OREANDA-NEWS. The French delegation was led by the director of the plant Gaetan Le-Corvec. The objective of the visit was to sum up the results of the cooperation in the last five years and to outline plans for the near future.

The visit exchange protocol between Volgodonsk and Flamanville NPPs under the twin-NPP project was signed in May 2003. In 2002 Volgodonsk NPP started to cooperate with Electricite de France, the owner of Flamanville. Since then the twin-NPPs have carried out projects concerning fire response, radiation safety, control, equipment efficiency, maintenance.

During the meeting the sides agreed to continue their visit exchange program till 2011. In Nov 2007 a delegation of Volgodonsk NPP will visit Flamanville for meeting the new director and discussing problems like on-site management and safety enhancement. They will also visit the construction site of the 3rd unit with the first EPR (European Pressurized Water Reactor). The capacity of the reactor is 1,600 MW, the service period - 60 years. The unit is to be launched in 2012.

In Apr-May 2008 Volgodonsk NPP delegation will visit Flamanville under the Overhaul project (French NPPs are overhauled each 10 years). In the autumn 2008 Flamanville specialists will visit Volgodonsk NPP for considering radiation safety and nuclear risk prevention problems.

“Since we have lots of common problems and strong commitment to improve our work and develop new capacities, we are doomed to cooperation,” the director of Volgodonsk NPP Alexander Palamarchuk said.

In his turn, the director of Flamanville Gaetan Le-Corvec said that in the past years Volgodonsk specialists have given them lots of interesting ideas and practical solutions. He wished the local personnel success in the construction of the 2nd unit. He said that this project is a crucial stage in the history of nuclear power engineering in Russia.