Beloiarsk Atomic Power Plant

(full name, I. V. Kurchatov Beloiarsk Atomic Power Plant), an experimental-industrial atomic power plant located 60 km from Sverdlovsk in the settlement of Zarechnyi, near the small village of Beloiarsk. Construction was begun in February 1958, and the first unit was started up in April 1964. The thermal power of the reactor in the first unit is 285 megawatts (MW) and the electrical power is 100 MW; the unit has a two-stage thermal arrangement. The reactor operates as a unit with the turbogenerator. The second unit of the atomic power plant was started up at the end of 1967, its thermal power being 560 MW and its electrical power 200 MW; it has a single stage thermal arrangement. A special feature of the plant is the superheating of the steam, which takes place directly in the nuclear reactor. This permits ordinary modern commercial turbines to be used. The nuclear reactors in both units are the same heterogeneous water-graphite types employing thermal neutrons. The plant is connected to the Sverdlovsk power system by 110- and 220-kilovolt lines.