Provided exclusively to PowerTec Russia Magazine by RosAtom
Exclusively for PowerTec Russian Magazine, Rosatom look at the development of their “next generation” nuclear power plants, and how the new reactors will increase safety, reliability and power output.
Provisions for the consolidation of the nuclear power industry in Russia and the expansion of the share of electric power produced by nuclear generation have been set out in “The Master Plan for Electric Energy Facilities thru 2020” endorsed by the Government of Russian Federation, Ordinance No. 215 of 2/22/08.
The decision on the development of the nuclear power sector in Russia was made at national level — in 2006 the President of Russia set an objective to increase the electricity generation by nuclear power to 25% of the total by 2030. In order to meet this objective, a number of documents on providing financing for nuclear power plant construction have been adopted, including a Federal Target Program (FTP) entitled “Deployment of Russian Nuclear Power and Industry Complex between 2007 – 2010 and 2010 to 2015”, all this within the framework of the FTP, under the sponsorship of The Master Plan. In accordance with this, the Long-term Action Program for Rosatom” for 2009-2015 endorsed by the Government has been developed.
The Master Plan is modified once every three years. The modifications include: Updates of regional energy consumption forecasts made by the Ministry of Energy, curtailments of approved investment programs (those of Rosatom and FGC, in this case) and certain decisions of the government (for instance, the decision to build Baltic Nuclear Power Plant in Kaliningrad Oblast, which had not been envisaged in the original FTP). At the beginning of 2011 the RF government is planning to accept a modified Master Plan, taking both current and future demand for energy into account.
Today in Russia, the following 10 power units are being built:
» Power unit No. 4 (WWER-1000) of Kalinin NPP (Tver Oblast) First criticality reached in 2011, to be entered into service in 2012.
» Power units No. 1 and 2 (WWER-1200) of the Novovoronezh NPP II, which is to replace the existing Novovoronezh NPP (Voronezh Oblast). Scheduled commissioning is 2013 and 2015 respectively.
» Power units No. 1 and 2 (WWER-1200) of the Leningrad NPP-2; 3rd and 4th power units are also planned for construction. Scheduled commissioning is 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2020 respectively.
» Fast reactor BN-800 at the Beloyarsk NPP-2 (Sverdlovsk Oblast). Scheduled commissioning for 2014.
» Power units No. 3 and 4 (WWER-1000) of Rostov NPP. Scheduled commissioning — 2014 and 2017 respectively.
» Two power units WWER-1200 of Baltic NPP (Kaliningrad Oblast). Construction began in 2010; the first unit is to be put into operation in 2016, the second in 2018.
What are new generation NPP’s?
First of all, the new generation NPP is a new type of reactor representing a qualitative breakthrough, mainly in terms of safety.
During the development stage, special attention is paid to the energy efficiency of the reactors, which ensures a reduction in capital expenditure, construction time, and operational costs, while offering increased reliability.
In order to be able to meet the requirements of local and international customers today, Russia is developing nuclear reactors with different capacities — from tens to 1500-1800MW (of electric power).
6 to 200 or 300MW units may be used in isolated grids. In Russia, these are used to power remote population centres and individual energy-intensive industrial facilities in the Far North and Far East that are not connected to regional power grids. 300-600MW units may be of interest to Russian regional transmission operators, as well as for overseas customers having transmission grids of low installed capacity with no interlinks to major power systems.
Units with a capacity of over 1000MW of electric power should be used both to cover base loads and to control power and frequency in the transmission system, if necessary.
The design of new NPP’s with WWER type reactors employs approaches and solutions that enhance their reliability and safety, including passive safety systems activated without external power supply and enabling at least 24 hours of reactor cooling in case of emergency without operator intervention; normal operation systems functioning, if necessary, as active safety systems; dual containment vessels consisting of internally sealed confinement responsible for isolation and the external containment, functioning as a protection against external impact (aircraft crash, explosion, etc.); systems to tackle beyond-design-basis accidents (the possibility of which must be accounted for) and solutions to seal the melted core within the reactor vessel or in a special trap located under the vessel in the event of a catastrophe.
Apart from safety considerations, measures are taken to increase the cost-effectiveness of NPP construction and operation through a reduction in the use of concrete, metal, reinforcement, pumps and cables resulting from the use of passive safety systems; optimized key plans and layouts of buildings and structures; extended main equipment service life and optimized auxiliary equipment service life; enhanced nuclear fuel use economy at a given enrichment level; solutions increasing the thermodynamic stability of the unit; reduced amount of radioactive waste and application of the most advanced technologies for its storage and treatment; increased fire safety by using water as a cooling and lubricating agent; new control systems allowing to reduce the number of power plant personnel; automated service life monitoring and maintenance management systems.
The above principles apply to all new generation NNPs, regardless of their capacity.
Today’s NPP projects feature both conventional safety measures and special passive systems for BDBA management, including a core melt retention system.
The system includes a container with a special sacrificial material (SM) installed under the reactor core. In case of a major accident, the system alleviates the hazardous effect of the core melt by preventing it from getting out of the “catcher” and entering the environment. This trap represents the last protection to the environment in case of the failure of all other safety systems.
The system was first tried out at the Tianwan NPP in China and now it is being mounted at Leningrad NPP-2 and Novovoronezh NPP-2.
NPP-2006 Project
The large-scale program for nuclear power plant construction called for the need to design, under a tight schedule, a power plant with technical and economic characteristics exceeding those of all previous WWER projects. The project received the name “NPP-2006 Project”.
To start the project Rosatom gathered a number of teams, including a team to create design specifications for the development of a reactor facility for NPP-2006 project. The team was composed of leading specialists from the Gidropress design bureau, OKBM, Russian Research Centre the Kurchatov Institute, Rosenergoatom Concern, Atomstroyexport, three Atomenergoproekt institutes, VNIINPP, and a number of other organizations. The team was assigned to analyze and recapture the expertise gained during the development of NPP U-87, NPP-91, NPP-92, U-87/92, Kudankulam NPP and Tianwan NPP projects and introduce the best solutions into the design specifications for NPP-2006 project in order to meet the latest standards of safety and reliability, yet keeping capital expenses to a minimum.
Based on the approved design specifications for NPP-2006, two NPP projects have been developed: Novovoronezh NPP-2 (main design contractor – Atomenergoproekt, Moscow) and Leningrad NPP-2 (main design contractor – Atomenergoproekt, St. Petersburg). The power plants have the following performance characteristics: reactor nominal thermal power – 3200MW, design service life of the reactor main equipment – 60 years, nominal electric power of the unit– at least 1150MW, with the potential for boosting up to 1200MW, utilization (average for the entire NPP service life) – 92%, maximum level of fuel burnup (FA) – up to 70MW-day/kgU, time between refueling – up to 24 months, allowable recovery period of main safety systems – at least 72 hours.
Having the same performance targets defined by the design specification for NPP-2006 project, the design contractors came up with somewhat different designs derived from their own tradition and expertise. This competitive approach to project development will help to implement the best ideas when large-scale NPP construction begins.
