MOSCOW. Jan 21 (Interfax-AVN) - The command of the Russian Interior Ministry Forces and the Atomic Energy Agency have come to a decision to improve the protection and security of the Volgodonsk-based nuclear power plant.
"Following this decision, a military compound opened January 21 for the unit tasked to protect the nuclear power plant, " Colonel Vasily Panchenkov, chief of the Russian Interior Ministry Forces press service, told Interfax-Military News Agency Friday.
According to him, such prudent attention paid to the Volgodonsk nuclear power plant is not a matter of a chance.
"The plant has one power unit with the VVER-1000 reactor operational since 2001. It provides a total of about 15 % of all annual electric power supply in the South of Russia," Panchenkov said.
He emphasized that the reinforcement of the protection is also caused by the construction of the second power unit currently underway. Atomic Energy Agency Director Alexander Rumyantsev considers this construction to be one of the priority projects of the national atomic industry in the coming several years.
In order to ensure the operational security of the nuclear power plant in Volgodonsk, a group of experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will come with a visit to assess the state of the equipment, systems and facilities of the station, as well as exam the personnel and inspect the security of the installation.
"The Volgodonsk plant is the first Russian nuclear power plant to be visited by a team of the IAEA inspectors," Panchenkov said, adding that the agency has been taking up similar inspections worldwide since 1982. For instance, last year the agency inspected nuclear power plants in Canada, China, Pakistan and Ukraine, and is going to visit the facilities in Germany, Japan and France this year.
The electric power from the station is fed to consumers in the Rostov and Volgograd regions, and the Kransodar and Stavropol territories. "According to Sergei Nazarov, the Rostov region's minister for industry, the Volgodonsk power plant proved its economic value, and it would have been quite difficult to develop the industry in the region without it," Panchenkov said.
He added that the military compound opened Friday includes the administrative buildings and barracks, sports grounds, a service dogs' training ground, a canteen, a cultural facility, a garage for service vehicles, a sports gym, an underground firing range, a sentry post and a laundry.