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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
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
