Installation of Cooling Tower Basins Completed at Rostov NPP Unit 4

The mechanical draft cooling tower project at Unit 4 of Russia's Rostov Nuclear Power Plant has recently completed the installation of all four basins, bringing the overall civil and installation readiness of the project to 80%. The facility will provide supplementary cooling capacity for Unit 4 during summer high temperatures and peak electricity demand in southern Russia.

Rostov NPP is part of Rosenergoatom, the operator of Russian nuclear power plants, which is a member of the electric power division of Rosatom, Russia's state atomic energy corporation. Under the project plan, the new mechanical draft cooling tower will operate in conjunction with the existing natural draft evaporative cooling towers to enhance the unit's operational stability under high-temperature conditions.

Alexey Fedotov, Deputy Director for Capital Construction at Rostov NPP, stated that all four cooling tower basins have been fully installed, each with a volume of approximately 4,400 cubic meters and a depth exceeding 5 meters. Process piping and equipment installation is currently underway at the site, with major equipment installation progress exceeding 50%. The civil works portion of the project is scheduled for completion in December this year.

Andrey Salnikov, Director of Rostov NPP, noted that the mechanical draft cooling tower is a technical solution developed by Rosenergoatom specifically for the characteristics of Rostov NPP. A similar facility was commissioned at Unit 3 of the station in 2021 and has demonstrated stable performance over five years of operation. The cooling tower project for Unit 4 commenced one year ago and is planned to be put into operation before the summer of 2027.

According to available data, the mechanical draft cooling tower complex at Unit 4 consists of 16 cells with a cooling water treatment flow rate of 45,000 cubic meters per hour. Once commissioned, the facility will provide milder operating conditions for major equipment during hot weather and enhance the safety and reliability of unit operations.

Rostov NPP is located on the banks of the Tsimlyansk Reservoir and operates four VVER-1000 pressurized water reactor units. Each unit generates approximately 25 million kWh of electricity per day. The station's nuclear power generation accounts for over 70% of the electricity production structure in the Rostov region and approximately 30% of the unified power system of southern Russia.