> Abandoned Nuclear Power Plant in Crimea
This abandoned facility is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive nuclear reactor in the world. Which remained unbuilt.
Construction of the Crimean Nuclear Power Plant began in 1975 and it was supposed to provide electricity to the entire Crimea. In 1984, it was even declared an All-Union Komsomol construction site. At the height of construction, two (!!!) echelons of building materials were being processed per day.
But in 1987, a famous fur-bearing animal settled in these places. There are two reasons - the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the unfavorable economic situation in the USSR. The readiness of the station at that time was almost 80%...
More detailed information I'll give it at the end of the post, after the pictures. In the meantime, look what is happening with one of the biggest unfinished projects in the USSR today
2. We approach the station. Administrative building and observation tower 
3. There are broken bricks and concrete crumbs everywhere. In the background are the first power unit and the engineering building 
4. Station engineering building. Satellite dishes hint that there are people here 
5. And here we have the first power unit. There is also a unique giant crane here. Only he no longer builds the station, but destroys it.
I want to stop here for a moment. The fact is that during construction, a unique polar crane was already installed in the reactor building of the first power unit - the Danish Kroll K-10000. With the help of this crane, further lifting, transport and construction operations inside the reactor compartment were to be carried out. It was the tallest crane in Europe. In 2003, the State Property Fund sold it for... 310 thousand hryvnia with a starting price of 440. Even sold for scrap it would have cost more.
Before its dismantling, the high-altitude crane was used for base jumping. The jumps were carried out from the lower (80 m) and upper (120 m) booms of the crane.
Today, a similar crane is installed here, but smaller in size, for dismantling the station. You can appreciate its size against the background of the standing “nine”. 
6. And this is what this station is needed for today... Powerful equipment, looking like a toy against the background of a concrete monster, paints its body, extracting metal reinforcement from there. We'll come back here later, but for now let's go to the reactor room. 
7. We enter the power unit. The scale and thickness of the walls with shutters is impressive 
8. Transport corridor of the power unit 
9. Entrance to the reactor zone. Metal as thick as your arm. 
10. There, thick cables go inside the reactor and cutting sounds are heard. There's a lot of metal being cut out there. 
11. The reactor control panels are at the end 
12. And there was the reactor itself... We look at it from the lower corridor. The ends of the cooling pipes are visible
13. Bolt found here. Obviously not from a children's construction set. I was surprised by the almost complete absence of corrosion over so many years - only an oxidized surface 
14. Let's return to the tap. 
15. Cabin 
16. Rollers. Under each pair there is a narrow-gauge railway 
17. Pipes are cut like sausage. Just not on the table, but on the metal 
18. One of the pipes was adapted into a change house 
19. There is a lot of technology. She's in demand 
20. But this old thing has clearly been standing here for a long time 
21. The cylinders here are like replaceable batteries in a TV remote control 
22. Destroyed external passage from the engineering building to the power unit 
23. What remains after the work of the “metalworkers” 
24. They built with shock, they break with shock 
25. Somewhat reminiscent of the chimneys of stoves in Belarusian villages burned by the Nazis 
26.
27.
28. Panorama of the site under the engineering building. Everything is cut out here 
29. Panorama of the metal cutting site 
Some information from Wikipedia:
By the time construction of the station was stopped, 500 million Soviet rubles in 1984 prices had been spent on the construction of the nuclear power plant. Approximately another 250 million rubles worth of materials remained in the warehouses. The station began to be slowly torn apart for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal. There is evidence that in the early 90s, surveys were carried out, the purpose of which was to “adjust” additional geological justification for the closure of the Crimean Nuclear Power Plant. However, this was only a formal reason - by the end of the 80s, the situation in the USSR economy worsened so much that almost all major construction projects were curtailed, both in the energy sector and in industry, transport, and urban planning.
From 1995 to 1999, discos of the “Republic KaZantip” festival were held in the turbine department.
In 1998-2000, created on the basis of a nuclear power plant subsidiary"East Crimean Energy Company" sold the station's property for 2.204 million hryvnia. By February 1, 2003, only the special building, workshop block, reactor department and oil and diesel facilities remained on the balance sheet of the Eastern Crimean Energy Company.
In 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine transferred the Crimean Nuclear Power Plant from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy to the Council of Ministers of Crimea. Further, the Council of Ministers of Crimea had to sell the received property of the nuclear power plant, and the money had to go to solve the social and economic problems of the Leninsky district of Crimea, and in particular the city of Shchelkino.
After this, the remaining parts of the Crimean NPP were to be sold: the reactor compartment, the block pumping station, workshop building, cooler at the Aktash reservoir, dam of the Aktash reservoir, supply canal with a water intake tank, oil and diesel station facilities, diesel generator station. Further, it is known that at the beginning of 2005, the Representative Office of the Crimea Property Fund sold the reactor compartment of the Crimean NPP for UAH 1.1 million ($207,000) legal entity, whose name has not been disclosed.
There is evidence that the VVER-1000 reactor, which was never installed in the room prepared for it, was cut into scrap in 2005
The nuclear power plant has been featured in many films, the most famous of which was “The Inhabited Island” by F. Bondarchuk, which was filmed there in 2007.
Nuclear fuel was not imported here, so the nuclear power plant does not pose a radiation hazard.
Little-known fact: the station has an almost identical twin - an abandoned one unfinished nuclear power plant Stendal, 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, was built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990. By the time construction stopped, the readiness of the first power unit was 85%. Its only significant difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers for cooling, rather than a reservoir. Currently, the Stendal nuclear power plant (2010) is almost completely dismantled. A pulp and paper mill now operates on the territory of the former station; the cooling towers were dismantled in 1994 and 1999. Using excavators and heavy construction equipment The dismantling of the reactor shops is being completed.
Crimean NPP was never completed. It began to be built in 1975. However, in the late 80s, construction was abandoned. Whether this was influenced by the events in Chernobyl, public protests, or simply problems with financing, now perhaps does not matter. Be that as it may, the almost finished station was abandoned and will never be completed. By the way, not only her was abandoned, there were several more. And everyone's fate is different. Some have been completed, some will be completed, and some have only the foundation left.
But we have a rather rare opportunity to see how it all could have looked, since a number of stations of this type were nevertheless completed.
In the photo - a power unit of the Rivne NPP, and a power unit of the Crimean NPP.
And this is what it looks like main hall management. If you look closely, you can see that the instrument panels are almost identical. Of course, there were no LCD monitors in the 80s. Probably in their place there was more bulky equipment.
A little theory - how a nuclear power plant works. If you don’t go into details, then everything is banal. In the reactor, uranium atoms constantly fission, resulting in the release of heat that heats the water. This water circulates in a circle (the first circuit) and heats other water outside the reactor (in the second circuit), and this happens inside the steam generators. That, in turn, turns into steam and spins turbines, which spin generators, and they then generate electricity. After passing through the turbines, the steam is further cooled to turn it back into water. For cooling, another circuit with cold water taken from the reservoir is used. This is why most nuclear power plants are built near large bodies of water. General principle similar to a conventional thermal power plant, the main difference is that instead of “firewood” a nuclear reaction is used.
Of course, as with everything, it’s simple on the fingers, but in practice everything is incredibly complicated, but I think whoever wants to will get into these jungles himself :)
And here is the diagram, already in relation to the type of reactor in question (VVER-1000). In the center is the reactor itself. Four large cylinders are the steam generators. Conical devices (I circled one of them in red) are pumps that drive water through the primary circuit.
And now, to imagine the scale of the entire structure, here is a photograph of one of these pumps in comparison with a person.
This photo shows the layout of a station of this type:
The cylindrical containment zone, the yellow polar valve, the primary circuit pumps and steam generators are clearly visible. A little man can be seen on the floor above the reactor. To the right of the reactor block is the machine room with turbines.
And this is a real steam generator:
They did not have time to install them at the Crimean nuclear power plant, as well as the reactor. They were brought and laid on the grass. So they lay there until 2005, when two people came with an autogen and turned the reactor into scrap metal in a few days.
However, during construction they managed to install a polar crane. Here it is - a huge colossus under the ceiling of the containment zone, from which the cables hang. This crane could rotate, moving along guides along the station's containment zone. I'm afraid to imagine what a roar there was. With the help of this crane it was planned to install equipment, and in the future, carry out maintenance of the reactor.
Also, during construction, a unique tower crane was used, one of the largest in the world, with a lifting capacity of 240 tons. It stood until the mid-2000s, after which it was sold for scrap. This is the tallest crane in the photo. By the way, please note that the engine block attached to the reactor block was built in the structures, but it is currently completely destroyed.
It should be noted that this is not the only nuclear power plant, abandoned during construction.
This is, for example, what the power unit (5 and 6 if I’m not mistaken) of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, unfinished for obvious reasons, looks like.
In addition, it should be noted that cases of construction stoppages occurred not only in the USSR. For example, on March 28, 1979, an accident occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, as a result of which the construction of the Forked River station was first suspended, and subsequently finally terminated.
The unfinished reactor block of the Stendal NPP, East Germany, of the same type as the Crimean NPP, has now been completely dismantled.
Personally, I would not like to give loud assessments to such situations. I think this can already be considered history. That's how it was and nothing could be done. Who knows, maybe it’s for the better, maybe for the worse. If we talk about the current state of affairs, then of course it’s incredibly sad to see how the Crimean nuclear power plant is being destroyed. But, apparently, selling metal is more profitable than, for example, organizing a museum.
Lastly, I’ll give you a photo of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. At this nuclear power plant, as many as 6 power units were built, identical to the Crimean Nuclear Power Plant. It is difficult to imagine the scale of this entire enterprise, while the scale of even one block is amazing.
It was not my goal to tell everything - you will find this information yourself if you are interested. I have provided only a small part of the information. Photos of the Crimean (except historical) and Chernobyl nuclear power plants are mine, the rest are taken from various sources. Below I will provide links to them and related information, as well as food for thought. Most of the links are from Wikipedia.
UPD: decided to collect information about the real state of unfinished nuclear power plants.
A similar question interested me immediately after visiting the Crimean Nuclear Power Plant several years ago. But then it was difficult to find information on the real state of some nuclear power plants. Now it turned out to be much easier.
Bashkir NPP
Some infrastructure has been built, but construction of the reactor unit (except for the foundation) has not begun. Photo from the mothballed boiler room. On the right you can see the square foundation of the reactor block.
Kostroma NPP/Central NPP
The situation is similar to the previous one, or even worse. Essentially these are just concrete ruins in the forest.
Crimean NPP
See above.
Odessa ATPP
Some infrastructure has been built, but construction of the reactor unit apparently has not begun.
Tatar NPP
Part of the infrastructure has been erected, construction of the reactor unit has begun, but not much has been built; apparently, they have not even gotten to the point of starting construction of the containment zone.
Voronezh AST
Probably the most completed project after the Crimean Nuclear Power Plant. There are plans to complete the facility. Currently, it is heavily guarded and funds are allocated for conservation.
Gorky AST
Also, a largely built block. It is located in a protected area, but the internal condition and the severity of the protection are unknown. There are vague plans to convert it into a thermal power plant
Belene Nuclear Power Plant (Bulgaria)
Construction was frozen, then resumed. On current moment status unknown, probably frozen again. However, in any case, the readiness of the structures is low.
Zarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant (Poland)
Construction has been frozen and the readiness of the structures is low.
Juragua Nuclear Power Plant (Cuba)
One of the blocks is almost completely built, the second has just begun. These are units of a slightly different type than the Crimean NPP (and most other unfinished nuclear power plants). VVER-440 reactor of lower power. Judging by the photographs from space, the station is of very great interest, and besides, it is most likely not particularly guarded (although God knows what they have there and how). However, unfortunately, due to its remoteness, all this is more theoretical in nature. I'll probably look for more detailed information about this station.
Stendal Nuclear Power Plant (East Germany)
The reactor block was largely built, but was completely dismantled at the end of the 2000s.
[:RU]I will start my story about Crimea with an unfinished nuclear power plant, which is located near the city of Kerch. It was this nuclear power plant that could play an important role in the life of the entire Crimean peninsula and become a cheap source of energy for future production facilities that were planned to be located on the peninsula. Alas, now nuclear power plants have become just a good source of metal, and, most likely, for foreign manufacturers.
By chance I met a man who took an active part in the construction of the station. I forgot to ask his name, his story was so interesting, but I managed to take a photograph of him.
Crimean NPP
“Like after the war, but there was such beauty,” the elderly man uttered this phrase several times during our conversation. They planned to turn Crimea into a paradise for tourists, and provide local residents with work in new industries. It was planned to launch trolleybuses from the city of Kerch all the way to Sevastopol (now they run between Yalta and the nearest villages). To implement all these plans, a sufficient amount of electricity was needed. In 1975, they began to build a nuclear power plant, having previously prepared the satellite city of Shchelkino.
Crimean NPP
By the way, the construction was completed, they even managed to start the reactor, and a polar crane was installed in the building for the installation of heavy equipment. The launch of the station was planned for 1989, but... The 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant left its mark. Only this imprint was left not so much on nuclear energy, how much on the already undermined economic situation in the country. Here a huge “thank you” must be said to Mikhail Sergeevich, who received the Nobel Prize for the collapse of the country and now lives happily behind the cordon.
Crimean NPP
Then the history of the most expensive nuclear power plant in the world went downhill. From 1995 to 1999, the “Republic of KaZantip” festival was held on the territory of the nuclear power plant. Then the East Crimean Energy Company began selling off the power plant equipment. It is not clear why the company was called “Energy Company”.
They would call themselves honestly - “Company for the sale of abandoned metal Soviet Union" The remains of the nuclear power plant were transferred to the Council of Ministers of Crimea and, it seems, should be sold in order to invest money in the city of Shchelkino. But signs with the inscription “private property” make you wonder whether a private owner needs to invest money in the city of Shchelkino?
Also, during construction, a unique tower crane was used, one of the largest in the world, with a lifting capacity of 240 tons. It stood until the mid-2000s, after which it was sold for scrap. This is the tallest crane in the photo. By the way, please note that the engine block attached to the reactor block was built in the structures, but it is currently completely destroyed.
And this is a real steam generator: They didn’t have time to install them at the Crimean nuclear power plant, as well as the reactor. They were brought and laid on the grass.
So they lay there until 2005, when two people came with an autogen and turned the reactor into scrap metal in a few days.
In 2005, the reactor was cut up with an autogenous saw, then transported to ferrous metal. All equipment was also removed from the control rooms and handed over for ferrous metal production. It feels like in a couple of years there will be nothing left of the station at all.
The station has an almost complete twin - the abandoned, unfinished Stendal nuclear power plant, 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990. By the time construction stopped, the readiness of the first power unit was 85%. Its only significant difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers for cooling, rather than a reservoir.
The location where the reactor was to be installed.
Currently, this type of reactor is the most common in its series - 31 operating reactors (out of 54 VVERs), which is 7.1% of the total number of power reactors of all types operating in the world.
The entrance to the hermetic zone - the hermetic door has been gone for a long time.
If anyone plans to go there, be sure to take a flashlight and look under your feet, there are a lot of through technical holes in the floor.
Technical openings for cables and communications. Previously there was equipment here.
A crane is used for dismantling, and earlier, for construction, another crane was installed - a polar one. It was one of the tallest cranes in the world with a lifting capacity of 240 tons, its height was almost 2 times higher than the crane in the photo. The crane was dismantled and sold for use.
At the beginning of 2005, the Representative Office of the Crimea Property Fund sold the reactor compartment of the Crimean NPP for 1.1 million UAH ($207,000) to a legal entity whose name was not disclosed. Currently, work is continuously underway at the station to dismantle and remove parts of the unit for ferrous metal.
The Crimean nuclear power plant was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most expensive nuclear reactor.
From 1995 to 1999, discos of the “Republic KaZantip” festival were held in the turbine department. The ad read: “Atomic party in a reactor.”
It was planned to use the Aktash reservoir as a cooling pond, on the banks of which the station was built.
The station was to have 2 VVER-1000 reactors with a rated power of 1000 MW each.
Railway lock, intended primarily for replacement nuclear fuel at a nuclear power plant. 
Looking up from the airlock. A large crane is visible, which was once able to move in a circle and lift everything right up to the reactor itself. 
A place for a reactor, which was never brought here. 
Some kind of mobile transformer, apparently. 
Reactor pit. 
View up. The faucet and stainless steel walls are visible 
One of several boilers of unknown purpose, most likely part of the reactor cooling system. 
Again, stainless steel 
Splash pools. 
Crimean NPP
Crimean NPP
Crimean NPP
Crimean NPP
Crimean NPP
Crimean NPP
Crimean NPP
During one of my regular trips, I decided to visit the unfinished Crimean nuclear power plant, located near Shchelkino. Actually I'm a fan non-standard solutions, besides, I myself work at a nuclear power plant. Therefore, it was very interesting for me to see an object that could become one of the most significant in Crimea.
Location, history
The Crimean Nuclear Power Plant facility, which never became significant for the entire peninsula, or perhaps the whole country, is located in close proximity to the village of Shchelkino and a local landmark -. The development of a very expensive project at that time began back in 1968. The construction itself began seven years later - in 1975. Already in the eighty-fourth year, the object was considered a “shock construction”.
And there were good reasons for this, because its design capacity was supposed to occupy a place between the Balakovo and Khmelnitsky nuclear power plants. The calculation was carried out for 2 GW. It was in those days that Shchelkino was called a “satellite city”; unfortunately, today it looks like an ordinary village.
On construction site For the first time, a circular bridge unit, the so-called “Polar Crane,” was used in the process. The first solar station in the Soviet Union, SES-5, was immediately used. Eleven years later, the facility was 80 percent ready, but the tragedy occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (1986). All work was temporarily stopped, and three years later the construction was completely closed.
There are different opinions about why this happened, one of the versions is the accident in Chernobyl. According to another version, there were serious problems with entering the object. You can argue on this topic for a very long time, but it is all useless. The fact remains that construction was never completed. They decided to sell the property, but something went wrong here too.
What attracts tourists to an unfinished nuclear power plant?
This place is interesting for young people, especially the turbine department. It was here that the founders of the Kazantip Republic held their famous parties with the loud name “Atomic Party in the Reactor” for three years, from 1996 to 1999. Afterwards, the unfinished station began to be used by various extreme clubs. They offered all lovers thrills jumping from low heights (base jumping).
By the way, if you have watched Fyodor Bondarchuk’s film “Inhabited Island,” you will immediately see familiar landscapes. After all, he shot many of the shots here. And Bondarchuk is not the only one; you can see the silhouette of the power unit that came into operation in other films.
In addition, walks here are absolutely safe for human health, since the raw materials, although they were delivered to Shchelkino, did not have time to be placed at the station. here today in full swing The structures are being recycled. The Russian Ministry of Energy plans to create an entire industrial park on the site of the unfinished Crimean Nuclear Power Plant. So it is quite possible that these edges will become real. The unfinished nuclear power plant is more to the liking of lovers of gloomy, gloomy landscapes. As an employee of the same nuclear power plant, it was interesting to me. Admission is free.
How to get (get there) to the Crimean Nuclear Power Plant
The easiest way to get here is by your own car. Exact coordinates and map at the bottom of the page. Drive towards the village of Shchelkino, from the village of Semenovka, garden society"Cherry-96" head towards Aktash Lake (reservoir). Its shore is the end point of the journey. By the way, if you don’t have your own transport, no problem.
Photo
Exact location on the map, GPS coordinates: 45°23’30.0″N 35°48’12.0″E (45.391673, 35.803341)
I wanted to write about such an unusual place today. If you would like to see in person the remains of the so-built nuclear power plant on the Crimean peninsula, I recommend not to waste your time. Prepare thoroughly for the trip and find a place to stay. Moreover, today it is possible to book housing in Crimea online not only quickly, but also profitably. Thus, providing yourself with an interesting, useful and comfortable vacation.
Crimean Nuclear Power Plant is an unfinished nuclear power plant located near the city of Shchelkino on the shore of the salty Aktash reservoir, its cooling reservoir
The station was built according to the same plan as the currently operating Khmelnitsky NPP (Ukraine), Volgodonsk NPP (Russia) and Temelin NPP (Czech Republic). The almost completed nuclear power plant was abandoned after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (the readiness of the first power unit was 80%, the second - 18%). The first design calculations were carried out in 1968. Construction started in 1975. It was planned to provide electricity to the entire Crimean peninsula, as well as to lay the base for further development industry of Crimea - metallurgical, mechanical engineering, chemical. Design capacity is 2000 MW (2 power units) with the possibility of further increase to 4000 MW: the basic design assumes the location of 4 power units with VVER-1000/320 type reactors on the station site.
After the creation of the satellite town of Shchelkino, the embankment of the reservoir and household facilities, construction of the station itself began in 1982. From the Kerch branch railway a separate line was laid, and on the hottest days of construction, two trains of materials arrived here per day. The photo shows the village of Shchelkino:
In general, construction proceeded without major deviations from the schedule with the expected launch of the first reactor in 1989. The shaken economic situation in the country, along with the tragedy in Chernobyl, led to the fact that by 1987 the project was first suspended, and in 1989 they finally abandoned the launch of the station. By this time, 500 million Soviet rubles in the equivalent of 1984 had already been allocated for the construction of the nuclear power plant. Another 250 million rubles worth of materials were stored in warehouses. The station began to be gradually taken away for ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal. Witnesses say that in the early 90s, research was carried out to justify the closure of the Crimean nuclear power plant from a geological point of view. However, and this was just a simple reason - by the end of the 80s, the situation in the USSR economy became so bad that almost all large-scale construction projects in all areas were closed
After construction stopped, the Crimean Nuclear Power Plant quickly fell into disrepair, almost everything was dismantled and taken away. Here are the events worth noting:
- From 1995 to 1999, discos of the famous electronic music festival Kazantip were held in the turbine hall (turbine department)
- In September 2003, the Property Fund sold the unique Danish Kroll crane, brought for installation nuclear reactor, for 310 thousand hryvnia with a starting price of 440 thousand hryvnia. Before it was sold, the huge crane was used for base jumping. We jumped from the lower (80 meters) and upper (120 meters) booms of the crane. A similar Kroll crane was used in the construction of the 4th power unit of the Khmelnitsky NPP in the city of Netishin; previously, the same cranes helped build the buildings of the Zaporozhye NPP and the South Ukrainian NPP
- In 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine transferred the Crimean Nuclear Power Plant from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy to the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Then, the Council of Ministers of Crimea had to sell the resulting property of the nuclear power plant, and the money had to be spent on solving the social and economic problems of the Leninsky district of Crimea, especially the city of Shchelkino
- The remaining parts of the Crimean NPP were to be sold gradually: the reactor compartment, the block pumping station, workshops, the cooler at the Aktash reservoir, the dam of the Aktash reservoir, the supply canal, the oil and diesel facilities of the station, and the diesel generator station. It is also known that at the beginning of 2005, the Representative Office of the Crimea Property Fund sold the reactor compartment of the Crimean NPP for 1.1 million UAH ($207,000) to a legal entity whose name is not advertised.
- There is evidence that the VVER-1000 reactor, which was never placed in the room intended for it, was cut into scrap metal in 2005.
- The nuclear power plant has been featured in many films, among which the most famous was Fyodor Bondarchuk’s “Inhabited Island” filmed here in 2007 (pictured is a scene from the film)
- No fuel was delivered to the station, so it does not pose a radiation hazard.
Interesting facts about nuclear power plants:
- The Crimean Nuclear Power Plant was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most expensive nuclear power plant. The reason is that, unlike the Tatar NPP and the Bashkir NPP of the same type, which were stopped at the same time, at the time construction was stopped, it had the highest degree of readiness for start-up
- A solar power plant was built nearby. By and large, this station was only experimental: its power was 5 MW. During the operation of this station many difficulties surfaced. One of them, the reflector guidance system, almost completely (95%) consumed the energy generated by the station. There were also difficulties in cleaning mirrors. Soon this station ceased to exist and was also plundered. Near it, on the eastern side of the shore of the Aktash reservoir, there is also an experimental wind power plant YuzhEnergo, which includes 15 wind turbines with a capacity of 100 kW each. Next to it there are 8 old experimental wind turbines of the East Crimean Wind Power Plant, installed back in Soviet times and in at the moment not working
- A little-known fact: the station has an almost identical twin - the abandoned, unfinished Stendal nuclear power plant, 100 km west of Berlin in Germany, built according to the same Soviet project from 1982 to 1990. By the time construction completely stopped, the readiness of its first power unit was 85%. Its only key difference from the Crimean NPP is the use of cooling towers rather than a reservoir as a cooling system. At present, the Stendal nuclear power plant has already been almost completely dismantled. A pulp and paper mill now operates on this site; the cooling towers were dismantled in 1994 and 1999. Using excavators and heavy construction equipment, the dismantling of the reactor workshops has almost been completed.
What is a dead station like at present? A few photos from shelkino.com
Engineering block of a nuclear power plant with a collapsed external passage to the reactor
The hatch above the transport entrance through which containers with uranium were supposed to be lifted
The reactor cooling system, or rather what’s left of it
Main reactor control panel of the Crimean NPP
The insides of the station are mercilessly carved out by severely impoverished local residents.
On the dome of a nuclear power plant. Freshwater lake Aktash from which cooling channels are dug
6 water sumps
Water supply system for nuclear power plants
Crane with lifting capacity 300 tons
People live here and even ride horses
Whether it is good or bad that there is no nuclear power plant in Crimea is difficult to judge. We all remember the Chernobyl disaster and its consequences, and it’s probably for the better that it was never possible to build a nuclear power plant on the peninsula. Meanwhile, Shchelkino did not turn into another ghost town thanks to its favorable location near the sea. Every summer, crowds of vacationers come here and storm the remains of the great Soviet construction site, which are melting before our eyes - the scrap metal is cut so quickly here.
For those who wanted to get into the hermetic zone of the station, several parting words were published from the organizers of the KaZantip festival (90s)
- 1. Don't ever do this.
- 2. We understand that you are unlikely to follow the first advice, therefore:
- a) properly lace up your Martens, or whatever shoes you wear in very bad weather, take warm, not very expensive things;
- b) charge new batteries into your flashlight;
- c) take a few more crazy people with you, no more than five people, as well as food and water for a couple of days.
- 3. Be sure to find an experienced stalker among the local residents - he probably knows many ways to penetrate the hermetic zone without breaking his back.
- Many people are afraid of radiation. She's not there. But you have every chance of not returning home, so when you go on this journey, say goodbye to your loved ones and relatives.
- Since the station was almost completed, constantly look under your feet - there are many unclosed openings.
- Do not touch the wires - some of them are still live.
- Climbing the numerous stairs and holding on to the railings is also not recommended, because many of the structures here are temporary. But in general, the containment zone is quite reliable, since it is designed to withstand a direct fall from an enemy aircraft. In this sense, you are completely safe.
The story of Andrey Manchuk (Newspaper in Kievsky) about the campaign in the Hermozone:
“ Having received a modest bribe, the guards give us a large flashlight with backup batteries and open one of the doors to the huge building of the power unit, which is popularly known as the “reactor.” Strictly speaking, the reactor stuffing has not been here for a long time - everything was sent back to Russia in the late eighties. However, all other surroundings of the hermetic zone remained in place - although over the past years various businessmen have torn thousands of tons of valuable metal and cables from the ruins of the nuclear power plant. Fortunately for fans of industrial giants, monolithic reactor structures made of super-strong alloys cannot be cut by any autogenous gas. There is no need to guard them - the guards, as a rule, make sure that visiting young people do not climb here. After all, this threatens with accidents and very often with extremely sad outcomes. However, these functions are usually performed by guard dogs.
There is impenetrable darkness in the ten-story building of the power unit. The flashlight beam constantly picks out deep holes in the floor underfoot. Wandering through endless corridors, where the remains of some complex equipment still lie, we approach the hermetic zone - the heart of the nuclear power plant. It is a huge all-metal cylinder, which was supposed to protect against radiation even in the event of a reactor accident. To get inside, we climb through two huge round doors - the guards estimate their weight at seven tons - and climb the stairs to where the reactor industrial site was supposed to be located. The insides of the power unit have a completely unique appearance - something similar can only be seen in the computer toy "Half Life". The dome over the containment zone was never lowered, and therefore at night you can contemplate a magnificent picture of the southern starry sky in the round crater of the nuclear volcano. Traveling here with a local nuclear scientist - a failed nuclear power plant worker - you can find out where the reactor core would have been, where the uranium rods would have been dropped, and what level of gamma radiation would have been where people walk around freely today. Anyone who has been to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and understands what hellish forces are contained in such objects will appreciate this story.
Climbing onto the roof of the power unit, we enjoyed the Azov landscape, the swans wintering here, the remains of experimental solar and wind power plants, as well as the Sivash oil production platform, located two miles from the coast - you could sail here by chartering for fifty dollars fishing boat or...border boat. “Acid” graffiti is everywhere – in 1995–1999, the legendary rave festival “KaZantip” was held here, which made these regions famous throughout the former USSR. “
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