Russian regulator RTN has awarded a nuclear power plant construction licence to Rosatom for Nizhegorod 1&2 near Monakovo, Nizhny Novgorod.

There was concern about the site because of its karst rocks, which tend to form openings such as sinkholes or caves.

A specialist local geological research laboratory from Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod drilled 100 wells in the search area, and determined that there were no voids in the rock, according to Konstantin Zaitsev, deputy chairman of a Russian Duma committee on power.