OREANDA-NEWS. Russia has started measures for prolonging the service life of Paks, a nuclear power plant in Hungary that produces almost half of that country’s energy, the deputy director general of Paks NPP Istvan Hamvas told journalists.

“In late 2005 the Hungarian Parliament decided to prolong the service life of the plant. Russia has already started the project and we see that it is quite realistic. Here we enjoy the support of both Russian partners and IAEA,” Hamvas said.

Paks was built in the 1980s in the framework of an inter-governmental agreement between Hungary and the Soviet Union. TVEL Corporation (Russia) has supplied the plant with fuel since its launch and does it without delay. Now TVEL is planning to supply the plant with modernized fuel. In July 2007 the parties signed a contract for licensing the second generation fuel for WWER-440 and supplying it to Pask NPP.

Earlier Atomstroyexport and Paks agreed to jointly modernize the four existing units of the plant and to build new ones. Hamvas says that they are planning to raise the capacity of the existing units to 500 MW.

The capacity of two units has already been enhanced. By 2009 all the four units will work at enhanced capacity. The feasibility study has been carried out by TVEL and relevant Russian organizations. The equipment, particularly, the pumps, has been manufactured by Leningrad Machine Building Plant. Presently, with the support of Atomstoryexport CJSC, the plant is replacing its high pressure steam generators.

“Russia already has experience of service life extension. Particularly, Russian Novovoronezh NPP and Paks NPP have similar reactor systems. So, our country is ready to help our Hungarian colleagues to prolong the lives of their units,” the chairman of the Sub-Committee on Nuclear Energy of the Federation Council Committee on Natural Monopolies Grigory Naginsky said during his visit to Paks on Monday.

This year TVEL has completed the removal of damaged fuel from well #1 of the 2nd unit of Pask NPP. The unit has already been restarted. The incident at Paks NPP took place Apr 10 2003. Some 30 fuel rod cassettes were damaged when washed out by Framatome NP (presently AREVA NP) technology and equipment. The contract for recovery of the 1st well of the 2nd reactor was made by Paks and TVEL in Sept 2003.

Hamvas said that the damaged fuel is now in a cooling pond and needs to be taken away. “I am sure that our Russian partners will help us in the matter,” Hamvas said.

TVEL is one of the world leading producers of nuclear fuel. It supplies fuel to 73 reactors in Russia and 13 countries, particularly, Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and China.