VVER-1000 reactors uprated by the end of year
04 June 2010
A Nuclear.Ru report quotes deputy director general of Rosenergoatom Alexander Shutikov as saying the uprate program for all but one of Russia's VVER-1000s will be complete by the end of 2010. The uprates will increase the maximum capacity of eight third generation VVER-1000 reactors by 4%, resulting in 311 MWe extra generating capacity. The prototype VVER-1000 V-187 reactor Novovoronezh 5 is excluded from the work. This is part of a larger program to increase the capacity of Russian reactors under which, Shutikov went on to mention, VVER-440 reactors will see their capacity increase by 5%. This program includes every VVER-440 except the oldest two, Novovoronezh 3 and 4. Shutikov emphasised the effectiveness of the program which has cost $200/kWe of extra generating capacity compared to $2300-$2400/kWe for the construction cost of Rostov 2.