ASE wins tender for Belene NPP construction in Bulgaria

On October 31, 2006 the National Energy Committee of Bulgaria officially announced at the press conference in Sofia the tender results for the NPP Belene construction. The winner is Russian company "Atomstroyexport" with its NPP-92 project (two 1000MWt units and V-466 reactor plant).

For 17 months the tender committee has studied thoroughly the submitted offers from the tender participants - JSC "Atomstroyexport" and "Skoda-Alliance" company. Famous consulting companies such as "Parsons" and "Delloitte Europe Ltd' were involved in the committee's work.

More than 200 experts from 8 countries were working over the tender offers. In the course of analysis of 62 000 pages of the offer documents, 1580 written questions addressed to the candidates were prepared, 1840 items were submitted to approval, 403 pages of negotiations proceedings were registered. In the assessment process the experts followed the criteria defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), applied updated methods of technical and economic offer assessment and possible risk assessment program.

As a result the NPP-92 project was agreed upon as the most acceptable for Bulgaria. The main advantages of the project is its high safety level, ensured by application of four independent active safety system trains, double containment design, increased possibilities of security systems and prolonged design service life (more than 60 years).

The project is characterized by unique combination of active and passive security systems, which guarantee higher safety as compared with already implemented projects, including unique core-localization device used by "Atomstroyexport" at Tianwan and Kudankulam NPPs.

The state-of-the-art digital I&C system by Siemens will be used at Belene NPP. The reactor plant also includes control and fault detection systems developed by Russian scientists and experts. Besides security aspects much attention in the project is paid to the economy. The project ensures higher technical and economic parameters due to outage period reduction, service life time increase up to 60 years, increase of the load factor up to 90% and the ability to generate heat for the utilities.

A load-following fuel that will allow for power maneuvering up to 75-80% of one fuel-loading duration and maximum burn-up level will be applied at the NPP.

The chosen project of Belene NPP construction follows all the IAEA guidelines and meets the international safety requirements and thus represents successful combination of Russian-European nuclear engineering technologies.

The JSC ASE's offer is of special interest from the viewpoint of integration of Russian-European experience in NPP construction. The supply of state-of-the-art equipment including I&C system, electrotechnical equipment, HVAC system as well as updated safety systems will be carried out by main partners of JSC Atomstroyexport - Areva NP and Siemens; the two formed Carsib consortium for the implementation of Belene NPP construction project.

JSC Atomstroyexport engages leading Russian organizations such as Russian research center "Kurchatov institute", "Atomenergoproekt", OKB "Gidropress", "TVEL", "United engineering plants", "Power machines" and others into the project implementation. The share of Bulgarian organizations in the project makes up to more than 30%.

The victory of JSC Atomstroyexport has consolidated Russian positions at the world market of NPP construction, adding 2 units in Bulgaria to the other 5 being implemented at the moment. That will ensure further promotion of Russian nuclear technologies to the world markets.

As JSC "Atomstroyexport" president Sergey Shmatko puts it: "this victory entails a lot of responsibility and trust. And we will do our best to justify this trust".

JSC "Atomstroyexport" is the leading Russian organization, implementing intergovernmental agreements for the construction of nuclear power-engineering objects abroad. At the present time, it is the only company in the world constructing simultaneously 5 power-generating units for Nuclear Power Plants in China, India and Iran.

Information

In 1987 Russian specialists embarked on the construction of Belene NPP which was suspended in 1991 by the Bulgarian government.

In February 2006 JSC "Atomstroyexport" submitted its offers on Belene NPP construction project to the National Energy Committee of Bulgaria. In August 2006 "Atomstroyexport" company submitted its revised offer to the NEC tender committee according to which NPP construction costs and construction times were reduced. In the revised variant all the customer's complementary requirements on the application of the latest innovation methods were considered.

SOURCE: JSC Atomstroyexport

DATE: Oct 31, 2006

Topics: NPP, Russia, East Europe, Bulgaria, NPP Belene