Russian nuclear power plants generated 3.786 trillion kWh of energy over the last 25 years. It is impressive what RosEnergoAtom has achieved since its foundation. Eight new power units, including Unit 1 of Novovoronezh II and Beloyarsk Unit 4, were brought online. The service lives of 25 Russia-based power units were extended, with capacity utilization increased from 52.6% to 85.95%. Throughout this period, the company maintained safety at Russian nuclear plants at the highest level and kept improving it. Its efforts brought about a threefold decrease in deviations according to the INES scale, a tenfold reduction in incidents and total absence of events rated above INES Level 1 at Russian nuclear plants since 1999.
RosEnergoAtom is now Russia’s biggest generating company with the second largest nuclear power capacity in the world. The company operates 10 nuclear plants with 35 power units having a total capacity of 27.9 GW, with more nuclear plants under construction. RosEnergoAtom also has a number of engineering subsidiaries. RosEnergoAtom is engaged in the construction of eight nuclear power units, while remaining successful in its main line of business – generation of electricity and heat – with safety as the highest priority.
“The most important change over these years was return to the construction business. We are constructing eight nuclear power units, with RosEnergoAtom acting both as a construction owner and a technical supervisor,” noted RosEnergoAtom’s CEO Andrei Petrov. “A few years ago, we built an average of one power unit every three years, and no one thought that nuclear construction would be booming. The units we are building are based on VVER-1000 reactors like that at Rostov Unit 4 and employ the latest industry solutions.”
On the global scale
Last year was a landmark for both RosEnergoAtom and the global nuclear community. Unit 4 with an innovative BN-800 fast-neutron reactor was finally brought online at Beloyarsk NPP. This strengthened Russia’s leading position in the development of fast breeder technology. Another event of global importance was grid connection of the first power unit operating a Generation 3+ reactor at Novovoronezh II. “They [these two units – RN] exemplify key competitive strengths of Russia’s nuclear industry,” Andrei Petrov said.
Nuclear power generation in Russia may hit a new high by the end of 2017 to overachieve the targets set by the Federal Antimonopoly Service to become a good anniversary present for the company. In 2016, the nuclear plants in Russia generated 196.366 billion kWh, exceeding the 2015 level (195.213 billion kWh).
The company works on developing new lines of business. Among them is fabrication of cobalt-60 used for the production of gamma-radiation sources applied in many industries. The project is being implemented at the Leningrad, Smolensk and Kursk NPPs.
Foreign markets
RosEnergoAtom actively works to fulfill its obligations under the concluded contracts for servicing nuclear power plants of Russian design abroad. Now the work in this direction is carried out in 12 countries, such as Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Iran, China, Bolivia, Finland, Lithuania, and India. In Armenia, Iran, and Bulgaria, the Division is the market leader.
In addition, new service lines – such as Nuclear Infrastructure and Personnel Training – are successfully developed.
A pilot staff training course is underway at Fennovoima-1 in Finland. Experts from Belarus are trained at the staff training center of Novovoronezh NPP.
