Ukrainian nuclear utility Energoatom and Alstom's former Polish subsidiary GE Power on 19 October signed a memorandum of understanding to co-operate more closely in the modernisation of Ukrainian NPP turbine hall equipment. The agreement aims to increase the output of Ukrainian nuclear power units by "upgrading the efficiency and safety of machine room equipment", Energoatom said. It also aims to expand cooperation in the long-term servicing of equipment already installed at the plants and "projects based on the use of modern technical solutions and financial instruments". French company Alstom closed the sale of its energy activities to US General Electric in November last year. In 2008, Alstom completed the modernisation of the generator stator at units of the Rovno and South Ukraine NPPs.
Meanwhile, at Rovno NPP a regular meeting was held of the working group for implementation of the European Commission’s (EC’s) pilot project on the "automated information on station configuration system" (Asics), which is being developed for Rovno unit 4. The project, which includes experts from RWE (Germany) and Promat (Ukraine) is part of the EC ISYAB program – "Tool cooperation in nuclear safety”. Rovno NPP is already using Octopus and other software systems and the meeting discussed how Asics will be integrated with these.
