EPRI Nuclear Program Expands in Central Europe
The supplier of half of Hungary’s power consumption has joined EPRI’s nuclear research program. In 2013, Paks Nuclear Power Plant’s four units produced 51% of the country’s electricity, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency. Leaders and staff at the 2,000-megawatt facility now will have access to a global R&D collaboration and key EPRI guidance to support safe, reliable operations.
Paks’ collaboration with EPRI will provide nuclear plant operators around the world with new opportunities to draw on plant technical knowledge spanning more than three decades of operation. The Russian-designed VVER 440 nuclear reactors at Paks are also deployed in other eastern and central European countries. The Paks collaboration will allow EPRI to broaden the reach of its technical guidance to this technology.
Other VVER operators participating in EPRI nuclear programs include CEZ (Czech Republic), Slovenské elektrárne (Slovakia), and CNNC (China)—operating 16 VVER units with an aggregate capacity of 10 gigawatts. With Paks, CEZ, and other VVER materials experts, EPRI is expanding an existing tracking tool to capture the state of industry knowledge and R&D on degradation mechanisms in VVER plants.
