Nikolay Ponomaryov-Stepnoy, academic, Vice President of Kurchatov Institute

— The construction of Russian reactors in China is paving the way for us into foreign markets

On Jan 9, 2007, the capacity of the 1st unit of Tianwan NPP was raised to 99.6% with the electric load increased to 1,064 MW (i.e. the Chinese energy system is receiving 1.064mln KW an hour). Armstroyexport has been allowed by the National Supervisory Agency of China (NNC) to raise the unit’s capacity to 100%. Vice President of Kurchatov Institute research center, academic Nikolay Ponomaryov-Stepnoy has commented to journalists on the news:
 
The 100% launch of a Russia-made reactor in China is really very good news. They in the world do not build so big reactors very often nowadays. Nuclear power engineering has been stagnating for a long time, so, the launch of this reactor – even with some delay – is a very big achievement for both China and Russia.

Presently, we are preparing for the launch of the 2nd unit. As soon as we launch it, we will fulfill all our obligations under the contract. Of course, we should not stop at this and should continue to fight for involvement in NPP construction projects in China and other countries. This project is paving the way for us into foreign markets.

In China we are facing a very serious competition. Our key rivals there are Areva (France) and Westinghouse. True, China has really grandiose plans in the nuclear power sector and there will be enough work for all, but we will still face a very serious rivalry. China is already building French reactors and is also planning to build American ones, we also have reactors there – so there will certainly be a rivalry, this is a normal process. Our task is to win this competition. We should improve the parameters of our reactors: raise their capacity and the quality of fuel. And then we will be able to compete. That is, the NPP-2006 project we are developing in Russia and are going to apply at our NPPs should be competitive both in Russia and abroad.
 
Unfortunately, the years of stagnation have forced us to reduce production and curtail industry. There were no orders and we degraded. However, we have managed to do our job in China and are effectively building reactors at home and this gives us hope for future progress.