VVER-1200 unit near St Petersburg will have net capacity of 1,150 MW
Construction and installation work has advanced at Unit 4 of the Leningrad 2 nuclear power station near Sosnovy Bor in western Russia, with the steel body of the core catcher and the first tier of the inner containment shell now in place, state nuclear corporation Rosatom said in a statement.
The statement said the 157-tonne core catcher body was installed three months ahead of schedule.
The core catcher – also known as a core melt localisation device or core trap – is designed to catch the molten core material, or corium, of a nuclear reactor in the event of a nuclear meltdown and to prevent it from escaping the containment.
Rosatom said the core catcher is the first large piece of equipment installation at Leningrad 2-4, about 100 km west of St Petersburg.
The unit will be a VVER-1200 pressurised water reactor with a net capacity of 1,150 MW. Construction of Leningrad 2-4 began in March 2025. Construction of an identical unit, Leningrad 2-3, began in March 2024.
Rosatom said completion of all core catcher installation work will allow the project to begin preparations for installation of the reactor pressure vessel, which is scheduled for 2029.
In a separate update, Rosatom said construction of the reactor building’s inner containment shell had also begun at the unit. Specialists installed the first vertical tier of the inner containment shell, a 97-tonne steel structure, using a heavy crawler crane.
Rosatom said the second tier of the inner containment shell is being manufactured and is also planned for installation this year. Work on the inner containment shell for Leningrad 2-4 is scheduled to be completed in 2029, while the outer containment shell is expected to be ready in 2030.
