Westinghouse and EDF contracted to help dismantle Ignalina NPP reactor cores

3 January 2023


Lithuania’s Ignalina NPP (INPP) has signed two contracts for the provision of services for the design of reactor dismantling technologies with two major international consortia. The first is a consortium led by Westinghouse Electric Spain (a subsidiary of US-based Westinghouse) and including Jacobs Slovakia. The second is a consortium led by the Lithuanian Energy Institute and the French company Electricite de France (EDF), consisting of EDF and Graphitec. Preliminary contracts were concluded for four years, the maximum price of each being €5.5 million ($5.86m) excluding VAT.

Services for the design of reactor dismantling technologies will be provided in two stages. At the 1st stage, a concept for dismantling the reactor will be developed. Each contractor will develop and offer two engineering solutions. INPP, in consultation with stakeholders (Lithuania’s Energy Ministry; Central Project Management Agency; nuclear regulator Vatesi; and the European Commission), will evaluate the proposed options and select the best concept, on the basis of which the procurement of engineering design services and licensing services for reactor dismantling will follow. The second stage (technological design, safety analysis report and other documents) is aimed at further development of the selected reactor dismantling concept, which will be acquired through separate procurement after completion of the preliminary contracts.

“Today we have reached an important milestone in the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant decommissioning project. Reactor core decommissioning is the most complex part of decommissioning.” said INPP Director General Audrius Kamenas. “It is very important for us that these world-famous companies, which have accumulated significant professional experience and develop cutting-edge innovations, become participants in the INPP decommissioning project. I firmly believe that the knowledge and experience they will bring to the project will be invaluable and will lay a solid foundation for further dismantling of the Ignalina NPP reactors.” 

The project is funded by the EU Ignalina Programme. INPP comprised two Soviet-built water-cooled graphite-moderated channel-type RBMK-1500 reactors. Lithuania agreed to close the plant as part of its accession agreement to the European Union (EU), which argued that lack of containment made the units unsafe. Ignalina 1 closed in 2004 and Ignalina 2 - which accounted for 25% of Lithuania’s electricity generating capacity and supplied about 70% of Lithuania’s electrical demand - closed in 2009. Lithuania subsequently became an energy importer. The past few years has seen INPP focusing on defueling the reactors.

Technologies for dismantling of graphite channel reactors are currently being developed in Russia. Neither Westinghouse nor EDF have any experience in dismantling such reactors. In 2020, Russian nuclear utility Rosenergoatom set up an engineering centre for the decommissioning of RBMK units (ODIC RBMK) at the Leningrad NPP, where two RBMK units have been closed pending commission with two more to close in the near future. ODIC RBMK is developing methods for the safe serial decommissioning of shutdown power units of NPPs with channel-type reactors. In addition, a structural unit has been created at the site of the Beloyarsk NPP, which has two closed AMB graphite channel reactors.

According to Rosenergoatom, by 2030, 18 units will be shut down in Russia, mainly with RBMK reactors. As well as the Leningrad and Beloyarsk units, these will include four RBMKs at Kursk NPP and three at Smolensk NPP, all of which will be replaced by VVER-1200 or VVER-TOI pressurised water reactors.


Image: Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant



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