9 Sep (NucNet): Investment in all four units of the proposed Kursk 2 nuclear power station, planned to replace the existing Kursk station, will total more than 400 billion Russian roubles (RUB) (about 8.3 billion euros, 10.7 billion US dollars), Russian state nuclear power company Rosatom said.
Rosatom said the planned capital investment in the project in 2014 is RUB 3 billion.
Rosatom said the project is important for the development of the Kursk region, in western Russia, with an expected 6,000 to 7,000 jobs to be created during construction and a further 2,000 when the station is operational.
Annual tax revenue for the region from construction is expected to be RUB 280 million, while the total tax revenue for the region during the 60-year operational lifetime of the plant is estimated at RUB 200 billion, Rosatom said.
Kursk 2 will have four VVER-1200 nuclear reactors, each with an electrical power output of 1,200 megawatts.
According to a government plan for the development of nuclear power in Russia, the first unit of the Kursk 2 station will be operational by 2020, units 2 and 3 by 2025 and unit 4 by 2030.
In November 2013, the government approved the construction of replacement capacity for three existing nuclear stations which are near the end of their operational lifetime – Kursk, Kola and Smolensk.
Kursk has four existing nuclear reactors which became commercially operational between 1977 and 1986. They are of the RBMK-1000 design, the same as the permanently shut down reactors at Chernobyl.
