Tuesday, 18 March 2025
The licence approval comes two weeks after a similar licence was issued for the proposed unit 3 at Kursk II.
Alexander Khazin, adviser to the President of JSC ASE, said “obtaining a licence is an important stage in the implementation of any project. In parallel with the preparatory work directly at the construction site, active work is also beginning to agree with the customer on the list of equipment” with the aim of placing orders within the next year for items with a long manufacturing time.
Kursk II is a new nuclear power plant in western Russia, about 60 kilometres (37.5 miles) from the Ukraine border, that will feature four VVER-TOI reactors, the latest version of Russia’s large light-water designs. They have upgraded pressure vessels and a higher power rating of 3300 MWt that enables them to generate 1300 MWe gross. Construction of the first unit began in 2018, its polar crane was installed in October 2021 and the reactor vessel was put in place in June 2022. Concreting of the outer dome of the first unit was completed in August 2023 and the aim is for it to enter commercial operation this year. The second unit is also under construction and the target is for all four units to be in operation by 2034.
The new units will replace the four units at the existing, nearby Kursk nuclear power plant, which are scheduled to shut by 2031. The first unit was shut down after 45 years of operation in December 2021. The original design life for the four RBMK-1000 reactors at the plant was for 30 years but had been extended by 15 years following life extension programmes.
