Status and further development of nuclear power plants with WWER in Russia Original Research Article

Nuclear electricity production in some European countries is based partially or wholly on NPPs with water-cooled water-moderated power reactors (WWERs) of Soviet design. Although only about a quarter of all the WWER units are in operation now in Russia, the country remains responsible, to a certain degree, for supporting the vitality of this well-proven line and its further development. Research work is consecutively carried out and measures are taken in the WWER-based NPPs to improve their safety and cost-effectiveness indices. Nearly constructed WWER-1000/320 units are expected to be commissioned in the Kalinin and Rostov NPPs in the coming years. A new generation of NPPs extensively using passive safety systems are at the final stage of development and are due to be started up after the year 2000.