Nuclear power in Russia

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 electric power plant generation. The installed gross capacity of Russian nuclear reactors was 29.4 GW as of December 2020.In 2025, nuclear power produced 19% of the country’s electricity.

Recent history In accordance with legislation passed in 2001, all Russian civil reactors are operated by Rosenergoatom. More recently in 2007, Russian Parliament adopted the law "On the peculiarities of the management and disposition of the property and shares of organizations using nuclear energy and on relevant changes to some legislative acts of the Russian Federation", which created Atomenergoprom - a holding company for all Russian civil nuclear industry, including Energoatom, nuclear fuel producer and supplier TVEL, uranium trader Tekhsnabexport (Tenex) and nuclear facilities constructor Atomstroyexport.

In 2011, 11 RBMK reactors were given life extensions and uprated in output by about 5%. Environmentalists Aleksandr Nikitin and Igor Koudrik say that these reactors are of an "inherently unsafe design", which cannot be improved through upgrades and modernization, and some reactor parts are impossible to replace. Russian environmental groups say that the lifetime extensions "violate Russian law, because the projects have not undergone environmental assessments". But officials and scientists from various institutions have claimed that the reactors have undergone serious modifications and are safe. 4 of them have subsequently been shut down.

The overnight cost of construction in the seventies was a low 800 $/kW in 2016 dollars. In 2019, a S&P Global Ratings report stated Russia's nuclear construction costs were well below European levels because of vertical integration, good learning-curve effects from serial production, and the large currency devaluation of 2014.

The Russian nuclear industry employs around 200,000 people. Russia is recognized for its nuclear disaster expertise and for the safety of its technology. Statements made in the review of Russian reactor safety that "Requirements on placing the nuclear installation should not contain additional restrictions in comparison with other industrial facilities," suggest that nuclear plants could be placed within cities and are not considered to pose exceptional dangers. Russia is also pursuing an ambitious plan to increase sales of Russian-built reactors overseas, Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting and had 39 reactors under construction or planned overseas as of 2018.

The VVER-1200 pressurised water reactor is the system currently offered for construction, being an evolution of the VVER-1000 with increased power output to about 1200 MWe (gross) and providing additional passive safety features. In August 2016, the first VVER-1200, Novovoronezh II-1, was connected to the grid.

Through its membership in the multi-nation ITER project, Russia participates in the design of nuclear fusion reactors.

In 2013, the Russian state allocated 80.6 billion rubles ($2.4 billion) toward the growth of its nuclear industry, especially export projects where Russian companies build, own and operate the power station, such as the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant.

In 2016, initial plans were announced to build 11 new nuclear power reactors by 2030, including the first VVER-600, a smaller two-cooling-circuit version of the VVER-1200, designed for smaller regions and markets. Outline plans for near-surface disposal facilities for low and intermediate-level waste, and deep burial disposal facilities for high-level waste were also approved in the Krasnoyarsk Krai region.

In October 2017, Rosatom was reported to be considering postponing commissioning new nuclear plants in Russia due to excess generation capacity and that new nuclear electricity prices are higher than for existing plants. The Russian government is considering reducing support for new nuclear under its support contracts, called Dogovor Postavki Moshnosti (DPM), which guarantee developers a return on investment through increased payments from consumers for 20 years. In 2019, a S&P Global Ratings report stated that "We expect domestic nuclear capacity to increase only moderately because electricity demand in Russia is stagnating, given only modest GDP growth, a significant potential for energy savings, and the government's intention to avoid raising electricity prices through additional increases in capacity payments".

Russia's first floating nuclear power plant, Akademik Lomonosov, is equipped to provide power to a remote Russian town on the Bering Strait. The nuclear unit features small modular reactors (SMRs) technology.

Nuclear power reactors Reactors in operation

Seven of Russia's reactors are of the RBMK 1000 type, similar to the one at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The rest of the reactors are PWR designs from the VVER series.

International projects CountryNPP ReactorTypeMWe netMWe gross Construction start Commercially operational Bangladesh Ruppur-1 VVER-1200/523 1080 1200 2017-11-30 2025 Ruppur-2 VVER-1200/523 1080 1200 2018-07-14 2025 Belarus Belarusian-1 VVER-1200/491 1110 1194 2013-11-08 2021-06-10 Belarusian-2 VVER-1200/491 1110 1194 2014-06-03 2023-05-13 China Tianwan-1 VVER-1000/428 990 1060 1999-10-20 2007-05-17 Tianwan-2 VVER-1000/428 990 1060 2000-10-20 2007-08-16 Tianwan-3 VVER-1000/428М 1060 1126 2012-12-27 2018-02-14 Tianwan-4 VVER-1000/428М 1060 1126 2013-09-27 2018-12-22 Tianwan-7 VVER-1200/491 1100 1200 2021-05-19 2026 Tianwan-8 VVER-1200/491 1100 1200 2022-02-25 2027 Xudabao-3 VVER-1200/491 1100 1200 2021-07-28 2026 Xudabao-4 VVER-1200/491 1100 1200 2022-05-19 2027 Egypt El Dabaa-1 VVER-1200/529 1100 1200 2022-07-20 El Dabaa-2 VVER-1200/529 1100 1200 2022-11-19 El Dabaa-3 VVER-1200/529 1100 1200 2023-05-03 El Dabaa-4 VVER-1200/529 1100 1200 2024-01-23 Finland Hanhikivi-1 VVER-1200/AES-2006 1200 cancelled cancelled India Kudankulam-1 VVER-1000/412 932 1000 2002-03-31 2014-12-31 Kudankulam-2 VVER-1000/412 932 1000 2002-07-04 2017-03-31 Kudankulam-3 VVER-1000/412 917 1000 2017-06-29 2025 Kudankulam-4 VVER-1000/412 917 1000 2017-10-23 2025 Kudankulam-5 VVER-1000/412 917 1000 2021-06-29 2027 Kudankulam-6 VVER-1000/412 917 1000 2021-12-20 2027 Iran Bushehr-1 VVER-1000/446 915 1000 1975-05-01 (1995) 2013-09-23 Bushehr-2 VVER-1000/446 915 1000 2016-09-10 2025 Bushehr-3 VVER-1000/446 915 1000 2016-09-10 2027 Turkey Akkuyu-1 VVER-1200/509 1114 1200 2018-04-03 2026 Akkuyu-2 VVER-1200/509 1114 1200 2020-04-08 2027 Akkuyu-3 VVER-1200/509 1114 1200 2021-03-10 2027 Akkuyu-4 VVER-1200/509 1114 1200 2022-07-21 2028 Ukraine Khmelnytskyi-3/4 VVER-1000/392B 950 1000 cancelled cancelled Vietnam Ninh Thuan 1-1/2 VVER-1000/428 950 1000 cancelled cancelled Ninh Thuan 1-3/4 VVER-1000/428 950 1000 cancelled cancelled

In addition Atomstroyexport challenging NPP projects list contains:Challenging NPP Projects JSC ASE Temelin NPP Power Units 3/4 (Czech Republic) Jordan NPP (single-unit NPP with an option for the second power unit)NPP JSC ASE (Jordan) Metsamor NPP Power Units 3/4 (Armenia) NPP with the Reactor Plant VBER-300 (Kazakhstan) Sanming NPP (China)

In March 2022, Russia captured the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, now operated by Rosatom.

In August 2022, the Hungarian Nuclear Energy Authority authorized Rosatom to expand the nuclear power plant at Paks with two new VVER reactors with capacity of 1.2 gigawatts each.

Nuclear engineering companies After 2007, powers and assets were to be transferred to the newly created Rosatom. Atomenergomash: power engineering company; produces steam generators for NPPs Atommash: by far Russia's largest nuclear engineering company designed to build up to 8 reactors per year. Atomstroyexport: nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly OKBM Afrikantov: nuclear reactor design and engineering company. The world's leading company in production of fast breeder reactors. OKB Gidropress: nuclear reactor design and engineering company

Safety Rosatom, responding to the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, announced that it would perform "stress tests" on all its reactors "to judge their ability to withstand earthquakes more powerful than the original design anticipated".

Nuclear power in Russia

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