Sergey Kirienko: Novovoronezh NPP construction attracted foreign delegations

Novovoronezh nuclear power plant construction has entailed pilgrimage of foreign delegations to the plant, head of ROSATOM Sergey Kirienko said at a meeting with President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

“In summer we reached a milestone that is important not only for the Russian nuclear industry but also for the global nuclear sector. It was the first power of a new unit at Novovoronezh nuclear power plant. It is the world’s first unit of Generation III+. After Fukushima there was much talk about so-called post-Fukushima requirements. There are many designs, and they have started building in many places. But the first unit of the kind has been built in Russia. In general, this is our leadership,” Kirienko said.
He reminded that similar units are built in Belarus, Hungary, Egypt, and Bangladesh. “And since we have this pilot unit built, it is an object of pilgrimage; the foreign delegations ask to show it to them, because this is the future of nuclear power,” Kirienko noted.

The power unit reached its first criticality this May. It was built to the Russian design AES-2006 with a VVER-1200 reactor, which has an installed electric capacity of 1,200 megawatt. It pertains to Generation III+ reactors with improved performance indicators, which meet most up-to-date safety and reliability requirements. The unit is fitted with additional passive safety systems which do not require human interference in case of an accident and prevents it from further development.