The Russian state-owned nuclear company Rosatom has announced the start of construction of the 1.2 GW fourth unit at the Leningrad-II nuclear power plant, located near Saint Petersburg in north-western Russia. Rosatom announced the first pouring of concrete for Leningrad-8, marking the beginning of the main stage of construction for the new VVER-1200 unit. The reactor is planned for completion by 2032.
The Leningrad-II nuclear power plant, which will feature four VVER-1200 unit (Units 5 through 8), will replace the adjacent Leningrad-I nuclear plant, which is seeing its ageing units gradually decommissioned. Leningrad units 1 and 2 (both RBMK units) were shut down in 2018 and 2020, respectively, and replaced by Units 5 and 6 (both operational). Units 7 and 8 will replace units 3 and 4 as they are to be decommissioned in the coming years. Construction of Unit 7 started in March 2024, and the reactor should be commissioned by 2030.
The Leningrad nuclear power plant is one of the largest in Russia, with an installed capacity of 4.4 GW, and provides more than 55% of the electricity demand of Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region.
At the end of 2023, about 11% of Russia’s installed capacity was nuclear power (29.5 GW) and nuclear accounted for around 19% of the power mix.
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