Russia's Rostov nuclear power plant (Credit: Rosenergoatom)Unit 1 of Russia’s Rostov nuclear plant has received a licence to extend its operating life.

The licence from Russia's Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor) will be valid until 2031.

It is the fifth life Russian reactor life extension authorised in the past few weeks. In December, Rostechnadzor issued operating licence extensions for Smolensk 3 to 2034, Kola 2 to 2034, Bilibino 2 until 2025, and Novovoronezh 4 to 2032.

Rostov nuclear power plant hosts four VVER-1000 reactors which began operation in 2001, 2010,  2015, and  2018.

In 2019, Rostov 1 generated 9.046TWh of electricity, which is more than 200GWh above the target set by Russia’s electrification plan (GOELRO).

Currently, units 1, 2 and 4 of the Rostov station are in operation. Rostov 3 was closed in December for a scheduled maintenance and repair outage.

Rostov nuclear plant generated 33.887TWh of electricity in 2019, more than the 31.64TWh target set by FAS. It accounted for 16% of Russia's nuclear electricity generation and had the highest output of all Russian nuclear plants, according to Rosenergoatom.


Photo: Russia's Rostov nuclear power plant accounted for 16% of Russian nuclear generation in 2019 (Credit: Rosenergoatom)