Russia's top nuclear official on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the first unit of a new nuclear power plant near Novovoronezh, western Russia.

The first reactor, representing the second stage of the nuclear power plant about 310 miles south of Moscow, (NPP) is scheduled to come on stream in December 2012.

"This is the first power unit under a large-scale program of building nuclear power plants in Russia," Sergei Kiriyenko said at the stone-laying ceremony.

The Novovoronezh NPP-1, the first nuclear power plant in Russia to use water-cooled power reactors, underwent an upgrade, extending its life span until 2016-2017, but is unable to meet increasing electricity demand in the region.

Kiriyenko said Russia was expected to double electricity generation at nuclear power plants by 2020 through the construction of 26 new reactors with total capacity of 1.2-1.5 gigawatts.

SOURCE: RIA Novosti

DATE: June 21, 2007

Topics: NPP, Russia, Novovoronezh NPP