New Stage in Russia’s Nuclear Energy Strategy

Abstract

This article discusses a technological platform of nuclear energy for implementing the proposed Atomic Project 2.0 which is focused on the country’s objectives in sustainable development, including the development of advanced innovative technologies and materials, and producing examples of new equipment. The basis of modern nuclear power in Russia and the world is water-cooled pressurized reactors with capacity 1000 MW or more, and there are no objective prerequisites for changing this paradigm in the foreseeable future. In this connection, VVER technology remains the most important tool for achieving the strategic goals of our country in the field of nuclear energy. The existing strategic plans relegate extensive adoption of fast reactors and NFC closure based on them to the 2030s, which can be viewed as the customary maximalism in the face of the current moderate notions concerning growing demand for nuclear generation. The prospects for the introduction of small and medium-sized nuclear power plants, taking into account the forecasted demand for electricity and the territorial distribution of generation in Russia, as well as the opportunities for foreign business, promise a new quality of nuclear energy production and a fundamentally different niche in the energy basket. Perhaps the strongest indication of the current stage of progress in nuclear energy is a resurgence of expansion into new areas of energy consumption. It must be assumed that a version of the nuclear energy strategy worthy of presentation in Atomic Project 2.0 will incorporate development of directions of heat supply, hydrogen production, and seawater desalination by means of nuclear technologies for the home and international markets, as well as promising areas such as molten-salt nuclear technologies or hybrid systems.