In Yakutia they are planning to commission a nuclear power plant slightly larger than a tank

Russia is developing 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.

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 the production of electricity at thermal stations is too expensive due to difficulties in importing fossil fuels.

Help “MK”. 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 well on nuclear icebreakers. In size it can only be compared to a railway tank.

As noted by Deputy Director of the Institute of Nuclear Energy and Technology of National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Professor Georgy Tikhomirov, RITM-200N is a water-water nuclear reactor in which water serves as a neutron moderator and coolant. 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 low-power nuclear power plant projects. 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.