Director of the Slovak Branch of Rusatom-International Network (Rosatom Central Europe) Denisa Volekov? addressed the conference. She noted that Slovakia was a longstanding and important partner for ROSATOM. “Four power reactors of Russian design operate in the country, supplying more than half of electricity generated in Slovakia. The Fuel Company of ROSATOM TVEL supplies nuclear fuel for the Slovak reactors. ROSATOM is open to the greatest extent for cooperation with the Slovak partners in all areas of nuclear power, in particular in building new power units, servicing and upgrading, service life extension and decommissioning of nuclear power plants,” Denisa Volekov? emphasized.
The head of the branch specified that ROSATOM is the only company in the world, which incorporates enterprises that represent all stages of the nuclear power lifecycle: from uranium mining and enrichment through NPP decommissioning. Speaking on the company’s experience, Denisa Volekov? noted that over the recent five years ROSATOM has commissioned four power units both in Russia and abroad. “Today, the company’s projects on building 30 new reactors are at different stages of advancement, of which 21 reactors are outside Russia. Today, 10 of 12 reactors being built in Europe are built to the VVER technology,” she said.
ROSATOM has a history of success as regards service life extension of NPPs with VVER-440 reactors similar to those in Slovakia, according to the branch head.
At the conference, head of R&D Office of the Fuel Company of ROSATOM TVEL Nikolay Sokolov spoke on the latest developments in the field of nuclear fuel. He noted that over the recent ten years in conditions of open competition the company has won all tenders for Russian nuclear fuel supply to European NPPs with VVER reactors. Today, the company supplies fuel to 18 reactors in five EU countries. Besides, the Fuel Company of ROSATOM TVEL supplies high-quality nuclear fuel to other world countries.
Looking back, in January last year ROSATOM was reported to study an opportunity of taking part in the project of Jaslovsk? Bohunice NPP in Slovakia. ROSATOM signed a memorandum with the Czech-Slovak joint venture JESS, which builds nuclear power units. Under this memorandum the Russian publicly-owned corporation gets access to necessary information.
In summer this year, Russia’s Sberbank provided a term bi-currency loan of €870 million to the Slovak company Slovenske Elektrarne, which implements a construction completion project of Units 3 and 4 with VVER-440 reactors at Mohovce NPP. The loan maturity period is 7.5 years.
At the present time, two power units (Units 3 and 4) at Bohunice NPP and Units 1 and 2 at Mohovce NPP are in operation. Three power units of Bohunice NPP are located in the Slovak town of Jaslovsk? Bohunice; they are currently shutdown. The closure of the nuclear power plant was one of the terms for Slovakia’s ascension to EU. The new power unit construction may start in 2014.
