Flurry of Russian new build contracts

29 September 2008

A contract for the design of the third and fourth reactors at the Leningrad Phase II nuclear power plant has been awarded, along with a contract for main reactor equipment for the first two units at the plant. Meanwhile, a Russian heavy engineering company has been licensed to manufacture nuclear power plant equipment.

 

St Petersburg AtomEnergoProekt (SPbAEP) has won the contract to design the third and fourth units to be built at the Leningrad II nuclear power station. The new contract formally tasks the company with carrying out pre-project works and development of the construction project for the two units. SPbAEP is also the designer of the first two units at the Leningrad II site, for which it signed a 136 billion rouble ($5.8 billion) public contract in March covering engineering, construction and commissioning as well as procurement of equipment and materials.

 

The four units to be built at Leningrad II will all be 1200 MWe VVER (pressurized water reactors) of the AES-2006 type. The first such unit is already under construction at Novovoronezh II, and the design is analogous to the 1000 MWe reactors built by AtomStroyExport at China's Tianwan nuclear power plant. First concrete for the first of the Leningrad II units is due to be poured in October, and the unit is slated to start up in 2013, with all four units online by 2018.

 

Equipment contracts and approvals

 

Meanwhile, AtomEnergoProm and Izhorskiye Zavody, part of Russian heavy engineering company OMZ, have signed a contract worth over 3 billion roubles ($118 million) to manufacture equipment for the first two Leningrad II units. According to an AtomEnergoProm statement, the contract for the production and delivery of main reactor equipment - the shell and pressure compensator - for the two units was signed earlier this month.

 

Separately, OMZ group member OMZ-Spetsstal has announced that it has received a five-year licence from Rostechnadzor, the Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service, for the manufacture of equipment for nuclear power plants.

 

The licence will allow OMZ-Spetsstal to manufacture forgings and partially complete components of the permitted steel grades and specifications to be supplied to other enterprises manufacturing nuclear power plant equipment.