MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will commission the second unit of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China in late September, the Russian nuclear equipment export monopoly said Tuesday.
Atomstroyexport is building the Tianwan NPP in eastern China's port city of Lianyungang. The plant, being built under a 1992 agreement, features improved VVER-1000 reactors and K-100-6/3000 turbo generators.
"The second unit of this NPP is currently operating at half capacity. The experience of commissioning the first unit will enable us to put the second power unit into operation in late September 2007," Atomstroyexport President Sergei Shmatko told a RIA Novosti news conference.
The Russian company commissioned the first reactor of the Tianwan NPP at the beginning of the month.
Shmatko said Russia and China would draft a schedule by the end of July to build the third and fourth units of the plant.
"Since the successful launch of the first power unit, our dialogue has intensified considerably. A task force has been set up to prepare a feasibility study for the construction of the third and fourth power units, taking into account the experience of building the first two units," Shmatko said.
Meanwhile, Ivan Kamenskikh, deputy head of the Federal Nuclear Power Agency (Rosatom), said Russia and China were discussing potential projects to build fast neutron reactors, a uranium enrichment plant, and projects to introduce new technologies into the process of irradiated nuclear fuel management.
Shmatko told the news conference that Atomstroyexport could attract Chinese contractors involved in the Tianwan plant's construction to similar projects in other parts of China and in other countries.
"In NPP construction projects at other sites in China, local companies will have a larger presence than at the Tianwan NPP," he said.
Atomstroyexport is currently negotiating a nuclear power plant project with Morocco. "Morocco is a very promising country with huge export potential [for power generation], where the NPP could be privately owned," Shmatko said.
The Atomstroyexport chief said Moroccan authorities had already held a preliminary closed qualifying tender for the project, believed to have included France, Canada and South Korea.
