“According to the schedule, we are going through a number of critical stages this summer, and I would like to see the progress,” said Rosatom CEO Sergei Kirienko at a working meeting on the construction of new units at the Novovoronezh NPP. Cold and hot functional tests should be completed by August, with pre-commissioning activities to follow. “Our task is to start up the reactor this December,” Sergei Kirienko concluded. The company has all the required finance for this purpose, and deliveries of the core equipment are at their final stage.
Novovoronezh NPP-2 Unit 1 will be the first ever commissioned Generation III+ unit. Rosatom CEO said, “Unit 1 will be a reference project for a number of contracts signed with different countries. Customers are no less eager to see its commissioning than we are – we all wait for the moment when we can ‘touch’ the unit.”
According to the schedule, the unit will be connected to the grid in the first quarter of 2016 provided that the tests are successful. “A month earlier or a month later – no hurry here as the timing is not critical, but the quality is,” says Sergei Kirienko.
He explains that there are much more quality and safety tests to be completed at the new unit than at older blocks where every aspect of equipment and technology is tried and tested and where Rosatom and the Russian Nuclear Supervision Agency do far less testing. In this case the testing is as comprehensive as possible. “Our approach is clear. If there is the slightest doubt and a need to stop work and make additional tests, we will immediately stop it and make as many tests as needed. They are much more important as it is a reference unit, and its design will be used to build dozens of units both in Russia and abroad. There is no task to complete the unit by a particular date,” stressed Sergei Kirienko, adding that Rosatom has all the finance required to complete the construction and commissioning.
This year, RUB20bn is allocated to the Novovoronezh NPP-2 project (two units), with RUB24bn more to follow in the coming years. This amount will be primarily used to finance the construction of the second unit. “We are well ahead of the construction schedule for the next unit. I am satisfied with the work done,” Sergei Kirienko concluded.
Construction of Unit 2 began in 2007. It is based on the AES-2006 design, with a VVER-1200 reactor to be used in it for the first time ever. Installation of the reactor at Unit 2 began last February.
