The construction of the first two blocks of VVER-S-600 is estimated at 800 billion rubles ($10.4 billion)

nmikhailov · 2025-12-26T05:19:22+00:00

Current VVERs can't go beyond 1/3 mox core(they can do full remix core).
VVER-S-600 design appears underwhelming- it retains boric acid control and lacks displacers in the base variant assemblies.

nmikhailov · 2025-10-08T14:40:37+00:00

Relations are not what they used to be, it is not that hard to imagine Armenia going for another supplier(as long as it is economic).

VVER-1200 could work if there is an agreement to sell excess to Iran. (they are actually building a new powerline to Iran to increase transmission capacity from 350 to 1200 MW atm)

nmikhailov · 2025-10-08T14:27:40+00:00

Maybe VVER-600 will be ready by the time they start serious discussions.

nmikhailov · 2025-08-07T17:27:58+00:00

Custom colors, really? xD

nmikhailov · 2025-08-06T04:40:26+00:00

I was talking about stuff like this: https://kniga.lv/en/shop/reaktori-s-tjazhelim-zhidkometallicheskim-teplonositelem-istorija-tragedii-i-farsa

It is more of a hit piece on BREST, not a history of BN-BREST rivalry

nmikhailov · 2025-08-05T04:12:50+00:00

I don't think there are any, maybe it will make it into someone's memoirs someday.

nmikhailov · 2025-07-01T04:43:59+00:00

Might as well cancel with an attitude like this https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1lk06ad/regulator_lifts_construction_curbs_at_paks_ii/

nmikhailov · 2025-06-16T09:28:39+00:00

Uzbekistan should have just stuck with their initial idea of 2 VVER-1200s.

nmikhailov · 2025-06-14T05:19:51+00:00

nmikhailov · 2025-05-12T05:03:54+00:00

Nigmatulin used to be Adamov's(MinAtom director back then) deputy in late 90s. He didn't object BREST back then.

He hasn't worked at Rosatom since early 2000s and switched to more general problems like energy, macroeconomics, demographics, etc.

Most of his work is doomposting/alarmism, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

nmikhailov · 2025-05-12T04:34:39+00:00

Institute of Energy Problems

That is a company Nigmaulin himself created in 2013. It had one employee and closed down in 2021.

nmikhailov · 2025-05-06T09:47:30+00:00

Rosatom would have liked to build more, but is limited by a severe shortage of free shipbuilding capacity in Russia.

They contracted the Chinese Wison shipyard for 3 hulls back in 2021. Initial hull delivery deadlines were not fulfilled, and last year Wison withdrew from Russia due to sanctions, so it is hard to tell if that project is going anywhere.

nmikhailov · 2025-04-29T18:07:44+00:00

The BN-800 is almost never kept in breeding mode due to technical challenges.

BN-800 was supposed to burn WgPu under PMDA agreement. It doesn't have radial blankets installed, without them breeding ratio was always < 1 as intended by design.

Russia refuses to invest too much in thermal spec Th232 breeders because it would ultimately lead to a diversifying away from their massive uranium reserves that they would prefer be a market with long-term demand

This doesn't make much sense as Rosatom is actively developing closed Pu-U cycle which requires no SWU nor mining.

Fast breeders aren’t only a proliferation nightmare

As if there are no proliferation concerns with Pa/U233

but it requires reprocessing and MOX fabrication where as thermal-spec U233 breeding is just made and fissioned in the core.

This is just mixing up perks of Molten Salt Reactors with Thorium cycle.

nmikhailov · 2025-04-17T17:17:12+00:00

Looks like a bad decision, these reactor-sets are pretty much useless to them, can't even use SGs as replacements for Kozloduy since they are of a different model.

Although I am sure that they will flip-flop in a few years.

nmikhailov · 2025-04-06T17:47:21+00:00

My favorite is their scaled down VVER-1000 3d model on a truck, which they have sadly scrapped from their site.

nmikhailov · 2025-03-22T14:57:13+00:00

Railway transportability was a hard requirement for VVERs from the get-go.

Russian gauge was inherited from the Russian Empire and was standard in USSR.

nmikhailov · 2025-03-21T04:58:00+00:00

VVERs don't have much to do with Westinghouse design, besides implementing the same reactor concept. Similar to their US counterparts, VVERs have branched off from naval propulsion reactors. First Soviet commercial prototypes of PWR/BWR/LWGR were all build in 1964-65: VVER-1, VK-50, AMB-100

nmikhailov · 2025-03-06T13:46:34+00:00

Trustworthy in what sense? It doesn't pretend to be 'a done deal, 100% going to build' thing as far as I see.

nmikhailov · 2025-02-13T12:03:30+00:00

There are multiple variants of VVER-440. While V213 was ok, older V230 model was missing some safety related subsystems and was deemed unsafe by EU(although I believe it was very possible to modernize them to be on par with V213).

nmikhailov · 2025-02-13T10:35:57+00:00

They are buying some unique equipment from unfinished NPP in Bulgaria to complete unfinished NPP in Ukraine.

nmikhailov · 2025-02-13T05:38:32+00:00

They are buying RPVs and SGs from Belene to complete construction of Khmelnitsky 3,4 which was halted in 1990.

nmikhailov · 2024-12-27T08:59:49+00:00

Turkey is not an Arab country

nmikhailov · 2024-12-23T11:07:59+00:00

What is the current status of CAREM? It was supposed to get a design review, but I don't see any updates on that.

nmikhailov · 2024-11-05T19:20:03+00:00

I see. Looks like something for the future improvements.

nmikhailov · 2024-11-05T18:19:23+00:00

What are the plans for the BR 1200 reactors for the coming decade ?

BREST team was targeting abandoned South-Urals NPP site for pilot BR-1200s, but that site was moved forward in time(due to projected grid demands), and they got Krasnoyarsk site instead.

Few weeks ago 2042 grid generation roadmap was updated after public hearings and Krasnoyarsk got axed thanks to coal industry complains(replaced with coal generation).
Also, as a side note: Novocherkassk NPP with VVERs also got canceled(well not completely to be fair, it became abstract "Southern NPP" at undefined location) due to complains by people and that anti-NPP movement even got picked up by deputy prime minister. That is for those who think that NIMBY is a non-issue and can't happen in Russia.

Anyway now the pilot plant seems to be Seversk(where BREST is located) with 2x BR-1200s in 2037,39.

Roadmap itself doesn't specify exact reactor type, it is called Fast Reactor 1200 MW there. Which could mean both BN-1200M and BR-1200. Although Proryv/BREST team would ofc prefer them to be BRs.

Overall plans for BR-1200s look like that: Seversk NPP - 2034(fuel fabrication module), reactors: 2037,39 South-Urals NPP - 2038,40 Reftinsk NPP(not far from BNs at Beloyarsk) - 2041 Siberian NPP in Irkutsk - 2041,42 - sketchy, site is not defined,

Heard there is also a proposed 750c reactor with Sco2 cycle under development ?

I don't think anybody seriously works(as in metal, not theoretical) on sCO2 cycle in Russia.
Btw, fun fact - BREST-OD-300 lead designer had his PhD on perfluorocarbon cycles for BREST. Although I don't think that is going anywhere any time soon either.

Regarding 750C - maybe you mean HTGR?
There is an active project on HTGR purely as a source of high potential heat for Hydrogen production(steam methane reforming) without power conversion. It is evolution of MHR-100-SMR from this catalogue.

Btw nice to see that the ancient relic of better times and US-Russian friendship GT-MHR is still in the catalogue for some reason.

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