Novovoronezh II-2 generates first electricity for Russian network

02 May 2019

Unit 2 of the Novovoronezh II nuclear power plant in southwest Russia for the first time supplied electricity to the country's grid yesterday, Rosenergoatom, the operator subsidiary of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has announced. The VVER-1200 reactor was brought to the minimum controlled power level on 22 March and it reached a capacity of 240 MW yesterday.

Unit 2 of the Novovoronezh II plant (Image: Rosenergoatom)

Novovoronezh II-2 will be the third VVER-1200 to be commissioned, following Novovoronezh II-1 and Leningrad II-1, which were launched in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Alexander Lokshin, first deputy director general for Operational Management at Rosatom, said: "Today, the second unit of Novovoronezh NPP II was for the first time included in our country's power system, and transferred its first kilowatt-hours of electricity. This is a significant event that was made possible thanks to the long and productive work of a large team of thousands of professionals and hundreds of organisations. A significant amount of work has still to be done before commissioning the unit, but today we have the right to talk about the success of the project to create Novovoronezh II, a Generation 3+ nuclear power plant, as a whole."

Rosenergoatom General Director Andrey Petrov added that the milestone had been reached 12 days ahead of schedule. "Once the power unit has been included in the network, a pilot production programme will begin, which will provide for a phased increase in power to the nominal level - 100%. In December, we’ll put the unit into operation."

Researched and written by World Nuclear News