Research and exploration of the Arctic shelf, the development of northern territories of the Russian Federation, and the creation of the Northern Sea Route are tasks of national importance. It is difficult to overestimate Rosatom’s contribution to the accomplishment of these tasks in the form of development of the nuclear-power icebreaker fleet, BelTA learned from Ivan Andriyevsky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of 2K Engineering Company. Certainly, it is a long-term program and Rosatom will continue working on it in the next few years. Apart from that, as far as the development of northern territories is concerned, in 2016 Rosatom advanced another important project into the final stage — the floating nuclear power plant. It is a revolutionary project for creating a mobile nuclear power plant.
Speaking about the development of the resource base, it is worth mentioning the development of the most promising uranium deposit in Russia. The Vitimsky uranium ore district is located in the Republic of Buryatia. Rosatom’s investments in the project will allow substantially racking up uranium extraction in Russia as early as next year.
As far as important events in the development of the nuclear energy industry are concerned, it is worth noting the fact that the sixth power-generating unit of the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant now operates at full capacity. It is a VVER-1200 reactor of the 3+ generation. It is the world’s first reactor of this generation with such robust safety features. One way or another, one can say that Rosatom is at the peak of technological advancement in this area.
The commissioning of the fast-neutron reactor BN-800 at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant is another important event. The reactor represents the foundation for research into the creation of a closed nuclear fuel cycle. Fast-neutron reactors are seen as the future of the world nuclear power engineering industry. Russian specialists are at the forefront of development in this direction, too.
Rosatom has always been active on foreign markets. The development of overseas projects is an important branch of Rosatom’s work. At present the nuclear energy market is one of the few markets where Russian products are not only competitive but represent the cutting edge. Rosatom’s accomplishments abroad are a direct testimony to that.