Work is scheduled to begin in 2025 on a second nuclear power station near Smolensk, near Belarus in western Russia, where Moscow already operates three RBMK-1000 light-water graphite reactor units approaching the end of their design lifetime, according to officials from state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

Two new Generation III+ VVER-TOI plants are scheduled to become operational in 2032 and 2034 at the site about 350 km southwest of Moscow, Strana Rosatom, an official journal of Russia’s state-owned nuclear corporation, reported.

Sergei Gromov, deputy director of the Smolensk nuclear power station, told the journal that first concrete for the first new unit at the site, Smolensk 2-1, is expected to poured in 2027. The second unit will be Smolensk 2-2.