In a meeting with deputy head of Rosenergoatom Eduard Smelov, the governor said that Murmansk could end up with a deficit of energy if the NPP is not built, a press release from the regional administration reads. Murmansk Oblast is today a surplus producer of energy and sells parts of its power both to neighboring regions and the Nordic countries.
The Shtokman project in the Barents Sea will make Murmansk a major gas-producing region, but at the same time consume a significant amount of the region’s power production. Nuclear power is seen as a key to boosting regional production, and the Shtokman developers have already signed a cooperation agreement with Rosatom.
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Governor Dmitriyenko in this week’s meeting with nuclear power representatives underlined that the new NPP should be built in Polyarnye Zori, the same place as the existing power plant. The construction plans are currently under review by the state-owned nuclear power enterprise and other involved authorities.
The Kola NPP is today one of Russia’s oldest. The lifetime of the plant’s four reactors have been extended a number of times, while both regional environmentalists and representatives of the neighboring Nordic countries have argued that the plant should be closed down.
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If Murmansk Oblast gets a second power plant, there will be two new NPPs located with only a few hundred kilometers distance in the Barents Region. As reported by BarentsObserver, Finnish authorities have already approved the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the northern parts of the country.
