☢️ Russia’s GAME-CHANGING closed-cycle nuclear fuel innovation revealed

🗣 Revolutionary developments by Russian specialists will make it possible to establish a “closed cycle” of nuclear “fuel” for atomic energy, Deputy Director General of the IAEA Mikhail Chudakov told Sputnik.

Earlier this week, President Putin announced that in 2030 Russia will launch in the Tomsk region the world’s first nuclear power system with a closed fuel cycle.

Adding, next day, from Sputnik: 

How Russia’s nuclear tech edge became global supremacy 

Russia’s civilian nuclear sector boasts 70+ years of world-firsts and accomplishments, and just shook things up again this week after President Putin has announced the country’s plans to launch “the world’s first nuclear energy system with a closed fuel cycle.”

👉 Developed under Project Breakthrough & being built in Seversk, Siberia, the system promises to reuse 95% of spent fuel, solving waste & fuel sourcing issues.

Russia has a long history of peaceful atom world firsts:

⚫️1st nuclear power plant (Obninsk, 1954)

⚫️1st nuclear icebreaker (Lenin, 1957)

⚫️1st road-mobile power plants (TES-series & PAMIR-630D, 1957, 1985)

⚫️1st floating power plant (Akademik Lomonosov, 2019)

🌍 Global reach

Rosatom is the world’s largest civilian nuclear enterprise, building & maintaining plants & covering the complete fuel cycle, from uranium mining to waste management, for clients worldwide.

Its domain includes:

⚫️12 plants in Russia (40+ reactors)

⚫️~40 projects in 10 countries, from Egypt’s El-Dabaa & Turkiye’s Akkuyu to Rooppur in Bangladesh 

⚫️servicing of plants including Ostrovets in Belarus, Paks in Hungary, Kudankulam, India, Iran’s Bushehr & Tianwan in China

⚙️ Best reactor tech

⚫️VVER-1200: III+ gen pressurized water reactor with enhanced passive safety & 60-year lifespan

⚫️BREST-OD-300: IV gen lead-cooled fast neutron reactor, scalable closed fuel cycle-ready

⚫️BN-800: IV gen sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor; uses MOX reprocessed fuel

🧊 Icebreaker armada

⚫️8 modern icebreakers (3 Project 22220 ships, 2 Arktika-class vessels, 2 shallow-draught icebreakers (Taymyr, Vaygach)

⚫️5 under construction (3 Project 22220 vessels, plus the new Project 10510 Leader flagship)

⚡️Fuel

Russia is also the leader on uranium enrichment (40-46% of global capacity), with mining operations in Kazakhstan – the world’s largest uranium producer, through joint ventures. 

Russia plans to ramp up domestic uranium output to 4k tons a year by 2030 (it’s about 2.7k tons today).