses. In connection with intensive housing construction in recent years, there is a shortage of thermal power in this part of the city.

Voronezh AST

The construction of the Voronezh AST (VAST) was started in 1983, as mentioned above. The VAST construction site is located on the southern outskirts of the city of Voronezh on the right bank of the Voronezh reservoir (distance from urban development - 6.5 km). The station was built according to the GoTEP project, included two power units with AST-500 reactor plants with a thermal power of 500 MW and differed from the Gorky AST by the presence of a protective shell (similar to VVER-1000) to protect against aircraft crashes and the circuit design of individual safety systems (in GAST protection from the fall of the aircraft was ensured by the placement of the reactor block in a strong-tight box). With the operation of two power units with a total thermal capacity of 860 Gcal / h, VAST was supposed to provide up to 29% of the annual need of the city of Voronezh in thermal energy for the needs of heating and hot water supply of the city, eliminating the deficit in thermal energy created at that time and creating conditions for the further development of the city .

Like the GAST, the Voronezh AST became a card in the political struggle for power that unfolded in the city and the region during the “perestroika” period.

The construction of the VAST was stopped in 1990 at the initiative of the local authorities of the city of Voronezh (decision of the Voronezh City Council of People's Deputies dated 06/05/1990), taking into account the results of the city referendum on the issue of heat supply to the city of Voronezh.

By the time construction was stopped, a construction and installation base with the necessary infrastructure, tracks and communications had been created, more than 50% of the design volume of construction and installation work on the construction of the VAST had been completed, a set of reactor plant equipment for the first power unit and partially for the second was delivered to the station, the core was manufactured.

From 1992 to the present, in accordance with Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 28, 1992 No. 1026 and subsequent administrative documents of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of Russia, Order of Rosatom of the Russian Federation of December 5, 2006 No. 589, the facility has been in conservation mode (Fig. 4). The unfinished plant is federal property, the Directorate of the Voronezh AST under construction is a branch of Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC.

For the purpose of conservation of the Voronezh NPP, the Rosenergoatom concern annually allocates substantial funds from the reserve for development. The issues of conservation of Voronezh AST facilities are supervised by the capital construction department of Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC. The territory of the station is guarded.

In accordance with Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 28, 1992, No. 1026, in 1994 a public examination of the project and the existing backlog for construction was carried out with the participation of 28 specialists and scientists from the city of Voronezh, and in 1995 - the state examination of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation. The results of both examinations confirmed the possibility and expediency of completing the VAST construction.

The conclusion of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences dated 07.09.1998 No. 14202-24-2115-4 was received on the legal examination of decisions made under the VAST. It confirmed that the decision of the city authorities of Voronezh in 1990 to stop the construction of the VAST with references to the referendum has no legal force, and also confirmed the existence of all conditions for the Government of the Russian Federation to make a decision on the reopening and completion of the construction of the VAST

In 2008-2010 several proposals were prepared to solve the problem of VAST, including: completion of VAST; re-profiling of AST into ATES with VBER-300 reactors (developer of OJSC Afrikantov OKBM) or VK-300 (developer of OJSC NIKIET); creation of a multi-purpose innovative energy-technological and medical complex on the site based on the RUTA-70 installation (developer of the State Research Center of the Russian Federation-IPPE), etc.

Over the years that have elapsed since the start of construction, the situation with heat supply in Voronezh has only worsened (see also the article by E.G Gasho on pages 36-38), while alternative options for providing the city with thermal energy have not been developed for the Voronezh AST.

Nevertheless, several tens of kilometers of heating pipelines for heat supply of the Sovietsky and Kominternovsky regions, laid almost along the entire proposed route, were dismantled in the spring and summer of 2006.

P.S. Article 29 of the Federal Law of November 21, 1995 No. 170-FZ “On the Use of Atomic Energy” determines that in all cases of termination of the construction of a nuclear facility that is not related to a decrease in its safety level, environmental degradation or other adverse consequences, the the issue of compensation for losses associated with the termination of construction, as well as the sources of compensation for these losses.

The article was prepared by the editors of the journal NT based on the following materials:

1. Half a century in nuclear engineering. Nizhny Novgorod: KiT-published, 1997.

2. History of JSC "NIAEP" in the documents and memoirs of veterans (1951-2008) / Collection of articles. Nizhny Novgorod: Litera, 2008.

3. What is a nuclear heat supply station / O. B. Samoilov, V.S. Kuul, B.A. Averbakh and others; Ed. ABOUT. Samoilova, V.S. Kuula. - M.: Energoatomizdat, 1989. - 96 p.

4. G. Yurieva. The unique nuclear complex was designed 30 years ago (interview with V.N. Chistyakov) // "Russia: Atomic Project", vol. 8, 2010.

5. Website of the Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities and Fuel and Energy Complex of the Nizhny Novgorod Region - www.mingkh.nnov.ru.

6. Zinger N.M., Yeshe G.G., Gilevich A.I. etc. // Thermal power engineering, 1982. No. 8. P. 27-30.

7. Vostokov V.S., Drumov V.V., Yeshe G.G. et al. On increasing the efficiency of using AST// Questions of atomic science and technology, 1983, issue 6.

8. O. Aleksandrova. Operation "Re-preservation" // newspaper "Kommersant" (Voronezh), No. 48 of 03/25/2008

9. www.rosenergoatom.ru.

10. www.ru.wikipedia.org.

The editorial staff of the NT magazine thanks I.M. Saprykin, who took part in the development of the DH system from the Gorky AST, for valuable comments and additions to the article presented above.

The Nuclear Heat Supply Plant (NPP) consists of several autonomous units with a unit capacity of 500 MW each and is capable of generating 860 Gcal/h of heat in the form of water at a temperature of 150°C and a pressure of 20 atm for heating and hot water supply of a residential area with a population of 350,000 people . The nuclear power plant uses a pressurized water reactor, in which the neutron moderator and coolant is ordinary water.

The use of the reactor as a source of low-grade heat makes it possible to significantly reduce its parameters

• three-loop scheme of heat transfer from the reactor to the consumer;
• the first circuit is completely sealed and is located inside the reactor vessel, the circulation along the circuit is natural;
• the second circuit is hermetic, the circulation along the circuit is forced during normal operation and natural - in emergency modes. Includes steam volume compensator with safety device;
• circulation in the third (network) circuit is forced. A bypass with a control valve is provided on the network circuit to change the parameters of the network water;
• the pressure in the network circuit is higher than in the second circuit compared to the parameters of the VVER reactor: the operating pressure of the primary circuit is reduced by 8 times (20 atm), the water temperature is lowered from 300 to 200°C, the power density of the core is reduced by 4 times - from 110 to 27 MW / m 3.

A feature of the design of the AST reactor is the placement of the heat exchangers of the primary and secondary circuits in the gap between the strong hermetic reactor vessel and the inner vessel shaft separating the hot water flows from the core and the cooled water flows after heat exchange (Fig. 3.43). The water heated in the core, as lighter, rises inside the shaft to the upper part of the reactor, goes to the heat exchangers and, cooling when heat is transferred to the water of the secondary circuit, descends in the gap between the shaft and the vessel down to the entrance to the core.

All fuel cassettes of the core are equipped with draft pipes, which are their continuation. This ensures that the water flow through the core is distributed among the fuel cassettes in accordance with their power. The uninterrupted and independent of external energy sources natural circulation of water in the reactor pressure vessel ensures reliable heat removal from the core under normal operation conditions, its cooling in emergency modes and makes it possible to abandon the use of main circulation pumps in the primary coolant circuit.

The reactor plant of the nuclear heat supply station transfers heat to the consumer according to the three-loop heat exchange scheme. The first coolant circulation circuit inside the reactor pressure vessel is designed to transfer heat from the core to the secondary circuit water. The second (intermediate) circuit is designed to transfer heat to the third (network) circuit and is equipped with forced circulation of the coolant. The third (network) circuit supplies heat to the consumer, the network water is circulated using pumps (Fig. 3.44).

The integrated layout of the reactor internal structures with heat exchangers of the first and second coolant circulation circuits made it possible to implement a technical solution that is fundamentally new for pressurized water reactors - to place the reactor in a second pressure vessel (Fig. 3.45). This makes it possible to keep the reactor core below the water level and prevent its overheating in the event of a depressurization of the main reactor vessel or its systems, and to localize the radioactive primary coolant. Thanks to the multi-level security system for the operation of AST, they can be placed at a distance of ~ 5 km from large cities.

Currently, nuclear power is used practically for the production of electricity, although there are stations that supply heat to consumers (for example, the Bilibino ATEC in Chukotka) or desalinate water (Shevchenko, Kazakhstan). The most common and mastered in industrial production of nuclear power reactors, which are widely used at nuclear power plants, are reactors with pressurized water without boiling VVER (abroad PWR - Pressured Water Reactor).

The Bilibino nuclear power plant (48 MW) is the first nuclear power plant in the Arctic, a unique facility in the center of Chukotka. The ATEC operates in the isolated Chaun-Bilibino energy center and is connected to this system by a 1,000 km power transmission line. In addition to BiATEC, the power unit includes the Northern Lights floating diesel power plant (24 MW) and Chaunskaya CHPP (30.5 MW). The total installed capacity of the system is 80 MW.

The use of nuclear heat sources in heat supply systems will significantly save scarce organic fuel. At the same time, an improvement in the environmental situation in areas of heat consumption from nuclear power plants, an increase in the competitiveness of centralized heat supply systems due to the low cost of heat at nuclear power plants, and an increase in the reliability of heat supply systems due to the replacement of obsolete equipment are achieved.

According to the type of energy supplied, nuclear power plants can be divided into:

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) designed to generate electricity only

Nuclear combined heat and power plants (NPP) generating both electricity and heat

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) generating only thermal energy

All nuclear power plants in Russia have heating plants designed to heat network water.

Nuclear power plants in Russia.

At present, 31 power units with a total capacity of 23,243 MW are operated at 10 operating nuclear power plants in the Russian Federation, of which 15 pressurized water reactors - 9 VVER-440, 15 channel boiling reactors - 11 RBMK-1000 and 4 EGP-6, 1 fast neutrons.

Information about the nuclear stations of heat supply. Voronezh AST (not to be confused with Novovoronezh NPP) is a nuclear heat supply plant (VAST), consisting of two power units with a capacity of 500 MW each, designed for year-round operation in the base mode in the district heating system of Voronezh in order to cover the existing heat shortage in the city (VAST should was to provide 23% of the city's annual need for heat and hot water). The construction of the station was carried out from 1983 to 1990 and is currently frozen.

Russia is the only country where options for building nuclear power plants are being seriously considered. This is explained by the fact that in Russia there is a centralized system of water heating of buildings, in the presence of which it is advisable to use nuclear power plants to obtain not only electrical, but also thermal energy. The first projects of such stations were developed back in the 70s of the XX century, however, due to the economic upheavals that occurred in the late 80s and severe public opposition, none of them was fully implemented. The exception is the Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant of small capacity, which supplies heat and electricity to the village of Bilibino in the Arctic (10 thousand inhabitants) and local mining enterprises, as well as defense reactors (the main task of which is the production of plutonium):

Siberian NPP, which supplied heat to Seversk and Tomsk.

Reactor ADE-2 at the Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Combine, since 1964 supplying heat and electricity to the city of Zheleznogorsk.

The construction of the following NPPs based on reactors similar in principle to VVER-1000 was also started:

Voronezh AST (not to be confused with Novovoronezh NPP)

Gorky AST

Ivanovskaya AST (only planned).

The construction of all three ASTs was stopped in the second half of the 1980s or early 1990s.

At present (2006) Rosenergoatom is planning to build a floating nuclear heating plant for Arkhangelsk, Pevek and other polar cities based on the KLT-40 reactor plant used on nuclear icebreakers. There is a variant of a small unattended AST based on the Elena reactor, and a mobile (by rail) Angstrem reactor plant. Source: EnergAtom (www.abkord.com).

The solution of issues related to taking into account the role of nuclear power plants in heat supply (primarily steam) to industrial consumers is at an early stage. This is due to the fact that steam supply from nuclear sources is associated with more significant difficulties than the release of heat in hot water.

These difficulties are determined mainly by the requirements of nuclear safety, the significant diversity of industrial technologies, the peculiarities of steam transportation, and so on. and therefore more stringent requirements for nuclear power sources, both in terms of circuit solutions and in terms of heat supply. In principle, nuclear sources of heat supply, as well as sources used in traditional "fire" energy, can be intended either for the production of heat, or for the combined production of heat and power energy. Recently, studies have begun on projects for nuclear power plants for industrial heat supply, designed to supply consumers with both hot water and steam; nevertheless, taking into account the higher energy and technical and economic efficiency of the combined production of heat and electricity, the construction of specialized industrial heating CHPPs seems to be more economically feasible.

A distinctive feature of nuclear sources used to meet the needs of industrial enterprises in process steam is the need to meet two difficultly compatible requirements. On the one hand, according to the conditions of steam transport, the heat source should be as close as possible to consumers. The maximum distance from the source to consumers is determined by technical and economic calculations and depends on the steam parameters required by the technical conditions of production, the parameters of the steam supplied by the source, and other indicators and does not exceed 8–15 km, even with a significant design load of the area (1500 MJ/ from). On the other hand, it is desirable to locate the source at a considerable distance from consumers, since the closer the source is to the heat supply area, the more stringent the radiation safety requirements are and, accordingly, the more technically and expensively their provision is. These requirements make it practically impossible to release a significant amount of steam in the traditional way from the first generation nuclear power plants planned for construction and operating.

In Russia, steam supply in small quantities for the needs of the industrial site and construction base is produced from operating nuclear power plants. However, sanitary rules [ST TAS 84. Sanitary requirements for the design and operation of district heating systems from nuclear power plants. - M., 1984.] and general provisions for ensuring the safety of nuclear power plants [OPB 82. General provisions for ensuring the safety of nuclear power plants during design, construction and operation. - M., 1982.] the supply of heat in steam to external consumers is regulated. So, at NPPs with VVER reactors, steam can be released from the auxiliary collector or directly from turbine waste, which is in conflict with clause 3.7 of the sanitary rules: “... -communal sector and other consumers) is not allowed ... ". At NPPs with RBMK reactors, steam is released through an intermediate circuit from a “clean” steam generator connected to the first unregulated high-pressure cylinder bleed. From the steam generator in the nominal mode of operation of the turbine, the release of 16 MJ/s of heat and steam at a pressure of 0.6 MPa can be provided. In this case, p / p is violated. 4.4.3.1.3 of the general safety provisions: "... The pressure of the heating medium must not be lower than the pressure of the network coolant ...". In modern double-circuit NPPs, the main steam flow in the turbine unit after passing through the separators - superheaters (SHR) has such properties. However, its use as a heating medium leads to a significant underproduction of electricity, so the feasibility of creating such steam supply schemes is not obvious, and detailed feasibility studies are necessary.

In this regard, the search for new solutions that make it possible to use already mastered nuclear energy sources for the purposes of industrial heat supply is of particular relevance. One of the ways to create systems is to use a coolant other than water, for example, an inert gas or an organic compound, in the industrial circuit. In this case, it is necessary to conduct both feasibility studies to determine their competitiveness compared to alternative steam supply options, and special studies confirming the technical feasibility of creating and operability of these steam supply systems from nuclear power plants.

Another solution, the most technically prepared at present, is the use of high-temperature network water for the transport of NPP heat with subsequent steam generation in local steam generators. Water-steam-converting plants can act as such a steam generator. The use of this scheme makes it possible to cover a significant number of consumers, however, even at a sufficiently high temperature of the network coolant supplied from the station (≈ 170 °C), saturated steam with a pressure of no more than 0.6 MPa can be obtained in the local circuit of the enterprise, which significantly limits the possibilities application of such a scheme of steam supply. The use of this steam supply scheme is currently difficult for a number of reasons:

❏ lack of technological equipment with the necessary capacities;

❏ Insufficient study of regime issues of heat supply from NPPs;

❏ the need to select the appropriate ratio of steam and water loads in the register, etc.

Free from these shortcomings and the most easily implemented at the present time is the method of satisfying the steam load from nuclear power plants according to the scheme with "fire" heating. A prerequisite for considering such schemes is the widespread use of fossil fuel steam boilers in industrial consumer steam supply systems. In this case, the nuclear power plant releases heat in the form of hot water. Part of it enters the municipal heat supply system, part - in modified steam boilers running on fossil fuels. There it evaporates, if necessary, the resulting steam is superheated and supplied to consumers. With such an organization of a steam boiler, there is no need to use organic fuel for heating water in regeneration systems and economizers. In widely used DKVR steam boilers, supplying feed water at a temperature of 170 °C to the boiler unit with the simultaneous replacement of the economizer with an air heater makes it possible to save up to 25% of fossil fuel consumption.

On fig. 3.2 shows a schematic diagram of a heat treatment plant for a nuclear power plant with a VVER reactor. An intermediate circuit is connected between the reactor 17 and the superheater. The superheater produces "clean" steam. This greatly simplifies the scheme and equipment of the heat-heating plant of the NPP, since the steam exhausted in the turbine can be directly used in the network water heaters 5-7. In connection with the placement of the NPP at considerable distances from cities, a significant increase in the design temperature in the supply line of the transit main (collector 16) is economically justified in order to reduce the estimated coolant flow, diameters and number of heat pipelines. Therefore, in some cases, higher pressure steam (0.6–0.8 MPa) is used to heat network water from the separation compartment, in which a steam separator 21 and an intermediate superheater 36 are installed on the main steam flow.

Rice. 3.2 Schematic diagram of the heat treatment plant of the nuclear thermal power plant (ATES) with a VVER reactor: 1 – steam generator; 2 - steam turbine; 3 – electric generator; 4 - capacitor; 5 - 7 - heating heaters, respectively, lower, middle and upper stages; 8 - booster pump; 9 - network pump; 10 - chemical water treatment; 11 - make-up water deaerator; 12 - make-up pump; 13 – make-up regulator; 14 – chemical water treatment pump; 15, 16 - return and supply collectors of network water; 17 - nuclear reactor; 18 - volume compensator; 19 - intermediate circuit pump; 20 - condensate pump; 21 - moisture separator; 22 – low pressure regenerative heaters; 23 - deaerator; 24 - feed pump; 25 - high pressure regenerative heaters; 26 - superheater; 27 - gearboxes; 28 - - medium pressure regenerative heaters.

The schematic diagram of the heat treatment plant of the nuclear heat supply station (AST) is shown in fig. 3.3.

Rice. 3.3. Schematic diagram of the heat treatment plant of the nuclear heat supply station (AST): 1 - nuclear reactor; 2 - the second circuit; 3 – network water heater; 4 - volume compensator; 5 - pump of the second circuit: 6 - network pump; 7 - make-up water deaerator; 8 - heating network; 9 – secondary circuit purge system; 10 – purified water heater; 11 – blowdown water cooler; 12 - filter; 13 - purge system pump; 14 - make-up pump of the heating network.