Russia is developing the field of low-power nuclear energy
While the world is just thinking about creating small nuclear power plants, Russian nuclear scientists are already preparing to launch the first such station in Siberia. A nuclear power plant with a RITM-200N reactor is planned to be commissioned in Yakutia in 2028.
Reactor transportation RHYTHM 200. Photo: Rosatom Media
In recent years, the idea of minimizing traditional nuclear reactors has been gaining popularity around the world. Reactors up to 200 MW may be required in isolated regions with relatively low energy consumption. These are, as a rule, remote and hard-to-reach areas where electricity production at thermal stations is too expensive due to difficulties in importing fossil fuels.
Currently, the only operating low-power industrial nuclear power plant in the world is the floating power unit “Akademik Lomonosov” moored in the port of Pevek.
For small nuclear power plants, Russian developers took as a basis the RITM-200 reactor plant, which has proven itself in nuclear power plants. icebreakers In terms of size, it can only be compared to a railway tank.
As noted by the Deputy Director of the Institute of Nuclear Energy and Technology of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Professor Georgy Tikhomirov, RITM-200N is a water-cooled nuclear reactor in which a neutron moderator and The coolant is water. This is the most common type of nuclear power plant in the world.
The expert also notes that the idea of low-power nuclear reactors is now very popular all over the world, in particular, in China, Argentina, the UK and the USA there are dozens of small nuclear power plant projects power. However, Russia and China have come closest to the practical use of these reactors. The construction of a low-power land-based nuclear power plant in Yakutia will consolidate Russia's leading position in this area of energy, states Georgy Tikhomirov.