Russia Shuts World's Oldest VVER Nuclear Reactor

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Russia's state-owned Rosatom Corporation (Moscow, Russia) has announced the closure of the world's oldest VVER-440 type nuclear reactor at the Novovoronezh plant in western Russia.

Novovoronezh Unit 3 was commissioned in December 1971 and has produced 118.67 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in its 45-year lifetime. Rosenergoatom, the nuclear power plant operator division of Rosatom, said the total was equivalent to More than half of the combined annual production of all of Russia's nuclear power plants.

Situated on the River Don, 42 kilometres (km) south of Voronezh, the Novovoronezh plant consists of VVER-210 Unit 1, VVER-365 Unit 2, VVER-440 units 3 and 4, VVER-1000 Unit 5 and VVER-1200 Unit 6. Units 1 and 2 were shut down in 1988 and 1990. Unit 4 is expected to be shut down next year.

"Novovoronezh 3 was "the first of a dynasty" of the VVER-440 design, of which six units were built in Russia--two at Novovoronezh and four at Kola--with a further 29 overseas - in Armenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine," stated Rosenergoatom. "We estimate that the market for decommissioning VVER-400 units abroad could be worth up to $29 billion. Novovoronezh 3 will be a test case for such work."

Unit 3 was upgraded in 1999 and 2002 and received a 15-year lifespan extension, which expired at the end of December.

Rosatom has clashed with the European Commission (EC) in recent years over its plans to build and wholly finance a new nuclear plant in Hungary, in addition to the existing VVER-440 Paks nuclear plant. Paks is Hungary's only nuclear power plant, and uses four VVER-440 type reactors, with a combined generating capacity of 2,000 MW. It supplies roughly half of the country's power. Last November, the EC dropped an investigation into the government's procurement practices for the proposed Paks II nuclear plant. For additional information, see November 30, 2016, article--EC Drops Probe of Hungary's Paks II Nuclear Project.

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