MOSCOW. Aug 2 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Atomic Ministry hopes to launch a new type of reactor - VVER-1500 - which will be more effective than other Russian reactors, by 2012, Deputy Atomic Minister Andrei Malyshev said.
"The most promising location for the first such reactor is Leningradskaya Nuclear Power Plant-2," he said. According to the deputy minister, VVER-1500 reactors may also be built at Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant-2 and, in the future, at a plant to be built in Bashkortostan.
Malyshev said that a final decision on the construction of the VVER-1500 reactor would be reached based on the recommendations from the Atomic Ministry's scientific-technical council.
He said that the cost of the new reactor amounts to about USD1.1bn and that the payback period is 20% shorter than for other reactors, for example the VVER-1000.
Malyshev noted that there is already a similar reactor in Europe - the EPR-1800, developed by Siemens and Framatom.