Related Research Articles
A nuclear-powered icebreaker is an icebreaker with an onboard nuclear power plant that produces power for the vessel's propulsion system. Although more expensive to operate, nuclear-powered icebreakers provide a number of advantages over their diesel-powered counterparts, especially along the Northern Sea Route where heavy power demand associated with icebreaking, limited refueling infrastructure along the Siberian coast, and endurance required make diesel-powered icebreaker operations challenging. As of 2023, Russia is the only country that builds and operates nuclear-powered icebreakers, having built a number of such vessels to aid shipping along the Northern Sea Route and Russian arctic outposts since the Soviet era.
Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship or submarine with heat provided by a nuclear reactor. The power plant heats water to produce steam for a turbine used to turn the ship's propeller through a gearbox or through an electric generator and motor. Nuclear propulsion is used primarily within naval warships such as nuclear submarines and supercarriers. A small number of experimental civil nuclear ships have been built.
Rosatom, also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, or Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian state corporation headquartered in Moscow that specializes in nuclear energy, nuclear non-energy goods and high-tech products. Established in 2007 and comprising more than 350 enterprises, including scientific research organizations, a nuclear weapons complex, and the world's only nuclear icebreaker fleet.
Russia is one of the world's largest producers of nuclear energy. In 2020 total electricity generated in nuclear power plants in Russia was 215.746 TWh, 20.28% of all power generation. The installed gross capacity of Russian nuclear reactors is 29.4 GW in December 2020.
The KLT-40 family are nuclear fission reactors originating from OK-150 and OK-900 ship reactors. KLT-40 were developed to power the Taymyr-class icebreakers and the LASH carrier Sevmorput. They are pressurized water reactors (PWR) fueled by either 30–40% or 90% enriched uranium-235 fuel to produce 135 to 171 MW of thermal power.
Floating nuclear power stations are vessels designed by Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation. They are self-contained, low-capacity, floating nuclear power plants. Rosatom plans to mass-produce the stations at shipbuilding facilities and then tow them to ports near locations that require electricity.
The VBER-300 is a proposed Russian pressurized water reactor of 325-MWe generating capacity designed for remote locations. The exterior containment structure is 16 meters high and the working section, built with transportable modules, weighs 1300 tonnes. The external steam plant can have a 917 MW thermal-steam only capacity, or 325 MW steam-turbine-electrical capacity, or a mixture of capacities relating to the four primary steam loops.
Akademik Lomonosov is a non-self-propelled power barge that operates as the first Russian floating nuclear power station. The ship was named after academician Mikhail Lomonosov. It is docked in the Pevek harbour, providing heat to the town and supplying electricity to the regional Chaun-Bilibino power system. It is the world’s northernmost nuclear power plant.
Small modular reactors (SMRs) are a class of small nuclear fission reactors, designed to be built in a factory, shipped to operational sites for installation and then used to power buildings or other commercial operations. The first commercial SMR was invented by a team of nuclear scientists at Oregon State University (OSU) in 2007. Working with OSU's prototype, NuScale Power developed the first working model, available to the US market, in 2022. The term SMR refers to the size, capacity and modular construction. Reactor type and the nuclear processes may vary. Of the many SMR designs, the pressurized water reactor (PWR) is the most common. However, recently proposed SMR designs include: generation IV, thermal-neutron reactors, fast-neutron reactors, molten salt, and gas-cooled reactor models.
Atomenergomash JSC (AEM Group) (Russian: Атомэнергомаш, AEM Holding company) is a Russian power engineering company, a supplier of products for nuclear and thermal power plants, natural gas and petrochemical industry, shipbuilding, and special steel markets. It is the mechanical engineering division of Rosatom. Together with its subsidiaries it employees more than 17,000 people.
The BN-800 reactor is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, built at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station, in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. The reactor is designed to generate 880 MW of electrical power. The plant was considered part of the weapons-grade Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement signed between the United States and Russia. The reactor is part of the final step for a plutonium-burner core The plant reached its full power production in August 2016. According to Russian business journal Kommersant, the BN-800 project cost 140.6 billion rubles.
The BN-1200 reactor is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor project, under development by OKBM Afrikantov in Zarechny, Russia. The BN-1200 is based on the earlier BN-600 and especially BN-800, with which it shares a number of features. The reactor's name comes from its electrical output, nominally 1220 MWe.
OKBM Afrikantov is a nuclear engineering company located in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. It is a subsidiary of Rosatom. The company is named after Igor Afrikantov.
The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (Bengali: রূপপুর পারমাণবিক বিদ্যুৎকেন্দ্র) is a 2.4 GWe nuclear power plant project in Bangladesh. The nuclear power plant is being constructed at Rooppur of Ishwardi upazila in Pabna District, on the bank of the river Padma, 87 miles (140 km) west of Dhaka. It will be the country's first nuclear power plant, and the first of the two units is expected to go into operation in 2024. The VVER-1200/523 Nuclear reactor and critical infrastructures are being built by the Russian Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation. In the main construction period, the total number of employees will reach 12,500, including 2,500 specialists from Russia. It is expected to generate around 15% of the country's electricity when completed.
Project 23000E or Shtorm is a proposal for an aircraft carrier designed by the Krylov State Research Center for the Russian Navy. The cost of the export version has been put at over US$5.5 billion, and as of 2017 development had been expected to take ten years. As of 2020, the project had not yet been approved and, given the financial costs, it was unclear whether it would be made a priority over other elements of Russian naval modernisation.
Arktika is a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker built by Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg. It is the lead ship of Project 22220 icebreakers and superseded the preceding class of nuclear-powered icebreakers as the largest and most powerful icebreaker ever constructed.
Ural is a Russian Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker. Built by Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg, the vessel was laid down in 2016, launched in 2019 and delivered in 2022.
Yakutiya is a Russian Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker currently under construction at Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg.
Chukotka is a Russian Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker currently under construction at Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg.
References
- ↑ "Small nuclear reactors for power and icebreaking".
- ↑ "Ural icebreaker passes construction milestone". World Nuclear News. 1 August 2018. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
- ↑ "SMR in the Making" . Retrieved 2020-05-05.
- ↑ "Rosatom begins development of nuclear fuel for upgraded FNPPs - Nuclear Engineering International". www.neimagazine.com. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ↑ "Rosatom plans first land-based SMR for Russian Far East : New Nuclear - World Nuclear News". www.world-nuclear-news.org. Retrieved 2020-11-11.
- ↑ "Rosatom to begin work on land-based SMR - Nuclear Engineering International". www.neimagazine.com. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
