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Russian specialists inspect Ukraine’s Khmelnitsky NPP

MOSCOW, March 31, /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Rosatom nuclear corporation specialists have inspected unit one of Ukraine’s Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant.

“Our specialists carry out non-destructive examination of nuclear power plants, both operating and those under construction, in Russia and abroad on a regular basis. This is our first trip to Ukraine this year. We were treated in the most favourable way and did all the work on time,” Anton Razygrayev of Rosatom’s Central Research Institute of Machine Building Technology said.

In February 2011, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich signed the law that ratified the inter-governmental agreement with Russia on the construction of two units at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant.

Under the agreement, which was inked by the sides on June 9, 2010, Russia and Ukraine pledged to cooperate in the designing, construction and commissioning of power units No. 3 and 4 at the Khmelnitsky NPP using water-cooled water-moderated (VVER-1000) reactors. The capacity of each unit is 1,000 megawatts.

The power units’ safety indicators are to be based on the IAEA standards.

According to preliminary estimates made by Ukrainian specialists, the construction of the two power units at the Khmelnitsky NPP will cost five to six billion U.S. dollars.

The Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant is located in the satellite town of Netishin, Khmelnitsky region, in the centre of Western Ukraine on the border the Khmelnitsky, Rovno and Ternopol regions.

The Khmelnitsky NPP was designed as a four-power unit plant. Construction started in 1981. In late 1987, the first power unit was commissioned. The construction of the second power unit began in 1983. It was expected to be connected to the grid by the end of 1991. When the moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants was declared, the main production components had already been put in place and the personnel had been trained.

The construction of power unit No. 2 was resumed in 1993. On August 8, 2004, the power unit equipped with the VVER-1000 reactor was connected to Ukraine's unified energy system. In September 2005, unit No. 2 was put into commercial operation.

With the launch of the second power unit, annual electricity generation has exceeded 15 billion kilowatt-hours.

Priority activities of the Khmelnitsky NPP include the completion of unit 3 and 4. Their construction started in Soviet times, but because of the moratorium the work was suspended.

The Ukrainian National Power Generating Company, Energoatom, drafted a detailed comprehensive programme of preparatory activities related to the inspection of structures and anti-corrosion work.

The international tender for units No. 3 and No. 4 was won in October 2008 by Russia’s Atomstroiexport.

On the Ukrainian side, the agreement was drafted by Atomproyektengineering, which is part of the Energoatom company that operates four nuclear power plants in Ukraine: Zaporozhye, South Ukrainian, Rovno, and Khmelnitsky HPPs.

It was initially planned to begin active construction of the two new units in 2011 and complete it in 2015-2016.