Prospects for the development of nuclear power in Russia

Abstract

The future of nuclear power in Russia must be analyzed taking account of the trends which have appeared in recent years in the development of power in the developed and developing countries. In most developed countries the growth of energy consumption has slowed down, which to a large extent is due to effective energy conservation policy, whereas for the developing countries, characteristically, the demand for energy is increasing and there is a permanent growth of powergeneration capacity.In Russi~ the situation is determined by factors such as the following: the restructuring of the economy, accompanied by a substantial decrease in the volume of industrial production; exhaustion of technical resources in a significant fraction of the fossil-fuel burning heat and power plants; more stringent health and hygenic requirements on newly designed power sources and the associated need for decreasing emissions and other action on the environment; and, lack of investments for modernizing and constructing new power plants as well as the subsequent implementation of an energy conservation policy in industry.In the next few decades the demand for energy in Russia and most other countries will be satisfied by different sources: coal, natural gas, oil, atomic energy, hydroelectric power, and others. Therefore, competition between them is unavoidable. The factors determining the choice will be economic indicators and ecological consequences of the use of one or another energy source taking account of the regional peculiarities of the location of a source.At present, the most widely used traditional power sources are heat and power plants burning coal and natural gas. However, the increasing requirements for clean air and, in consequence, the degree of scrubbing of the emissions, the need to reduce the quantity of greenhouse gases, and the high sensitivity of the cost of electrical power to the cost of the fossil fuel make the prospects for increasing further the scales of utilization of fossil fuel, at least, uncertain. There are serious grounds for believing that the combustion of coal, gas, and oil is by no means the best application of these unique natural materials.Taking account of the possibility of expanded production of nuclear fuel, nuclear power possesses unlimited fuel resources. Under normal operation, nuclear power has undoubted advantages over its competitors. The action of nuclear power on the environment is limited only by its heat effect. Therefore, the prospects for developing nuclear power are determined by its safety and the cost of the energy produced, i.e., the degree to which the technical solutions guaranteeing elimination of radioactive emissions during any technically possible accidents in amounts exceeding the admissable health standards have been worked out; capital expenditures on the construction of nuclear power plants; and, operating costs, including the cost of burial and shipment of spent fuel, as well as assurance of safe handling and burial of radioactive wastes.

Archives of Thermodynamics

“…The concept of using NPP to district heat (DH) production was investigated in the 1970s and the 1980s. Advanced studies were conducted in Central and Eastern Europe, where either Russian water-water thermal reactors (VVER) or light water-cooled graphite-moderated reactor (LWGR) were operated [3,4]. In addition, Bruce A NPP with Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactor, generated electricity, district heat, and process heat.…”

Heat-transfer degradation boundary in supercritical-pressure flow

“…The advantages of using water at supercritical pressure in a reactor operating on thermal or fast neutrons are essentially obvious -the possibility of increasing the efficiency of a nuclear power plant from 33 to 44%, decreasing the amount of equipment and decreasing the amount of metal in the nuclear power system in the case of a direct-flow scheme, higher fuel-utilization indicators, and less construction [1,[3][4][5][6]. A great deal of experience has been accumulated in using supercritical-pressure water in ordinary (thermal) power engineering, where more than 120 units with power 300-1200 MW are operating in our country alone.…”

“…It is shown that the temperature of the walls affects the start of the region with degraded heat transfer. A generalized relation, making it possible to determine to within 20% the onset of the degradtion of heat tansfer for different coolants (water, carbondioxide, freon-12), is proposed on the basis of the theory of thermodynamic similarity.The transition to supercritical parameters in water-cooled reactors is viewed as a natural continuation of the development of VVÉR reactors for the purpose of developing new-generation nuclear power plants [1][2][3][4]. The advantages of using water at supercritical pressure in a reactor operating on thermal or fast neutrons are essentially obvious -the possibility of increasing the efficiency of a nuclear power plant from 33 to 44%, decreasing the amount of equipment and decreasing the amount of metal in the nuclear power system in the case of a direct-flow scheme, higher fuel-utilization indicators, and less construction [1, 3-6].…”

“…The transition to supercritical parameters in water-cooled reactors is viewed as a natural continuation of the development of VVÉR reactors for the purpose of developing new-generation nuclear power plants [1][2][3][4]. The advantages of using water at supercritical pressure in a reactor operating on thermal or fast neutrons are essentially obvious -the possibility of increasing the efficiency of a nuclear power plant from 33 to 44%, decreasing the amount of equipment and decreasing the amount of metal in the nuclear power system in the case of a direct-flow scheme, higher fuel-utilization indicators, and less construction [1,[3][4][5][6].…”