Russian Nuclear Deals: News

Why Russia Needs 11 New Nuclear Power Plants, by Olga Samofalova for VZGLYAD. 08.22.2024.

New Nuclear Power Plants Will Ensure Russia's Economic Growth for Decades.

Rosatom, which has been building nuclear power plants mostly abroad in recent years, is turning its sights to the Russian market. The company plans to build 11 new nuclear power plants in Russia. And this does not include the replacement of several old nuclear power plants. Why does Russia need new nuclear power plants and how can they surprise the world?

In Russia, about 11 new nuclear power plants will be built by 2042. This proposal is contained in the general plan for the placement of electric power facilities.

New small and large nuclear power plants are planned to be built in the Rostov, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Tomsk regions, as well as in the Primorsky, Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk territories, in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and Yakutia. Two nuclear power plants will be built in Chukotka and Krasnoyarsk Krai.

In addition to these new 11 NPPs, the project envisages replacing the capacities of old nuclear power plants. The Kola NPP-2, Kursk NPP-2 and Smolensk NPP-2 are to be commissioned.

The goal is to implement the order of the Russian president and achieve a share of nuclear energy of 25% by 2045. "The new general scheme provides for the construction of 28 gigawatts of new nuclear power generation by 2042. By implementing such an ambitious task, we will be able to provide the country's regions with clean energy for decades to come and create a basis for confident economic growth," said the general director of Rosatom.

Rosatom was previously criticized for promoting its projects mainly abroad – in Turkey, China, Bangladesh, India, Egypt, Belarus and so on, that some projects have dubious economics, for example, in Belarus and Turkey, while in Russia there were practically no new nuclear projects. And then Rosatom announced that it would build 11 new nuclear power plants. This looks like a turn to the domestic market. This will have a positive effect on the company's image," said Igor Yushkov, an expert at the National Energy Security Fund and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.

On the other hand, the company is now being criticized for the fact that the more new nuclear power plants it builds in Russia, the more it will lobby for tariff increases due to the high costs of the projects, that is, the creation of new capacities may provoke tariff increases, the expert notes.

“Therefore, it is important that the goal is not simply to build new nuclear power plants, but to calculate the economics of new projects and build them where it will be more economically efficient to build a nuclear power plant rather than a conventional thermal power plant using coal or gas,” the FNEB expert believes.

As for demand, it will grow by 1-2% per year. Such growth will be ensured by the growth of industry and the improvement of living standards of the population, which consumes more and more electricity, so additional generating capacities are needed, notes Alexey Anpilogov, an expert in the field of nuclear energy, president of the Foundation for the Support of Scientific Research and Development of Civil Initiatives "Osnovanie". There are more and more gadgets, and the use of air conditioners in the summer is becoming more frequent. Plus, any power plants need to be rebuilt after 45 years of operation, the expert adds.

In the south, there is a deficit of electric power due to the constant growth of demand. "There are population flows. And one of the fastest growing regions is the Southern Federal District. People are moving to live in Stavropol, Krasnodar Krai, Crimea, Rostov Oblast, where the population is growing several times over," says Anpilogov. In the summer season, tourists also demand more comfort, air conditioning and amusement parks with illumination.

“In Crimea, at one time, they abandoned the idea of ​​building a nuclear power plant because it is a seismically dangerous region; they decided not to take risks and to build an energy bridge from Kuban and to develop a nuclear power plant in Rostov so that there would be additional capacity,” the expert says.

"The growth of Moscow and the Moscow region also requires the creation of additional capacities. The Smolensk and Kursk regions are convenient regions for the location of nuclear power generation facilities," explains Anpilogov.

The growth in electricity consumption is provided by the growing industry – manufacturing and military. “The military-industrial complex has been the driver of the Russian economy in recent years, and its growth will not stop immediately even when the armed conflict in Ukraine ends. The military-industrial complex will continue to work both to replenish reserves and for export, since Russia has a chance to modernize its army and provide weapons tested in modern combat operations for export. The demand for weapons has a multiplier effect on metals and other industries that need energy. Therefore, new nuclear power plants will appear in industrial regions of the country that consume a lot of energy, for example, in the Chelyabinsk region,” says Yushkov.

In Yakutia and Chukotka, the population is tiny and consumes little energy, but there are a number of large industrial facilities, and low-power nuclear power plants will be commissioned for these industrial facilities, the expert adds. The Baim floating nuclear power plant will be built, for example, to operate the Baimsky GOK (mining and processing plant) in Chukotka.

What reactors will be built and installed in new nuclear power plants?

"This project will be the first to install VVER-TOI reactors at the Kursk NPP, which will replace the third-generation VVER-1200 reactors. VVER-TOI is already generation three plus, a transition to the fourth, still experimental, generation. VVER-TOI not only has greater capacity, but is also more technologically advanced, safer and more efficient in terms of efficiency," says Anpilogov.

For remote regions, the expert continues, where consumption is lower and it is more profitable to install reactors of lower capacity, VVER-S reactors will be used. These reactors will be tested for the first time at the Kola NPP.

And the third type of reactor is the BN-1200. This is a fast neutron reactor. It uses spent nuclear fuel as fuel – plutonium, which is obtained in conventional reactors. A mixture of this plutonium with uranium produces MOX fuel for the BN-1200,
Anpilogov says.

After the new VVER-TOI and VVER-S reactors are built at the Kursk and Kola stations, Rosatom will probably present them on the international market. Small reactors can be offered to island or small states, for example. "First, the company makes reference nuclear power plants with new reactors in Russia, where it shows all its advantages and features, and only then offers them for export. For example, the third-generation VVER-1200 was tested at the Novovoronezh NPP," explains Anpilogov.

"With Rosatom as a global leader in the nuclear industry, it makes sense to develop almost carbon-free energy. Russia has a unique feature in the energy sector - back in Soviet times, for various reasons, an energy base was laid using nuclear power plants and hydroelectric power plants that do not emit carbon dioxide. Both of these types of energy plants have a serious advantage over solar and wind power plants - they operate continuously and allow you to regulate the output power, smoothing out consumption peaks. At the same time, there is no need for battery stations to store energy, the production of which is very energy-intensive not so much because of its complexity, but because of the need for processing and disposal. Nuclear power plants supply, among other things, one of the most energy-intensive types of industry - metallurgy," notes Pavel Sevostyanov, Acting State Counselor of the Russian Federation, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Analysis and Socio-Psychological Processes at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

Germany, which abandoned nuclear energy under pressure from climate activists, now buys the missing energy from France, which remains the world leader in terms of the share of total generation in the energy balance – over 70%, concludes Sevostyanov.

https://vz.ru/economy/2024/8/22/1283176.html

Russian Nuclear Breaks European Sanctions, by Kirill Averyanov for VZGLYAD. 09.20.2024.

Bulgaria, which has become one of the most severe enforcers of sanctions against Russia in recent years, has suddenly introduced a rather remarkable exception. What is it all about and why is Bulgaria unable to do without Russian technological assistance this time?

The Bulgarian government has for the second time since 2023 exempted the Kozloduy NPP from EU sanctions in order to attract contractors from the Russian Federation for the sake of the plant's safe operation. Apparently, this concerns the supply of asynchronous electric motors and in-reactor sensors, as well as the provision of related services, including delivery and installation.

In addition, the sixth power unit of the NPP may need to replace other elements. This can be judged based on the fact that in March 2023, Bulgaria already once removed the NPP from sanctions, and then these components were mentioned in the materials that got into the media.

"The enterprise will be able to import metal products from Russia when fulfilling contracts listed in the appendices to today's decision. Also permitted is the import of goods and technologies from Russia and the provision of appropriate technical assistance necessary for the fulfillment of contracts directly listed in the appendices," the country's energy minister Rosen Khristov said after a meeting of the country's technical government, where the issue was discussed.

"The government has approved an exception to the EU sanctions imposed on Russia. This concerns the acquisition of necessary materials, spare parts and services for the planned annual repairs of nuclear power plants," Khristov said . He explained that this decision "is of critical importance" for the safety of the nuclear power plant, since it concerns materials and parts for which no alternative suppliers have been found, and added that the authorities are working to form the necessary reserves for several years to come.

The Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is the only operating Bulgarian nuclear power plant on the banks of the Danube. It is located near the town of Kozloduy, about 200 km from the capital Sofia. The USSR helped Bulgaria build this plant. The USSR and Russia also supplied the nuclear fuel for the plant and all work with it.

The nuclear power plant supplies about a third of Bulgaria's electricity.

Two reactors out of six, built in 1987 and 1991, are currently in operation (four were closed when the country joined the European Union as not meeting safety requirements). In 2012, it was announced that there were plans to build another one. The Bulgarians liked the Russian project the most, but under pressure from the United States, the decision was revised in favor of the American company Westinghouse. In the end, the reactor was never built due to funding problems.

In recent years, the old nuclear power plant has undergone repairs several times. For example, in October 2022, the sixth power unit underwent replacement of components and preventive maintenance of equipment.

However, just a few days after the launch, the station experienced a breakdown in the generator's cooling system and a hydrogen leak was detected. This led to the unit being disconnected from the country's energy system. In December of the same year, a coolant leak occurred from the first to the second circuit of the steam generator, which prolonged the unscheduled repairs and led to a sharp jump in electricity prices.

Why did Bulgaria eventually exempt Kozloduy from sanctions for the second time? The answer is simple: the global nuclear energy market is tightly tied to Russia, and Kozloduy can only be maintained safely and efficiently with Russian components.

Diversification has been discussed in Europe for a long time, but the reality is that it is almost impossible for suppliers from Russia to find a replacement. Nuclear power plants must use one type of fuel, and if different types are mixed, some of the assemblies may become depressurized, which can lead to an unplanned shutdown of the power unit and huge financial losses. Such an incident occurred, for example, at the Czech Temelin nuclear power plant.

The Bulgarian government has repeatedly considered options for switching to Western nuclear fuel: contracts with Sofia have been signed by the American company Westinghouse and the French Framatom. However, the Americans have been studying the issue of how exactly they can put their fuel into operation for five years, and the French have not even begun such studies. Also, the issues of licensing and storage of spent fuel have not been resolved. And this is against the background of the fact that Kozdolui operates smoothly and brings in income using Russian fuel.

Currently, about 20% of all nuclear reactors in Europe receive nuclear fuel from Russia. And while in some countries it is possible to switch to fuel from another manufacturer in the future, in some it is not. For example, the Czech Dukovany NPP has WWER-440 reactors that can operate exclusively on Russian TVEL fuel. Similar facilities exist in Slovakia, Finland, Hungary and Bulgaria.

This is why, for example, Hungary stubbornly defends Russian nuclear energy in the matter of sanctions. But the Finnish leadership, following the political moment, froze the construction of the Hanhikivi-1 NPP in 2023.

As for Ukraine, before the start of the NWO, there were four NPPs in the country: Zaporizhia, Khmelnitsky, Rivne and Yuzhno-Ukrainskaya. They had 15 power units, 13 of which had WWER-1000 reactors, two WWER-440. All of them were built in the USSR to use the fuel that Rosatom produces today. But even before the NWO, Ukraine was able to convert half of its power units to American Westinghouse fuel.

At the moment, nuclear energy is one of the few areas in which the EU and NATO countries are clearly losing to Russia, since they themselves depend on Rosatom products. Moreover, countries whose nuclear power plants depend on Russia and are technologically forced to remove them from sanctions, since energy inevitably prevails over political dogmas.

Bulgaria has already done this twice – in 2023 and 2024. It is possible that such processes will continue. That is, despite all their dislike for Russia, the Bulgarian authorities still cannot do without it and, most importantly, are ready for such steps to be public.

https://vz.ru/world/2024/9/20/1288195.html

Stable energy supplies are essential for industry and commerce.

Having blackouts or having to plan production around the hours you have reliable energy supplies is complex and expensive...

Ironically all the excess gas that they wont be sending to the west would be a good option to heat and generate electricity for western Russia in the short term.

In the longer term piping it to Iran and then exporting it to India and the rest of the world makes sense too of course.

Nuclear power makes sense for a country with so much expertise in the area and floating and mobile NPPs make them more flexible too.

Russia needs to deploy BN-1200 units instead of building older designs. So a delay in new plant construction is justified. The current
crop of reactors can last and carry the load. There is no electricity generation shortage in Russia and I do not think that one will result
from economic growth in the next 10 years. Nothing is stopping Russia from deploying combined cycle gas generation plants. Russia
now has the turbines needed for this.

They have no energy problems... they have built wind farms and solar furnaces to generate free electricity from the natural environment... they will be fine...

But seriously when it gets hot and sunny solar panels to run the air conditioners would take a serious load off the electrical system.

Here in New Zealand a lot of power is saved simply by improving the insulation standards of buildings. New Zealand has a very moderate climate and so we don't have metre thick outer walls filled with all sorts of heavy insulation, but that just allows the heat to escape during winter and the heat to get in during summer.

I suspect that is not a problem in most Russian regions.

When I was at university quite some time ago I had a friend from Norway who kept complaining how cold it was here. When I talked to him about it it seems that in Norway because it gets so much colder central heating is important and they normally have the temperature inside their houses up about 30-35 degrees C, whereas here in NZ we usually keep temps at about 20-22 degrees.

Many people miss the point about climate change... if getting warmer does not kill us then when it gets colder (which it will do eventually) is certainly going to make things harder for everyone too, so it should be on every ones mind how to survive in high temperature conditions and in cold temperature conditions.

Perhaps the development for small mobile nuclear reactors could be developed for specific industries that require large amounts of electricity like the Aluminium industry etc etc Or just a large mobile diesel or gas turbine generator that is truck based or can be moved around by airship?

I think small reactors for industry is the way to go. They are more flexible than full sized plants. But for some reason the closest thing to this has
been the Russian floating reactors such as the Akademik Lomonosov. The rest has been endless talk and no action around the world.

kvs wrote:Russia needs to deploy BN-1200 units instead of building older designs.  So a delay in new plant construction is justified.   The current crop of reactors can last and carry the load.   There is no electricity generation shortage in Russia and I do not think that one will result from economic growth in the next 10 years.   Nothing is stopping Russia from deploying combined cycle gas generation plants.   Russia now has the turbines needed for this.

The thing is, unlike hugely populated countries like China or India, Russia would not be terribly affected by lack of uranium resource over the next half century or maybe century. So they are in no rush to move completely to fast reactors. They will just be part of the mix. In the meantime they have plans to increase the capability of the liquid water reactors to burn MOX and improve reactor thermal efficiency by moving to supercritical water reactor technology.
The BN-1200 reactor will still probably start construction soon enough. And they could license the technology to China and India in the future.

There is an electricity shortage in Russia right now, because of the new regions, in the Southern Russia part of the grid. Other parts are kind of loaded as well because of heavier industry usage. As for the large scale combined cycle power plants i.e. gas turbines of Russian make, the problem is the large ones are still experimental, so who knows how well they will work initially until they get the childhood diseases out.

Since they do not need to sell gas to Europe anymore, they can just temporarily build/upgrade more steam turbines and burn the natural gas that way. It might be more inefficient, but who cares. And this is what will happen, together with the nuclear ramp, in the near term I think.

This gas power station is a good example of that.
https://www.gem.wiki/Kostromskaya_GRES_power_station

It powers among others the Moscow Area. They are modernizing the steam turbines. There is no other option you can build near term.

kvs wrote:I think small reactors for industry is the way to go.   They are more flexible than full sized plants.  But for some reason the closest thing to this has been the Russian floating reactors such as the Akademik Lomonosov.   The rest has been endless talk and no action around the world.  

The Chinese are building the Linglong One. They also already operate their HTR-PM reactor. Both are SMRs.

The safety of the unpressurized molten metal vat reactors is better by far than any water cooled-moderated reactor. They are also useful for
military applications. This was the logic behind the RBMK reactors.

Russia manufactures the first batch of fuel for the nuclear research reactor in Bolivia, 10.28.2024.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia has manufactured the first batch of nuclear fuel for the reactor of the Centre for Research and Development in Nuclear Technology (CIDTN) in the Bolivian city of El Alto, Russian state corporation Rosatom reported.

"The nuclear fuel for the initial charge of the BRR-1 research reactor, which is being built in Bolivia, has been manufactured and passed the acceptance inspection at the Novosibirsk chemical concentrates plant [belonging to Rosatom]," the statement said.

As Rosatom reports, the fuel will be delivered to the South American nation in 2025.

The CIDTN, located in the Bolivian city of El Alto, is currently in the construction stage and begins its operation in stages.

It is a crucial project for the development of cooperation between Russia and Latin American countries in the field of high technologies and the strengthening of Rosatom's position on the world market.

The Centre consists of four components: the Preclinical Radiopharmacy Cyclotron Complex (CCRP) and the Multipurpose Irradiation Center (CMI), both already in operation; while the Radioecology and Radiobiology laboratories are about to be inaugurated and the Nuclear Research Reactor Complex is currently under construction.

Yandex Translate from Spanish.

https://noticiaslatam.lat/20241028/rusia-fabrica-el-primer-lote-de-combustible-para-el-reactor-de-investigacion-nuclear-en-bolivia-1158587279.html