According to the plans of the Russian Ministry for Nuclear Energy, Russian nuclear power plants should generate 174 TWh of electricity in 2005 and 212 TWh in 2010 in comparison with 131 TWh in 2000. This plan is stipulated by the new federal program Energy Efficient Economics in 2002-2005 and until 2010, Alyans Media reports.

In 2005, the capacity of the Russian nuclear power plants should reach 25.24 GW and 30.05 GW in 2010. This can be achieved by extending the operational lifetime of the reactors for 10 extra years than the original design project suggests:

1. Novovoronezh NPP’s reactors no. 3 (30 years old), 4 (29 years old), 5 (21 years old) with total capacity 1834 MW;

2. Kola NPP’s reactors no. 1 (28 years old), 2 (27 years old) with total capacity 880 MW;

3. Leningrad NPP’s reactors no. 1 (28 years old), 2 (23 years old), 3 (22 years old) with total capacity 3000 MW;

4. Kursk NPP’s reactors no. 1 (25 years old), 2 (23 years old) with total capacity 2000 MW;

5. Bilibinsk NPP’s reactors no. 1 (28 years old), 2 (28 years old), 3 (26 years old), 4 (25 years old) with total capacity 48 MW;

6. Beloyarsk NPP’s reactor no. 3 (20 years old) with 600 MW capacity.

Western technical aid was given to upgrade all the mentioned reactors, mainly their safety systems. The performed upgrade is going to be a serious argument in the application for the operational lifetime prolongation of the ageing reactors.

Besides, the program stipulates the completion of Rostov NPP’s second reactor, Kalinin NPP’s third reactor, Kursk NPP’s fifth reactor, Balakov NPP’s fifth reactor.