In 2018, the Russian NPPs have produced over 2.8 billion kilowatt-hours of extra electric power thanks to the optimized time lines for the power blocks’ maintenance. It resulted into a record-breaking electric power output of 204.3 billion kilowatt-hours, which is 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours higher than last year.

These data were presented during the offsite meeting of the Russian NPPs’ chief engineers, which took place at the Kursk NPP on February 12, 2019. The key topics for discussion were the performance of last year’s goals on electric power output as well as the safety measures, the secure and effective operation of power blocks, their technical maintenance and repair.

‘Technical maintenance and support always have room for improvement. This year, we are going to require new approaches and measures to attain our goals in terms of facilitating the necessary security arrangements’, Alexander Shutikov, the First Deputy CEO responsible for the NPP operation at the Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company, said.

In the meantime, Alexander Krupskiy, the Director of the Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company’s Technical maintenance, repairs and assembly department, noted that the implementation of the cutting-edge technologies and new tools helped to optimize the duration of the maintenance campaigns completed in 2018 by 118.5 days. ‘It has contributed into the increase in the electric power output by 0.7 billion kilowatt-hours compared to 2017’, Mr. Krupskiy stated.

Sergey Adamchik, the general supervisor of the Rosatom State Corporation, Nikolay Sorokin, the general supervisor of the Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company, heads of Rosenergoatom’s department, the representatives of ‘Atomenergoremont’ and other companies in the industry that support the operation of nuclear power plants, as well as the representatives of the Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor) took part in the meeting, too.

The participants have also discussed the topics related to the labour protection system and the safety culture, shared their best practices in the safe operation of nuclear power plants. In particular, Alexander Uvakin, the chief engineer of the Kursk NPP, has presented his report on the plant’s unique experience in the improvement of the heating equipment operation during summer: safe biological methods to maintain the cleanliness of the cooling pond water have helped to eliminate zebra mussels, which is a biological distortion.

When summing up the results of the meeting, Alexander Shutikov, the First Deputy CEO responsible for the NPP operation at the Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company, noted that the top priority to facilitate the stable and reliable operation of an NPP is to ensure that each employee treats the safety culture seriously.