12th April 2019, Novovoronezh, Russia – The power start-up of unit No.2 at the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant II, containing ROSATOM’s flagship Generation III+ VVER-1200 reactor, has begun following the green light by Russia’s regulator Rostechnadzor.
The power start-up is a complex set of stages by which the reactor power is gradually increased from 1% to 35-40%.
This level of power provides enough energy to turn on the turbogenerator and then begin producing electricity, which is scheduled for May of this year. This will then be followed by a long and gradual process of increasing the nominal power from 40% to 100%. Unit No.2 at Novovoronezh-2 is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2019.
The launch of the reactor will increase to 27% the share of nuclear power in Central Russia’s electricity grid, thereby preventing an average of four million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from being discharged into the air, while giving a further boost to the region’s economy.
The VVER-1200 is the flagship of ROSATOM’s Generation III+ PWR-type reactor and the world’s only Generation III+ design in series construction. Unit No. 2 at the Novovoronezh-2 NPP is going to be the third in the series following unit No. 1 at the same NPP, launched in 2016, and unit No. 1 at the Leningrad-2 NPP, launched in 2017.
The innovative Generation III+ power unit, equipped with the VVER-1200 reactor, has a number of economic and safety advantages when compared to the previous generation (VVER-1000): it is 20% more powerful; the amount of personnel operating the reactor has decreased to between 30 and 40%; and the lifetime of the reactor has doubled to 60 years, with the possibility of lasting an additional 20 years.
The following countries, among others, have chosen to adopt this technology: Finland, Hungary, China, Bangladesh and Belarus. Rosatom’s international order book currently comprises of 36 committed VVER units across 12 markets.
About Rosatom
ROSATOM is the only company in the world to offer integrated clean energy solutions across the nuclear supply chain and beyond, including design, construction and operation of nuclear power stations, uranium mining, conversion and enrichment, supply of nuclear fuel, decommissioning, spent fuel storage and transportation and safe nuclear waste disposal. With 70 years’ continuous experience, the company is the world leader in high-performance solutions for all kinds of nuclear power plants. It is also working in the segments of wind generation, nuclear medicine, energy storage and other.
Headquartered in Moscow, the company brings together over 300 enterprises and organizations and over 250,000 employees. Globally, the company has the second biggest uranium reserves, has more than a third of the world’s enrichment market, and is the world's biggest builder of the latest generation nuclear power stations and US$133 billion 10-years export order book.