Work at the construction site has seen a pit prepared for the nuclear island of the seventh unit, with construction on-going for a pit for its turbine island. The permit issued by Rosatom to its Rosenergoatom division, under the country's Town Planning Code, "gives the right to begin construction and installation work on 67 capital construction projects" for the eighth unit.
Vladimir Pereguda, director of the Leningrad nuclear power plant, said: "The main period of construction of the eighth power unit will begin in 2025. The first key operation is planned for this year - concreting the foundation slab of the reactor building. In accordance with the road map, power unit 8 of the Leningrad NPP should be put into operation in 2032, power unit 7 almost two years earlier."
The Leningrad nuclear power plant is one of the largest in Russia with an installed capacity of 4400 MWe. Leningrad 1 shut down in 2018 after 45 years of operation. Leningrad 2, also a 1000 MWe RBMK unit, started up in 1975 and was permanently shut down in November 2020. As the first two of the plant's four RBMK-1000 units shut down, new VVER-1200 units started at the neighbouring Leningrad II plant. The 60-year service life of these fifth and sixth units (also known as Leningrad II-1 and Leningrad II-2) secures power supply until the 2080s.
Rosatom said the project has already received the necessary documents confirming it complies with environmental requirements and legislation in the field of environmental protection, the requirements of technical regulations in the field of nuclear, environmental and industrial safety.
