Russia’s nuclear stations exceeded Federal Energy Commission targets by 4.7% last year, surpassing production levels set during the Soviet era for the first time since the collapse of the USSR. They produced 130.8 TWh, which is an increase of 8.3% over 1999, according to the Rosenergoatom nuclear utility. The State Statistics Committee puts the increase at 7.25%, while Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeni Adamov makes it nearly 18%.
Boris Antonov, Rosenergoatom technical director said that although nuclear plants represent only 10% of the country's total generating capacity, they accounted for some 53% of the growth in electricity generation. In terms of production, nuclear's share was 14.9%, compared with 14.41% in 1999. This slight increase was in spite of an overall growth in power production of 3.8%, the second such increase in 15 years. The average load factor was 74.4%, an increase of about 10% from 1999.
The biggest increase in output last year was reported by the Balakova station in the Saratov region, with production up 34.66% to 27.4 TWh. Output was also up 23.5% to 247 GWh at Bilbino, 20.66% to 11.1 TWh at Novovoronezh, 4.46% to 13.3 TWh at the Kalinin, 2.35% to 20.2 TWh at Smolensk, 1.58% to 8.9 TWh at Kola and 0.29% to 22.1 TWh at Kursk. Output fell by 5.33% at Leningrad and 3.96% at Beloyarsk.
