Russian Gov't Approves Plans to Build 11 New Nuclear Power Units by 2030

The Russian government approved on Tuesday plans to construct 11 new nuclear power reactors by 2030, including two commercial power units with fast-breeder BN-1200 reactors in the Urals and Russia’s first modern medium-capacity nuclear power reactor at the Kolskaya-2 nuclear power plant, it said in the decree published on its official website.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The list does not include the power units already under construction at Rostov NPP, Novovoronezh NPP, Leningrad NPP-2, floating NPP Akademik Lomonosov, Kursk NPP-2 and Kaliningrad NPP.

Russia plans to build one BN-1200 reactor at Beloyarsk NPP and the South Urals NPP.

Fast breeders, such as the cutting-edge BN-1200, a 1200-megawatt reactor, use a liquid metal heat-transfer agent as a coolant. Fast neutron reactors significantly minimize radioactive waste and expand the range of fuel used at nuclear power plants.

According to the experts, the fast reactors are most effective when used as part of a dual-component system combined with thermal neutron reactors and not on their own.

Only a few countries possess fast neutron reactor technology, with Russia leading in this field. Such reactors are believed to be able to significantly improve the safety of the nuclear power industry as well as making it more competitive.

In 2015, Russia launched a controlled nuclear fission at the Beloyarsk NPP BN-800 fast breeder reactor using a liquid metal heat-transfer agent as a coolant, which is considered a prototype of the BH-1200.

Also according to the plan, a nuclear power unit, comprising a facility to produce high-density uranium-plutonium neutron fuel and a fast neutron reactor with a closed on-site nuclear fuel cycle, called the BREST-OD-300, should be constructed by 2025. The power unit will be included in the Proryv (Breakthrough) project which is focused on developing technologies to close the fuel cycle.

Russia’s first medium-capacity nuclear power reactor — the WWER-600 developed by Gidropress OKB — is expected to become operational at the Kolskaya-2 nuclear power plant in Russia’s north.

Interest in small- and medium-capacity nuclear power reactors has increased in recent years and is driven both by a desire to reduce the impact of capital costs and to generate power away from large grid systems, especially in remote areas where it is difficult to deliver other types of fuel.

It was reported earlier that the Kola Peninsula was selected as the location of the new power reactor because major investment projects will be implemented in this territory.

In total, seven WWER-TOI (V-510) nuclear reactors are planned to be finished by 2030.

According to the information provided by its developer Gidropress OKB, the WWER-TOI has a standard optimized and informatized design with the WWER reactor having an estimated output capacity of 1250 MW.

Two reactors are planned to be build at Smolensk NPP-2, Nizhny Novgorod NPP, Kostroma NPP and one at Tatar NPP.