How Russia’s nuclear tech edge became global supremacy
How Russia’s nuclear tech edge became global supremacy
Russia’s civilian nuclear sector boasts 70+ years of world-firsts and accomplishments, and just shook things up again this week after President Putin has announced the country’s plans to launch “the world’s first nuclear energy system with a closed fuel cycle.”
Developed under Project Breakthrough & being built in Seversk, Siberia, the system promises to reuse 95% of spent fuel, solving waste & fuel sourcing issues.
Russia has a long history of peaceful atom world firsts:
1st nuclear power plant (Obninsk, 1954)
1st nuclear icebreaker (Lenin, 1957)
1st road-mobile power plants (TES-series & PAMIR-630D, 1957, 1985)
1st floating power plant (Akademik Lomonosov, 2019)
Global reach
Rosatom is the world’s largest civilian nuclear enterprise, building & maintaining plants & covering the complete fuel cycle, from uranium mining to waste management, for clients worldwide.
Its domain includes:
12 plants in Russia (40+ reactors)
~40 projects in 10 countries, from Egypt’s El-Dabaa & Turkiye’s Akkuyu to Rooppur in Bangladesh
servicing of plants including Ostrovets in Belarus, Paks in Hungary, Kudankulam, India, Iran’s Bushehr & Tianwan in China
Best reactor tech
VVER-1200: III+ gen pressurized water reactor with enhanced passive safety & 60-year lifespan
BREST-OD-300: IV gen lead-cooled fast neutron reactor, scalable closed fuel cycle-ready
BN-800: IV gen sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor; uses MOX reprocessed fuel
Icebreaker armada
8 modern icebreakers (3 Project 22220 ships, 2 Arktika-class vessels, 2 shallow-draught icebreakers (Taymyr, Vaygach)
5 under construction (3 Project 22220 vessels, plus the new Project 10510 Leader flagship)
Fuel
Russia is also the leader on uranium enrichment (40-46% of global capacity), with mining operations in Kazakhstan – the world’s largest uranium producer, through joint ventures.
Russia plans to ramp up domestic uranium output to 4k tons a year by 2030 (it’s about 2.7k tons today).
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