Rosenergoatom said the Generation III+ VVER-1200 unit received final approval for operation from national nuclear regulator Rostechnadzor on 31 October.
Alexander Lokshin, first deputy director-general for operations management at Rosatom said Rosatom can now use the experience it has gained during construction of the dual-unit Novovoronezh station as a reference for foreign projects.
He said Finland, Hungary, China, Bangladesh and Belarus had alredy adoped the technology for new nuclear plants and Rosatom’s foreign orders portfolio comprises of 36 VVER unit projects at different stages of implementation across 12 markets.
Construction of Novovoronezh 2-2 began in July 2009. It was connected to the national grid for the first time on 1 May 2019. It becomes the third unit of the VVER-1200 design to be completed in Russia.
The others were its sister unit, Novovoronezh 2-1, which began commercial operation in February 2017, and Leningrad 2-1, which began commercial operation in October 2018.
According to Rosenergoatom, VVER-1200s can be operated commercially for at least 60 years.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Russia now has 36 nuclear reactors in commercial operation and six under construction. In 2018 the nuclear fleet provided about 17.8% of the country’s electricity.
