Meeting with Rosatom leader Sergey Kirienko in Murmansk this week, Governor Kovtun underlined that the region’s major industrial company like the Kola GMK, Phosagro and Evrochem are all interested in a new powerplant. In addition comes the Ministry of Defence, whose Northern Fleet is actively developing, Kovtun said.
Two of the four reactors at the Kola NPP are expected to be taken out of service in 2018 and 2019 respectively. “There is very little time left,” Kovtun told Kirienko. She underlined that the building of a new powerplant will be of major importance for the region’s development, a press release reads.
Both Rosatom and regional authorities have for several years discussed the possible construction of a second nuclear powerplant in the Kola Peninsula. However, the plans have repeatedly been put aside as the service life of the existing reactors have been prolonged. If built, the new plant will be situation about ten kilometers southeast of the current NPP.
The likelihood of a new NPP in Murmansk Oblast will increase as Rosatom develops a new medium-capacity reactor-type, which will better meet the needs of the region. Yevgeny Nikora, the Director Advicer for Rosatom in Murmansk, recently confirmed to BarentsObserver that the new reactor-type will be presented in the near future.
As previously reported, the existing Kola NPP reactors are configured on a double-unit basis, two reactors are arranged in one reactor hall with certain mechanical equipment and secondary systems together. Hall No. 1 holds the VVER-440/230 reactors from 1973 and 1974, while hall No. 2 holds the VVER-440/213 reactors commissioned in 1981 and 1984.
