Russia earns – Norway pays
Norway pays three times more than Russia for an upgrade of the reactor control room simulator at Kola nuclear power plant. Operator RosEnergoAtom simultaneously cash in hundreds of millions of Euro in profit.
Experts from Norway’s Institute of Energy Technology have this week visited Kola nuclear power plant and discussed the modernization of the simulator for the two newest of the four reactors, the VVER-440/213 model.
Head of Information at Kola nuclear power plant is quoted by Energonyus saying that the Norwegians are ready to support another NOK 300.000 (€37.600) into the upgrade of the simulator unit.
According to a recently published review of Norwegian safety assistance to Kola nuclear power plant, Norway has granted NOK 4,5 million (€576.000) in total to the simulator project from 2008 to 2010. The review is published by the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authorities.
The owner and operator of Kola nuclear power plant is Rosenergoatom, a sub-division of Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation. The company contributed with NOK 1,5 million (€192.000) to the simulator project. That is only one-third of the Norwegian contribution.
The inequality in funding is not due to lack of financial means with Rosenergoatom. The company posted a net profit of more than 27 billion roubles (€650 million) in 2009, according to the company’s annual report.
According to the same annual report Rosenrgoatom allocated RUB 94 million (€2,2 million) charitable activities within a framework they call “Spiritual rebirth” including construction of churches in the cities where Russia’s nuclear power plants are located. That is more than ten times more than the company’s contribution to Norwegian sponsored simulator project at Kola nuclear power plant.
The Norwegian review report says the upgrade of the simulators at Kola nuclear power plant was required because Russian authorities in 2007 issued new standards for the control room simulators. The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authorities is appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to control and advise the nuclear safety cooperation with Russia.
Read more BarentsObserver articles on nuclear safety
The simulator project is one of several tens of projects where Norway together with Sweden and Finland has contributed with funding to Kola nuclear power plant over the last 20 years.
Another Norwegian sponsored on-going project this year is related to equipment designed to provide stability to the emergency cooling water in case of emergency. Lack of stable cooling water can have dramatic affects on the reactor or storage pools for uranium fuel, i.e. like what happened at the Fukushima nuclear power plant following the earthquake and tsunami in March this year.
Kola nuclear power plant boast of their cooperation with the other Barents member countries, stating at their portal that they have worked out and is successfully implementing a large-scale program for enhancing the safety of its units through re-equipment and modernization.
