Actuality December 6, 2007

In Russia

the nuclear industry has caught its second wind.

In the program of branch development till 2020 planned such quantity of power units that was put into operation in Russia for the whole Soviet period.
In woods near Voronezh construction of the first nuclear power plant for the last 15 years was started in Russia. Now it is still hard to believe, but

its first block will give electric power in 2012.

Ilya Copytov, Senior Executive Vice-President of Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Atomenergoproekt”, says, “It differs by higher capacity and essentially new approaches in the branch of safet

y. Essentially, at the same time it is an evolutionary project which is based on the whole oper

ating experience of nuclear stations of the previous generations. But it also takes into account all recommendations of international organisations, achievements of the Russian science and techniques of last years”.

At the first stage, two blocks will be constructed, then probably two more. Gradually, they will replace power units of the Novovoronezhsky nuclear power plant (NPP) which will reach the end of their service life. But the power will be much higher. It will suffice for the whole Mid Black Earth Region.

And it is only the first swallow of the big plan for expansion of atomic energy industry of Russia. The head of Rosatom reported to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin about implementation of the program.

Sergey Kirienko: “Here, in the obligatory program there are 26 new power units of high power. Power of each block is 1150 megawatt.

Here, we have to put in operation 26 blocks till 2020″.
– Vladimir Putin: “Till 2020. And how many blocks were put during the whole Soviet period?”
– Sergey Kirienko: “30″.

It is no coincidence that the President so captiously asked the head of Rosatom. He initiated this large-scale program. The growing national economy demands more and more energy. If there is no energy,

there will be no growth.
Presently the contribution of nuclear stations to the whole energy sector of Russia is just about 16 %. According to the plan of the President, the nuclear power plants have to produce already a quarter of the whole electric power of Russia by 2020.

And further the atomic energy industry share will reach 30 %.
For tod ay it is

a strategic task. Constructors of Beloyarsk NPP 4th block near Yekaterinburg felt that.

Recently its major elements arrived at last. These are storage containers for sodium, liquid metal, which in this reactor is used as the heat-carrier.

Now construction will speed up.

Valery Lushin, the chief of assembly industrial department of Beloyarsk NPP 4th block, says, “This stage is important because it is the first large equipment of the reactor.

We have brought a container of sodium, a drain container of sodium and the second container we will assemble”.

Safety and reliability of nuclear reactors must be above suspicion. According to Kirienko during last 5 years there have not been registered any deviations from the standards of the international scale of safety for the nuclear power plants at the Russian ones.

The law of state corporation came into force. It is aimed to create conditions for development of nuclear branch and its modernization.

The new corporation will unite civil and military nuclear complexes of Russia under the sole management. This, according to experts, will allow Russia to defend its interests on the international market more successfully.

And also it will provide financing of scientific researches in nuclear sphere. And nobody has any doubt that Russian scientists of this sphere always have something new.

The probable future of Russian power industry fits in a small suitcase. This is the reduced copy of nuclear installation for production of fuel from water.
Nikolay Kodochigov, the design manager of I.I. Africantov OKB Mechanical Engineering (OKBM), says: “We take water, we use the heat of nuclear high-temperature reactor, and we get hydrogen and oxygen. If hydrogen is burnt, we get water. The circle closed up.

The ecology completely does not suffer at all, and thus, we create the new artificial energy resource”.

By word of mouth everything is simple. Recently it would be called a fantasy. Scientists assure that the reactor is made so, that all processes in it simply stop, if any disturbance. So it is completely safe.

Modular gel reactor with the gas turbine has to produce both current and hydrogen fuel, which in the future may replace oil and gas. The term of project realization is 2017.