On November 12, 2019, the 2nd power block of the Kola NPP, where scheduled maintenance has been completed recently, is going to be stopped following an approval notice to finalize the full-scale upgrade program.

It is important to note that on October 26, the 2nd power block was connected to the grid following a long-lasting preventative maintenance, which was one of the steps in its upgrade program to extend its life span for another 15 years.

All in all, the maintenance campaign took almost 280 days, which was one of the longest ones in the history of the plant. During the preventative maintenance, all diagnostics and control systems were updated, digital equipment and new hardware and software suites were installed, passive safety system was built and introduced, which, in conjunction with other factors, is going to promote better power block safety. Following that, it took the 2nd power block two weeks to go through the power testing trial.

The next and the final stage of the program will be the review of the technical trial reports by the Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor) and making changes to the license for the 2nd block power operation. During that period, the 2nd power block will be disconnected from the grid, and three other power blocks – 1st, 3rd and 4th – of the Kola NPP will cater for electric power production.

Nowadays, the Kola NPP supplies electric power to over half of consumers in the region. The upgrade of the Kola NPP power blocks is a part of a huge undertaking aimed at conserving the power reserve of the Murmansk region. Energy security is one of the region’s key investment benefits that make it easy to launch modern energy-demanding projects and establish all the necessary pre-conditions to establish new production facilities and introduce new jobs.

The current load according to the operational schedule is 1,420 megawatt. The radiation background in the area where the Kola NPP is located is 0.07 µSv/hour, which is within the natural background limits.