Rosatom prepared to build nuclear plant in Far East by 2032 - Likhachev

VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 5 (Interfax) - Rosatom Group is prepared to build a nuclear power plant (NPP) in Russia's Far East by 2032, the state company's CEO, Alexei Likhachev told reporters on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

"The final years will be determined by a separate government decision. But we are already hearing from the Energy Ministry today that they would like to launch one of these plants by 2032. We agree with such an approach, although it will require some mobilization," Likhachev said.

Rosatom proposes to consider VVER-1000 reactors as the base model. At this point, this refers to building plants in Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Likhachev said.

There are plans to build about 28.5 GW of new nuclear power capacity in Russia by 2042, according to the draft general plan for deployment of power plants to 2042 published in August.

This could include at least 2.4 GW of nuclear capacity in the unified energy system of the East, including 1.2 GW at both the Primorsk and Khabarovsk nuclear power plants. These will be new generating units with average capacity of 600 MW each.