Private institution of Atomic Energy Power Corporation “Rusatom International Network” took part in the International conference “Nuclear Energy on Liberalized Energy Markets: Technologies, financing, planning”, which was held in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The Russian state corporation became one of the most important participants of the event. Temenuzhka Petkova, the Minister of Energy of Bulgaria, noted in the welcome speech the special value for the Bulgarian power industry of the project on Kozloduy NPP power units 5 and 6 modernization, which is being implemented with the assistance of Rosatom companies.
Contract on extension of the term of operation of the fifth block up to 60 years was signed last year between Rosenergoatom – Rusatom Service – EDF consortium and Kozloduy NPP. Rosenergoatom and French company EDF already participate in preparation of the fifth and the sixth power units of the Bulgarian nuclear power plant to extend the term of operation, which expires in 2017 and 2021 respectively. In particular, the project that was started in 2012 and is related to the complex inspection and assessment of residual operation life and constructions of the fifth and the sixth power units of Kozloduy NPP is now in the closing stage.
The Minister of Energy of Bulgaria emphasized at the conference that extension of the term of NPP operation goes according to the established schedule.
Vadim Titov, vice-president of “Rusatom International Network” took the floor at the conference on behalf of Rosatom. He noted that Rosatom takes today the leading positions in the world nuclear power industry, and the portfolio of foreign orders of the company exceeds $100 billion. The main volume of portfolio is connected with contracts for construction of foreign NPPs. Today the corporation has on its balance sheet the signed and secured contracts for 29 power units in the countries of Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific Region.
In his presentation he also laid down the current trends in the world market of nuclear power industry; they ken trend is the customer’s demand, first of all, for cost parameters of one kW/h of electric power generated by a future NPP. Rosatom includes enterprises of all NPP life cycle stages, from Uranium mining and enrichment to plant decommissioning. Therefore, we can control the cost of each production stage and, respectively, the price of one kW/h of electric power generated by our NPPs. Besides, the key advantage of Rosatom is the company experience on serial commissioning of NPP power units in modern conditions”, – declared Titov.
He emphasized that over the last 5 years Rosatom commissioned 5 power units, 2 from which are power unit 1 of Kudankulam NPP in India and power unit 1 of Bushehr NPP in Iran – they were recognized as “projects of the year” according to the US Power Engineering magazine.
News, important for Rosatom, was reported at the conference by Victor Cherni, project manager in CEZ company. He declared that construction of new units at Temelin NPP and Dukovana NPP sites was provided in the current version of the national plan for the nuclear power industry development in the Czech Republic. Russian State Corporation participated in the tender for construction of new Temelin NPP units.
CEZ Group (70% of the company belong to the government of the Czech Republic) announced last year the cancellation of the tender for completion of two units with total power of 2 GW. The company explained that economic conditions have changed significantly since 2009 (when the tender was announced), and the return of investments depends on the free market prices. However, the companies noted then that construction of the NPP could be resumed as there was a high risk of power deficiency in the next 20 years.
