Rosenergoatom setting up task force to extend life of Kalinin NPP reactors
MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) - Rosnergoatom, the state company that operates Russia's nuclear power plants, is setting up a working group on extending the service life of the generating units at the Kalinin NPP in Tver Region, the company said in a statement following a visit to the plant by Rosenergoatom CEO Yevgeny Romanov.
Romanov said extending the service life of existing units, along with launching new capacity, is one of Rosnergoatom's priority objectives. "The main problem with achieving it at the Kalinin NPP is the large amount of work amid a shortage of time," he said.
The head of the state nuclear corporation Rosatim, Sergei Kiriyenko said earlier that the program to modernize the first unit will be completed in 2014 and the program for the second unit will be finished in 2016. There are plans to allocate 8.5 billion rubles to modernize and extend the service life of the first generating unit, and nearly 16 billion rubles to modernize and extend the working life of the second generating unit, Kiriyenko said. The service life is to be extended by 26 years.
The No. 1 unit at Kalinin NPP was shut down on January 20 due to a generator malfunction. It was expected to come back on line in 3-4 weeks. The unit underwent an overhaul from August to November 2012 as part of the program to extend its service life, which ends in 2014.
The Kalinin NPP has four generating units with VVER-1000 light water reactors with capacity of 1000 MW each. The first unit at the plant was launched in 1984.
