The round table was attended by Jacques Regaldo, the Chairman of the World Association of Nuclear Operations (WANO), Andrey Petrov, the Director General of Rosenergoatom Concern, chief executives of the industry companies and NPPs, leading experts.
Welcoming the participants Andrei Petrov noted the crucial role of international collaboration for the further nuclear power development throughout the world. "Our company has unique knowledge and competence in the areas of construction, operation and decommissioning of generating units. Undoubtedly, all this current activity can be carried out only by condition of close international cooperation and exchange of experience in all areas - this is one of the main prerequisites for nuclear energy safety and efficiency increase", he stressed. Andrey Dementiev, Deputy General Director,Director for production and operation of the NPP, shared the particular experience, which Rosenergoatom possesses as an operating organization,with the participants. He noted that Russia's largest generating company in 2017 set another domestic record for electricity generation - 203 billion kWh. From the strategic point of view, the main efforts are directed to maintaining the share of production in Russia that Rosenergoatom currently has (19% in the whole country and 40% in the European part of Russia). Two programs are being implemented for this purpose- to extend the operation life of existing NPP and to build new ones. "At the moment, 25 out of 35 active generating units of the Concern are operating in the mode of extended service life,"
Andrey Dementiev said. Their contribution to the total electricity generation of NPP of the Concern exceeded 60% in 2017. In the next eight years it is necessary to extend the life of six more generationg units.Along with this the construction of new generating units is continuing (in particular, in 2017 generation "3+" innovative generating unit was commissioned at Novovoronezh NPP).
At the moment, the Concern is working on solving the problems of commissioning the Rostov NPP Unit 4 and Unit 1 of Leningrad NPP-2 into commercial operation. Andrey Dmentyev reported that Rosenergoatom also has unique experience in the field of building nontraditional nuclear generating units—primarily world’s first floating nuclear power station (FNPS). As soon in late May the floating generating unit will be transported to Murmansk where activities to load fuel into the core will continue and all necessary start-up operations will be performed.
Oleg Shalnov, Director of the Rosenergoatom Concern Information Technology Department, reported about the “digital template”—a new trend that is expected to enhance the NPP operating efficiency and expand the monitoring and corrective measures tools in the power generation unit operation. According to Mr. Shalnov, by 2019 Rosenergoatom should complete implementation of the information technology systems in all its 35 operating generating units.
Andrey Petrov, the head of Rosenergoatom, stated: “Digital technologies as part of the process control systems have been an integral part of our lives for a while. When we speak of the next step in the digitization process, the digital template, we understand that as the introduction of IT technologies into nuclear station control systems. Digital solutions allow us, first and foremost, to increase the speed and improve the quality of management decisions. We are moving in this direction and are prepared to interact with all stakeholders.