22.05.2008 // Information Department of Leningrad NPP

47 specialists of Paks NPP (Hungary) visited Leningrad NPP on May 22 2008

It has become a tradition at Paks Nuclear Power Plant to reward best employees with a week bus trip to St.Petersburg and its suburbs.

The first such trip took place last year and included a sightseeing tour of St.Petersburg and its suburbs and a visit to Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant. The trip is organized by the Russian Society of Hungary on the instruction and with the support of the director of Paks NPP, who seeks to establish friendly ties with colleagues from LNPP and to enlarge the geography of professional contacts in Russia.

The deputy chief engineer for operation of Leningrad NPP V.Moskovsky told the guests about the plant and its program to modernize its units: “The program was launched in 1989. We are not afraid of spending big money on it. We buy equipment not only in Russia but also abroad. Safety enhancement requires big money and effort. We do it because safe NPP is good for all.”

As a result of the modernization program the life of the 1st unit has been extended till 2018 and the live of the 2nd unit till 2020. Next year the plant is going to obtain license for extending the live of the 3rd unit. The next is the 4th unit. The program has proved its efficiency: the expenses will pay off as each of the modernized units will serve for 15–20 years more and all together they will produce as much electricity as a new unit would produce in 60 years.

Before visiting the control panel and the central and machine compartments of the 1st and 2nd units of Leningrad NPP the Hungarian guests were granted a book about RBMK reactors (Graphite-Moderated Reactor) . Moskovsky said that RBMK was the best reactor in the world: “It is the only reactor that can work uninterruptedly for four years (between technical inspections): in fact, you can refuel the reactor without stopping it.” The operators of the 1st and 2nd units told their Hungarian colleagues about the advantages of RBMKs.

In their turn, the guests readily answered the questions of their Russian colleagues. The chief technologist of the turbine department of Paks NPP Debreceni Czaba said: “Our profession is very prestigious in Hungary. I have worked at Paks for 22 years already and I have always felt that what I do is prestigious. Our government also thinks so and encourages us both morally and materially. Our engineers get an average of 2,000–2,500 EUR and can afford buying a good house and lots of other things. That’s why many young people in our country want to work at an NPP. Unfortunately, we have only one NPP and few vacancies.”

“Let them learn Russian and come here. We have a big program of NPP construction,” one of the Russian specialists said. “Thank you for your invitation,” the Hungarian guests said with a grateful smile.