Rosatom remains world leader in small nuclear power plants — Likhachev

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Rosatom remains the world small nuclear power plants leader and is expanding its product line, said Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev.

"As the world leaders in the field of small nuclear power plants, we are not sitting on our hands. And widening activities of the Americans only spur us to expand our product line. Today we are closely engaged in several developments at once. About a dozen reactor plant projects for LPNPP (low-power nuclear power plants - TASS) are at various stages of development and implementation," he said in an article he contributed to the publication "Strana Rosatom."

According to Likhachev, the most advanced technology, "our bestseller", is the RITM family of reactors for floating and land-based nuclear power plants of different capacities.

"We already have 13 RITMs of different capacities for the country's nuclear icebreaking fleet. One reactor, the 14th, has already been produced for the latest floating power unit for the Baimskoye field, the second is in the final stage of production. In June, we started construction of an onshore nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan, which will include two small power units. Reactors for them are already being produced. And all these are not experimental stands, but a serial commercial solution. Suffice it to say: in total, our enterprises have 11 reactor installations for small nuclear power plants in various stages of manufacture," he said.

Likhachev noted that the state corporation plans to expand the product line towards ultra-low capacity. Work is actively underway on the Shelf-M reactor unit, designed to operate as part of the Chukotka LPNPP for the power supply of the Elkonsky mining and metallurgical company. The Shelf will be capable of producing 10 MW of electrical power and 35 MW of thermal power for 60 years.

At the moment, according to Likhachev, a schedule for the construction of the Shelf-M LPNPP has been developed, engineering surveys of the placement site have begun, the stage of resource testing of nuclear fuel has been completed, and the explanation of the project's investments is nearing completion.