OREANDA-NEWS. March 19, 2009. Russia is going to shortly submit the NPP-2006 project for international assessment, says head of the Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor) Nikolay Kutyin.

The NPP-2006 project with WWER-1200 reactor is Russia’s latest modification of WWER reactor based on the technical solutions of the NPP-92 project. NPP-92 meets all the EUR requirements to light-water reactors of new generation.

“We have discussed this issue with Rosatom and believe that in the near future we will be able to submit this project for international assessment and to receive the approval of the world community. We did not hurry to make this decision but now we have made it and will shortly start putting it into practice,” says Kutyin.

The procedure of international assessment will include consideration of the compliance of the equipment suppliers with the requirements of the project and the conformity of the project’s technical solutions and safety parameters with international criteria.

It will be a special procedure ensuring that the secrets and know-hows of the project will be not be disclosed, that no damage will be caused to the applicant-state but at the same time the safety of the project and the quality of its suppliers will undergo very thorough analysis.

Presently, international experts are evaluating US and French NPP projects.

“This project can comprise elements of different producers, Korean metal structures, French or German automatic equipment, i.e. one project may be based on different technological solutions and all of them should be assessed: the experts should see if they are safe and compatible with one another. This is exactly how projects like that are assessed: each supplier involved in the project must undergo evaluation,” says Kutyin.

Director of Nuclear Safety Institute Leonid Bolshov says that international assessment will be useful for the NPP-2006 project.

“If we fail to undergo such a procedure, our rivals will do it. So, we must show a very serious approach to this process. I mean not only the Russian regulator, Rostekhnadzor, but also Atomenergoprom, particularly, Gidropress,” says Bolshov.