OREANDA-NEWS. May 28, 2009. A breakout session “Nuclear Power. Small and Medium Capacity NPPs. Infrastructure. Development” was held in the framework of Atomexpo 2009 “Nuclear Power. Development Through Cooperation” on May 27 2009.

Representatives of Energoatom Concern OJSC, Atomstroyexport CJSC, ENERSENSE OY, OKBM, Gidropress, NIKIET discussed the current state and the development prospects of the small- and medium-capacity nuclear power engineering.

The moderator of the roundtable was Director General of Energoatom Concern Sergey Obozov.

The parties discussed the technical, economic and infrastructural aspects of the construction and operation of nuclear power plants of small and medium capacity in Russia and abroad. Now that the prices of traditional energy resources are growing, the only alternative for remote regions experiencing energy shortages is nuclear power plants of small and medium capacity.

Obozov told the audience about the key stages of the development of small and medium capacity plants. In 1994 a scientific-technical council outlined priorities in this field. In 2007 Rosatom examined 18 projects and selected 7 of them. Today, there are 6 projects: 1 plant of local (20MW), 1 pant of district (100MW) and 4 plants of regional level (600MW).

The parties discussed the pluses and minuses of the projects. It was a kind of rehearsal of the discussions to be held at Energoatom Concern till June 10: the day of the meeting of the Concern’s Board. For final realization each of the projects will have to be substantiated. In the second half of June the Concern will approve plans of actions on each of the projects.