Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant | |
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Entrance to the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant
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Official name | Ignalinos Atominė Elektrinė |
Country | Lithuania |
Location | Visaginas municipality |
Coordinates | 55°36′16″N 26°33′36″E / 55.60444°N 26.56000°ECoordinates: 55°36′16″N 26°33′36″E / 55.60444°N 26.56000°E |
Construction began | 1978 |
Commission date | 31 December 1983 |
Decommission date | 31 December 2009 |
Operator(s) | Ignalinos Atominė Elektrinė |
Nuclear power station | |
Reactor type | RBMK-1500 |
Reactor supplier | Mintyazhmash |
Cooling source | Lake Drūkšiai |
Cooling towers | no |
Power generation | |
Make and model | Kharkiv turbine plant Electrosila |
Units decommissioned | 2 x 1,300 MW |
Thermal capacity | 2 x 4800 MWt |
Nameplate capacity | 2,600 MW |
Capacity factor | 30.2% |
2004 output | 19,240 GW·h |
Website www.iae.lt |
The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (Lithuanian: Ignalinos Atominė Elektrinė, IAE, Russian: Игналинская атомная электростанция, Ignalinskaya atomnaya elektrostantsiya) is a closed two-unit RBMK-1500 nuclear power station in Visaginas municipality, Lithuania. It was named after the nearby city of Ignalina. Due to the plant's similarities to the failed Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in both reactor design and lack of a robust containment building, Lithuania agreed to close the plant as part of its accession agreement to the European Union. Unit 1 was closed in December 2004. The remaining Unit 2 which counted for 25% of Lithuania's electricity generating capacity and supplied about 70% of Lithuania's electrical demand, was closed on December 31, 2009. Proposals have been made to construct a new nuclear power plant at the same site.
The Ignalina nuclear power plant contained two RBMK-1500 water-cooled graphite-moderated channel-type power reactors. The Soviet-designed RBMK-1500 reactor was originally the most powerful reactor in the world with an electrical power capacity of 1,500 megawatts (MW) and thermal power capacity of 4,800 MW, but this distinction was later superseded by other nuclear reactors elsewhere. After the Chernobyl disaster of April 1986 the reactor was de-rated to 1,360 MW. These are of a similar type of reactor (RBMK-1000) as at the Chernobyl power plant, hence the European Union's insistence on closing them. Each unit of the power plant was equipped with two K-750-65/3000 turbines with 800 MW generators.