Kola nuclear power plant is Russia’s only located north of the Arctic Circle. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
Head of Rosatom, Sergey Kiryenko visited the Kola Peninsula this week and could confirm that funding to the long-time planned Kola NPP-2 will come already next year.
- 230 million roubles (€5,3 million) is allocated for a feasibility study in 2012, Sergey Kiryenko told reporters in Murmansk on Wednesday, B-port reports.
Kiryenko confirmed that the construction of the first reactor will start in 2015 and is scheduled for commissioning in 2020. The reactor type will be in the size of 1000 to 1200 MW. The four reactors that today are operational at Kola nuclear power plant are all of the VVER-440 type, generating 440 MW.
Kola NPP-2 will be constructed in the vicinity of the existing nuclear power plant, near the city of Polyarny Zori some few hours’ drive south of Murmansk.
The speaker of Murmansk regional Duma, Yevgeny Nikora says to Murmansk Business Novosti that he praises the readiness of Rosatom to start the work on the first reactor of Kola NPP-2. Before entering politics, Nikora was an employee of Kola nuclear power plant.
When the new nuclear power plant is up and running, the two oldest reactors at the existing plant will be closed down. The reactors were commissioned in 1973 and 1975.
Not everyone hail the announcement to construct a new nuclear power plant. The regional environmental organization Priroda i Molodez says in a statement that that the plans are ridiculous.
- Today, when countries like Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan suspend nuclear development programs, the talks about building a new nuclear power plant based on old plans are ridiculous, says Vitaly Servetnik in Priroda i Molodez.
The first plan to build a second nuclear power plant near Polyarny Zori was announced back in 1990. In a statement posted at the portal of Rosatom, Sergey Kiryenko says “the schedule may be adjusted depending on the forecast growth in the electricity consumption.”
