New unit of Novovoronezh nuclear power plant in Russia connected to grid

The innovative power unit of Generation III+ at Novovoronezh NPP has been connected to the national grid and produced first 240MW of electricity.

At 03 hours 35 minutes (MSK) one of the most important and critical operations at the stage of the first power was carried out at Unit 6’s VVER-1200, i.e. the first trial switching of the generator to the grid was successfully made.

This was preceded by the turbine start from the rest (approach to planned spin up in idling mode of the turbine generator’s rotor) and its trial in idling. Specialists carried out a large set of checks and tests at different power build up stages, as well as inspection of different equipment was carried out. The measures are necessary to confirm reliability and safety of the power unit in its further operation.

“This event is our great victory, which crowns a huge amount of work in installation and adjustment of equipment, and complex process operations. It can be stated that all works were done reliably and safely. The operating personnel clearly understands the process, equipment operates safety and reliably,” Andrey Petrov, General Director of Rosenergoatom, said.

In turn, President of NIAEP Valery Limarenko pointed out: “ROSATOM is the world’s largest supplier of nuclear power plants in the global market. Today, we have made our positions stronger. This opens new opportunities for building up our presence in the global market.”

The innovative power units of Generation III+ possess improved performance parameters. They are absolutely safe in operation and fully meet the IAEA’s post-Fukushima requirements. Their feature is a large number of passive safety systems, which are able to function even in case of the plant blackout and without operator’s intervention. So Unit 6 of Novovoronezh NPP uses passive heat removal system from the reactor, hydrogen recombiners and core catcher, which are unique and have no similarities worldwide.

At present, Generation III+ power units are built in the USA and France. Unit 6 of Novovoronezh NPP, however, has become the first nuclear power unit in the world pertaining to the new generation which approached the first power.