25 Apr (NucNet): Unit 1 of the Bilibino nuclear power station in northeast Russia will be permanently shut down in December 2018, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said.
The remaining three units at Bilibino will be shut down in December 2021, according to Konstantin Kholopov, the station’s director.
Mr Kholopov said the eventual operation of a planned floating nuclear power plant at Pevek, the northernmost town in Russia, will be one of a number of “big changes” in the energy mix in the Chukotka region.
Rosatom said the decision to permanently shut down Bilibino-1 was approved in March 2016.
Bilibino has four first-generation water-graphite 11-MW EGP-6 reactors, which are a scaled down version of the RBMK reactor design.
They began commercial operation between 1974 and 1977.
