10 Aug (NucNet): The Russian government has approved plans for the construction and commissioning of 11 new nuclear power reactor units by 2030, the state-operated domestic news agency RIA Novosti has reported.
The units will include one Generation IV BN-1200 sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor to be built at the Beloyarsk nuclear station in Zarechny, 50km east of Yekaterinburg in the southern Urals.
Reports in Russia earlier this year said a decision on whether to go ahead with new Beloyarsk units would not be taken before 2019. They said the decision would depend largely on the results of operating Beloyarsk-4, the pilot BN-800 plant, which was connected to the grid in December 2015, but has not yet begun commercial operation.
There is one existing, commercially operational sodium-cooled fast reactor at Beloyarsk, the BN-600. Both the BN-600 and the BN-800 are smaller versions of the BN-1200.
There are also two permanently shut-down light-water reactors at the site.
RIA Novosti also said the BN-1200 technology will be used at a new nuclear station Yuzhnouralsk (South Urals) in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, 90km south of Yekaterinburg.
Plans for the South Urals nuclear station have been around for more than a decade. They originally called for the construction of three BN-800 reactor units.
Work began in 1984, but was stopped in 1987 due to funding problems when only concrete foundations for two reactors had been laid.
According to RIA Novosti, Russia has also approved a VVER-600 unit for the Kola nuclear station near the border with Finland and seven VVER-TOI units at Smolensk nuclear station, Nizhny Novgorod nuclear station, the planned Tsentral/Kostrama nuclear station in Kostroma Oblast, western Russia, and the planned Tatar nuclear station in Tatarstan, southwest Russia.
The VVER-TOI reactor is a Generation III+ design, developed from the 1,200 MW AES-2006 pressurised water reactor.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Russia has 36 nuclear reactors in commercial operation and seven under construction.
The seven under construction do not include any of the 11 now also approved by the government.
