Construction Has Begun On Kursk 2 Nuclear Station, Rosenergoatom Announces

16 Jun (NucNet): Russia’s nuclear operator Rosenergoatom said in a statement that construction of the Kursk 2 nuclear station in central Russia has begun with four units planned to enter commercial operation between 2020 and 2026. The statement said investment in the project will exceed 400 billion rubles ($6bn, €5.3bn). Investment in 2016 will be about 10 billion rubles, up from the 2.8 billion rubles spent on preparatory work in 2015. Site preparation for the new station has been under way since last year. The Kursk 2 project is a priority for Rosenergoatom and its parent company Rosatom, a statement said. In January 2015, Rosenergoatom said there were 1,100 workers on the Kursk 2 site and it was planning to invest about €45m for site preparation work. The Kursk 2 reactors will be VVER-TOI units. The VVER-TOI reactor is a Generation III+ design, developed from the 1,200 MW AES-2006 pressurised water reactor. Unit 1 is provisionally scheduled to enter service in 2020, Unit 2 in 2023, Unit 3 in 2024 and Unit 4 in 2026, the statement said. Commissioning of the first two units is planned to be synchronised with the decommissioning of Units 1 and 2 at the existing station.