Russia begins work on the construction of the first SMR on land
Russia was a pioneer in the construction of modular nuclear reactors, SMRs, i.e. small nuclear reactors (up to 300 MW of power). The Akademik Lomonosov was the first SMR installation on a floating platform to serve a remote Arctic location with energy and hot water.
Now construction of the first land-based SMR begins, and it will be Rosatom who will build it. Construction of construction sites and a new road to the site is underway for the small modular reactor project in remote Yakutia, while Rosenergoatom has been officially designated as the operating organization by parent company Rosatom.
RITM 200 reactor facility under construction
The small modular reactor (SMR) is a 55 MW water-cooled RITM-200N reactor , adapted from the RITM-200 series used to power Russia's latest fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers. It will be built near Ust-Kuyga in Yakutia (also known as Sakha), in Russia's Arctic north, with the aim of coming into operation in 2028.
Nuclear regulator Rostekhnadzor granted the construction license in April 2023. In an update on progress, Rosatom said that “preparatory work… is proceeding at full speed: the construction of the first construction camp for 250 people has been completed; the first phase of construction of the second camp for 683 people has begun and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024.” Construction of a new 12-kilometer stretch of road connecting Ust-Kuyga to the SMR site has begun, as well as other basic construction facilities, and 9,500 tons of cargo is expected to be delivered in the coming months.
The goal of the plant is “to provide a clean, cheap and stable energy source to the remote Arctic territories of Yakutia with decentralized energy supply.” The electrical power of the power plant will be at least 55 MW, the lifespan of the non-replaceable equipment will be 60 years".
Although this is the first land-based SMR in Russia, the country plans a widespread diffusion of small reactors in the coming years: the goal is to reach 20% of the global market for small and micro modular reactors. According to his estimates, there will be hundreds of them in the coming years, and this will make it possible to achieve the economies of scale that make construction particularly convenient.
Within Rosatom's structure, with the SMR, Rosenergoatom acts as the technical customer and operational organization and Rusatom Overseas as the developer.
The fact of being able to show one's functioning and installed plant will give Rosatom a significant technical advantage for the global offer of its nuclear reactors.
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The article Russia begins work on the construction of the first SMR on land comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-russia-inizia-i-lavori-per-la-realizzazione-del-primo-smr-su-terraferma/ on Sun, 11 Feb 2024 20:17:22 +0000.