Draft plans published by a government agency have proposed the construction of 28 GW of new nuclear power generation in Russia by 2042 – potentially more than doubling the country’s current installed nuclear capacity of 26.8 GW (net).
The Unified Energy System of Russia plan, which is going through a consultation process and is subject to government approval, calls for construction of as many as 34 new reactors by 2042.
Some units would replace existing reactors. Others would be at new sites, while some of the plants included in the plan already are already under construction.
The new capacity includes four VVER-TOI units due to be commissioned at the Kursk 2 nuclear power station between 2025 and 2034, three VVER-S/600 units at the Kola nuclear station between 2035 and 2040, and two new VVER units at the Smolensk nuclear station from 2033 to 2035.
There are proposals for two new VVER plants with a capacity of 2,400 MW at Novovoronezh, to be commissioned between 2036 and 2038. Plans for those units were initially announced in 2021 with construction planned to begin in the 2030s.
The plan also includes new units at Reftinskaya, southwest Russia; Yuzhnouralsk (South Urals) in Chelyabinsk Oblast, 90km south of Yekaterinburg; and Krasnoyarsk, the second largest city in Siberia.
The pilot Brest-OD-300 demonstration power unit at Seversk, planned for commissioning in 2028, is also included in the plan.
According to the Russian news service Strana Rosatom, new plants are also planned in Primorsky and Khabarovsk, both regions in far east Russia.
These will be two-block nuclear power stations with VVER-S/600 plants with a total capacity of 1,200 MW, Strana Rosatom said.
A low-power nuclear power plant with four RITM-400 reactors with a total capacity of 320 MW is planned for Norilsk, in the north of the country.
Low-power reactors at Chukotka, Baimsky and Yakutsk are also included in the plan.
The largest increase in nuclear generation is expected in Siberia, Russia’s Far East and the Urals with a total of 13 new units with installed capacity of 12.7 GW.
