Working on the project of Khmelnitsky NPP, KIEP took on the role of a general designer. According to the project, the NPP had to have 4 units, WWER-1000 type reactors, built near the town of Netishyn, Ukraine. With all the four units put in commission, the gross capacity of Khmelnitsky NPP would have amounted to 4000 MW.
The construction activities started in 1979. Eight years later, in 1987, the first nuclear power unit was placed in operation and the NPP began its function.
One year before Khmelnitsky NPP’s unit 1 was accepted into service, the Chernobyl accident had taken place, which impacted the planned construction of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th units of Khmelnitsky NPP. The fact was that the Chernobyl tragedy resulted in a huge public outcry, and in 1990 Verkhovna Rada, being affected by the public pressure, took the decision popular at the time, which was to put a moratorium on building nuclear power plants in Ukraine.
By the time the moratorium was put into force, the percentage completion of the Khmelnitsky NPP units was the following:
- unit 2 – 80-85%
- unit 3 – 35-40%
- unit 4 – 5-10%
Also, most of the infrastructure designed for a 4000 MW nuclear power plant was more or less completed by the time. The objects of the infrastructure included special buildings, auxiliary facilities, a feed water pipe system, and a spray cooling pond among other objects.
The moratorium stayed in force for three years and was eventually lifted in 1993. The main reason for that was the energy shortfall and understanding that the country couldn’t properly develop without an up-to-date nuclear energy industry. With regard to Khmelnitsky NPP, it was decided to complete the second unit and modernize the working units (including those in other Ukrainian NPPs) with a view to make them correspond to the safety standards accepted in the contemporary world.
KIEP immediately began to work on the project. However, due to the tough economic times the country was undergoing then and, as a result, inadequate funding, the 2nd unit was put into action 11 years after, in August of 2004. A year later, the government admission committee accepted Khmelnitsky NPP’s unit 2 as commissioned and fully operational.
During the time that KIEP was engaged in the project, the institute developed two documents: “Evaluation of Influence on the Environment” and “Safety Analysis Report”. While working on Khmelnitsky NPP, KIEP also took an active part in the consortium that developed the program to modernize all the working WWER-1000/V-320 type reactors in Ukrainian NPPs.
As of today, Khmelnitsky NPP has two functioning nuclear power units that fully conform to the international safety standards, which has been confirmed by the IAEA and WANO.
The main equipment of Khmelnitsky NPP includes:
- thermal neutron reactors, WWER-1000 type, with the capacity of 1000 MW operated within V-320 type reactor plant;
- PGV-1000 type steam generators with the capacity to generate 1470 t/h of dry saturated steam under the pressure of P=64 kgf/cm2 (6,5 MPa);
- main reactor coolant pumps, RCP-195М type;
- a turbine unit, K-1000-60/3000 type;
- a turbine generator ТWW-1000-2UZ with the capacity of 1000 MW.