Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station

Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station
The Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant
Country	Russia
Coordinates	56°50′30″N 61°19′21″E / 56.84167°N 61.32250°E / 56.84167; 61.32250Coordinates: 56°50′30″N 61°19′21″E / 56.84167°N 61.32250°E / 56.84167; 61.32250
Status	Operational
Construction began	1958
Commission date	26 April 1964
Operator(s)	Rosenergoatom
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	SBR
Reactor supplier	OKBM Afrikantov (Units 3 & 4)
Fuel type	MOX fuel
Cooling source	Pyshma River
Power generation
Units operational	1 × 600 MW 1 × 880 MW
Units planned	1 × 1220 MW
Units decommissioned	1 × 108 MW 1 × 160 MW
Nameplate capacity	1,480 MW
Planned output	10,100 GW·h

The Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station (NPS; Russian: Белоярская атомная электростанция им. И. В. Курчатова [ pronunciation ]) was the second of the then Soviet Union's nuclear plants. It is situated by Zarechny in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Zarechny township was created to service the station, which is named after the Beloyarsky District. The closest city is Yekaterinburg.

Two earlier reactors were constructed at Beloyarsk: an AMB-100 reactor (operational 1964–1983) and an AMB-200 reactor (operational 1967–1989).

Both were supercritical water reactors; the first unit used 67 tons of Uranium enriched to 1.8%, while the second unit used 50 tons of Uranium enriched to 3.0%. The first unit had an indirect steam cycle, while the second had a direct one.

Although they were comparable in power to the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the Soviet planners regarded the Beloyarsk reactors as prototypes. Their main novelty was the use of superheated steam ran through a standard turbine thus resulting in a better efficiency compared to the earlier Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant pilot plant. The first Beloyarsk unit produced about 285 MW heat of which about 100 MW were converted to electricity. The second unit, which used two turbines, had a similar conversion efficiency of about 36%.