Recently, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology hosted a Russian presentation of the ITER project, within which it is planned to create a thermonuclear reactor operating on the tokamak principle. A group of scientists from Russia spoke about the international project and the participation of Russian physicists in the creation of this object. Lenta.ru attended the ITER presentation and spoke with one of the project participants.

ITER (ITER, International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is a thermonuclear reactor project that allows the demonstration and research of thermonuclear technologies for their further use for peaceful and commercial purposes. The creators of the project believe that managed thermonuclear fusion can become the energy of the future and serve as an alternative to modern gas, oil and coal. Researchers note the safety, environmental friendliness and accessibility of ITER technology compared to conventional energy. The complexity of the project is comparable to the Large Hadron Collider; The reactor installation includes more than ten million structural elements.

Photo: LESENECHAL/ PPV-AIX.COM

About ITER

Tokamak toroidal magnets require 80 thousand kilometers of superconducting filaments; their total weight reaches 400 tons. The reactor itself will weigh about 23 thousand tons. For comparison, the weight of the Eiffel Tower in Paris is only 7.3 thousand tons. The plasma volume in the tokamak will reach 840 cubic meters, whereas, for example, in the largest reactor of this type operating in the UK - JET - the volume is only one hundred cubic meters.

The height of the tokamak will be 73 meters, of which 60 meters will be above the ground and 13 meters below it. For comparison, the height of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin is 71 meters. The main reactor platform will cover an area of ​​42 hectares, which is comparable to the area of ​​60 football fields. The temperature in the tokamak plasma will reach 150 million degrees Celsius, which is ten times higher than the temperature at the center of the Sun.

In the construction of ITER in the second half of 2010, it is planned to involve up to five thousand people simultaneously - this will include both workers and engineers, as well as administrative personnel. Many of ITER's components will be transported from the port near the Mediterranean Sea along a specially constructed road approximately 104 kilometers long. In particular, the heaviest fragment of the installation will be delivered along it, the mass of which will be more than 900 tons, and the length will be about ten meters. More than 2.5 million cubic meters of earth will be removed from the construction site of the ITER facility.

The total cost of design and construction works is estimated at 13 billion euros. These funds are allocated by seven main project participants representing the interests of 35 countries. For comparison, the total costs of constructing and maintaining the Large Hadron Collider are almost half as much, and the construction and maintenance of the International space station costs almost one and a half times more.

Tokamak

Today in the world there are two promising projects of thermonuclear reactors: tokamak ( That roidal ka measure with ma rotten To atushki) and stellarator. In both installations, the plasma is contained by a magnetic field, but in a tokamak it is in the form of a toroidal cord through which an electric current is passed, while in a stellarator the magnetic field is induced by external coils. In thermonuclear reactors, reactions of synthesis of heavy elements from light ones (helium from hydrogen isotopes - deuterium and tritium) occur, in contrast to conventional reactors, where the processes of decay of heavy nuclei into lighter ones are initiated.

Photo: National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” / nrcki.ru

The electric current in the tokamak is also used to initially heat the plasma to a temperature of about 30 million degrees Celsius; further heating is carried out by special devices.

The theoretical design of a tokamak was proposed in 1951 Soviet physicists Andrei Sakharov and Igor Tamm, and in 1954 the first installation was built in the USSR. However, scientists were unable to maintain the plasma in a steady state for a long time, and by the mid-1960s the world was convinced that controlled thermonuclear fusion based on a tokamak was impossible.

But just three years later, at the T-3 installation at the Institute of Atomic Energy and Kurchatov, under the leadership of Lev Artsimovich, it was possible to heat the plasma to a temperature of more than five million degrees Celsius and hold it for a short time; Scientists from Great Britain who were present at the experiment recorded a temperature of about ten million degrees on their equipment. After this, a real boom in tokamaks began in the world, so that about 300 installations were built in the world, the largest of which are located in Europe, Japan, the USA and Russia.

Image: Rfassbind/ wikipedia.org

ITER Management

In 1985, Evgeny Velikhov proposed to Mikhail Gorbachev to combine the efforts of the United States and the USSR in the field of thermonuclear energy and begin work on the creation of an international thermonuclear reactor based on a tokamak. The first design work began in 1988, and already in 1992 an international agreement on the development of technical project ITER reactor. Full price at the project development stage amounted to about two billion dollars. The participation of Russia and the United States in financing this stage was approximately 17 percent each; the rest was divided roughly equally between the EU and Japan.

Now the main founders of ITER are the European Union, India, China, South Korea, Russia, the USA and Japan. About 35 countries, representing more than half the population, are directly or indirectly involved in the project globe. Kazakhstan has also been participating in the ITER project under Russia's quota since 1994. Scientists plan to begin experiments at ITER in 2020. However, the start of work is often delayed; To date, the delay is estimated at two to three years.

Where and what is

Image: wikimedia.org

At the very beginning of the project, there was a struggle between Japan and France for the possibility of placing ITER installations on their territories. As a result, France won: in 2005, a decision was made to build a reactor in the south of the country, 60 kilometers from Marseille at the Karadash research center. The complex occupies a total area of ​​about 180 hectares. It houses the reactor installations, energy supply systems, gas storage, water pumping station, cooling tower, administrative and other buildings. In 2007, construction of the complex and laying of the foundation began, and most recently, on March 19, 2014, concrete was poured for the tritium production facility.

Reactor and fuel

The operation of the ITER reactor is based on the thermonuclear reaction of the fusion of hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium to form helium with an energy of 3.5 megaelectronvolts and a high-energy neutron (14.1 megaelectronvolts). To do this, the deuterium-tritium mixture must be heated to a temperature of more than one hundred million degrees Celsius, which is five times the temperature of the Sun. In this case, the mixture turns into a plasma of positively charged hydrogen nuclei and electrons. In such a heated plasma, the energy of both deuterium and tritium is sufficient for thermonuclear fusion reactions to begin with the formation of helium and neutron.

Image: Wykis/ wikipedia.org

One reaction event releases an energy of 17.6 megaelectronvolts, which includes the kinetic energy of a neutron and a helium nucleus. A neutron from the plasma enters the coolant that surrounds the plasma, and its energy of movement is converted into thermal energy. Helium energy is used to maintain stationary temperature regime in plasma.

Photo: O. Morand/ wikipedia.org

Deuterium is found in ordinary water; Scientists have learned to extract it relatively easily. Natural hydrogen contains about 0.01 percent of this isotope. With tritium it is more difficult - it is almost absent on Earth. However, scientists plan to obtain it within the framework of the ITER project, using reactions of interaction of a neutron with lithium isotopes Li-6 and Li-7, which can be introduced into the composition of the blanket coolant - the shell surrounding the plasma. The products of this interaction are helium, tritium and neutron (in the case of the Li-7 isotope).

To summarize, we can say that the fuel for the ITER reactor is deuterium and lithium. At the same time, the content of deuterium in ocean water is practically unlimited, and lithium in the earth’s crust is almost 200 times more than uranium; When using deuterium contained in a bottle of water, the same amount of energy will be released as when burning a barrel of gasoline: the calorie content of thermonuclear fuel is a million times higher than any of the modern non-nuclear energy sources.

Reactor parameters

For energy benefits, the reactor must operate with a Q value greater than five. This parameter shows the ratio of the energy u released during the reaction to the energy u expended on creating and heating the plasma. In addition, it is necessary to heat the plasma to a temperature greater than one hundred million degrees Celsius, and such heated plasma in the reactor must be stable for more than one second.

Thus, at the TFTR installation in New Jersey in the USA, a thermonuclear reaction was carried out with a power of about ten megawatts with a pulse duration of 0.3 seconds. The JET installation in the UK produced 17 megawatts of power with Q=0.6.

Image: ITER

In a reactor measuring 40 by 40 meters: 1 - central solenoid, 2 - poloidal magnetic field coils, 3 - toroidal magnetic field coil, 4 - vacuum chamber, 5 - cryostat, 6 - divertor.

In ITER, in the first phase of the experiment, it is planned to hold plasma for up to a thousand seconds with a Q of more than ten at a temperature of about 150 million degrees and a released power of 500 megawatts. In the second phase, scientists want to move to continuous operation of the tokamak, and, if successful, to the first commercial version of the DEMO tokamak. DEMO will have a much simpler design and will not carry a research load, and its operation will not require a significant number of sensors, since the necessary parameters of the reactor operation will have already been worked out at the ITER experimental reactor.

Russian participation

Russia's participation in the ITER project is currently about ten percent. This allows the country to have access to all of the project's technologies. The main task facing Russia within the framework of the project is the production of superconducting magnets, as well as a variety of diagnostic sensors and plasma structure analyzers.

Lenta.ru talked to Russian participant of the ITER project by Vladimir Anosov, head of the group in the department of experimental physics of tokamaks of the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation TRINIT.

What is the basis for confidence that ITER will be operational in 5-10 years? On what practical and theoretical developments?

On the Russian side, we are fulfilling the stated work schedule and are not going to violate it. Unfortunately, we see some delays in the work being carried out by others, mainly in Europe; There is a partial delay in America and there is a tendency that the project will be somewhat delayed. Detained but not stopped. There is confidence that it will work. The concept of the project itself is completely theoretically and practically calculated and reliable, so I think it will work. Whether it will give the full declared results - we'll wait and see.

Is the project more of a research project?

Certainly. The stated result is not the obtained result. If it is received in full, I will be extremely happy.

What new technologies have appeared, are appearing or will appear in the ITER project?

The ITER project is not just a super-complex, but also a super-stressful project. Stressful in terms of energy load, operating conditions of certain elements, including our systems. Therefore, new technologies simply must be born in this project.

Is there an example?

Space. For example, our diamond detectors. We discussed the possibility of using our diamond detectors on space trucks, which are nuclear vehicles that transport certain objects such as satellites or stations from orbit to orbit. There is such a project for a space truck. Since this is a device with a nuclear reactor on board, difficult operating conditions require analysis and control, so our detectors could easily do this. On at the moment The topic of creating such diagnostics is not yet funded. If it is created, it can be applied and then there will be no need to invest money in it at the development phase, but only at the development and implementation phase.

What is the share of modern Russian developments of the 2000s and 1990s in comparison with Soviet and Western developments?

The share of Russian scientific contribution to ITER compared to the global one is very large. I don't know it exactly, but it is very significant. It is clearly no less than the Russian percentage of financial participation in the project, because many other teams have large number Russians who went abroad to work in other institutes. In Japan and America, everywhere, we communicate and work with them very well, some of them represent Europe, some represent America. In addition, there are also scientific schools there. Therefore, regarding whether we are stronger or more developing what we did before... One of the greats said that “we stand on the shoulders of titans,” so the base that was developed in Soviet times, it is undeniably great and without it we could not do anything. But even at the moment we are not standing still, we are moving.

What exactly does your group do at ITER?

I have a sector in the department. The department is developing several diagnostics, our sector is specifically developing the vertical neutron chamber, ITER neutron diagnostics and decides big circle tasks from design to manufacturing, and also carries out related research work related to the development, in particular, of diamond detectors. The diamond detector is a unique device, originally created in our laboratory. Previously used in many thermonuclear installations, it is now used quite widely by many laboratories from America to Japan; they, let's say, followed us, but we continue to remain on top. Now we are making diamond detectors and are going to reach the level of their industrial production (small-scale production).

What industries can these detectors be used in?

In this case, these are thermonuclear research; in the future, we assume that they will be in demand in nuclear energy.

What exactly do detectors do, what do they measure?

Neutrons. There is no more valuable product than the neutron. You and I also consist of neutrons.

What characteristics of neutrons do they measure?

Spectral. Firstly, the immediate task that is solved at ITER is the measurement of neutron energy spectra. In addition, they monitor the number and energy of neutrons. The second, additional task concerns nuclear energy: we have parallel developments that can also measure thermal neutrons, which are the basis of nuclear reactors. This is a secondary task for us, but it is also being developed, that is, we can work here and at the same time make developments that can be quite successfully applied in nuclear energy.

What methods do you use in your research: theoretical, practical, computer modeling?

Everyone: from complex mathematics (methods of mathematical physics) and mathematical modeling to experiments. All the different types of calculations that we carry out are confirmed and verified by experiments, because we directly have an experimental laboratory with several operating neutron generators, on which we test the systems that we ourselves develop.

Do you have a working reactor in your laboratory?

Not a reactor, but a neutron generator. A neutron generator, in fact, is a mini-model of those thermonuclear reactions about which we're talking about. Everything is the same there, only the process there is slightly different. It works on the principle of an accelerator - it is a beam of certain ions that hits a target. That is, in the case of plasma, we have a hot object in which each atom has high energy, and in our case, a specially accelerated ion hits a target saturated with similar ions. Accordingly, a reaction occurs. Let's just say this is one way you can do the same fusion reaction; the only thing that has been proven is that this method does not have high efficiency, that is, you will not get a positive energy output, but you get the reaction itself - we directly observe this reaction and the particles and everything that goes into it.

As soon as scientists managed to carry out a reaction to split the atomic nucleus, the question immediately arose about the prospects practical application this outstanding discovery. Considering political situation, emerging in the world, it is natural that the first application for the new discovery was to use it to create weapons of unprecedented power - atomic bomb. But, in parallel with the use of the reaction of fission of the atomic nucleus for mass murder, a number of scientists raised the question of a “peaceful atom”.

Leadership on the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes was immediately seized by Soviet Union. Already in 1954, the first industrial nuclear power plant was built in Obninsk. Its power was 5 MW. However Western countries did not remain aloof from the opportunity to join in the use of such a powerful source of energy. Great Britain was the first to commission an industrial nuclear reactor in 1956, and the nuclear power plant was named Calder Hall. A year later, a similar power plant was built in the USA in the town of Shippingport. Its power was 69 MW and at that time it was the most powerful nuclear power plant.

Naturally, like any other work of human hands, the development of nuclear energy could not do without accidents. Let's look at the most famous of them.

Three most famous nuclear power plant accidents

Trimal Island Nuclear Power Plant Accident

This incident is the largest nuclear disaster in the United States to date. On March 28, 1979, more than half of the core of the second reactor melted. This led to the release of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere, and the local river was contaminated with water containing radioactive elements. Due to the accident, about 200,000 people living in the danger zone were evacuated.

Accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant

As a result of a powerful earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011, the reactor cooling system in the first unit of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant was shut down in Japan. This led to a fuel melt and explosion. The result was the emergence of a ten-kilometer exclusion zone around the station and a revision of energy policy by the Japanese government

Accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

The biggest disaster to date nuclear power plant happened on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. As a result of the destruction of part of the reactor core at power unit No. 4, more than 8 tons of radioactive fuel were released into the air. The area within a radius of thirty kilometers was contaminated with radiation, and the total area of ​​the zone that experienced the consequences of this accident exceeded 160 thousand km2.

From the above short list disasters, it is clear that nuclear power plants can pose a serious danger. So why do they not only continue to be used, but also why is there a constant increase in the number of countries wanting to build a nuclear power plant on their territory? There are several reasons for this.

The main advantages of nuclear energy

Nuclear power plants are environmentally friendly. They do not emit harmful substances into the atmosphere (if, of course, they operate normally) like thermal stations and do not burn oxygen. For their construction there is no need to flood a huge territory, which is a necessary condition for the construction of a hydroelectric power station. However, there are two problems: nuclear power plants are characterized by a high level of thermal pollution and the disposal of spent fuel is necessary. And if the first problem can be solved by using the generated heat in the economy, then the reprocessing of spent fuel for reactors still remains challenging task.

The cost of nuclear energy is relatively low and is little subject to price fluctuations. If hydrocarbon prices are constantly changing, then the price of fuel for nuclear power plants is more stable.

Fuel for nuclear power plants has a very small volume, especially compared to coal-fired power plants, which makes it possible to build nuclear power plants without regard to the availability of raw materials. What is even more important is that the explored reserves of uranium ores are still very far from being fully depleted, unlike, for example, oil and gas reserves.

The most powerful nuclear power plants in the world

There are now almost two hundred nuclear power plants operating in the world. Their geography is quite extensive - there are nuclear power plants in 31 countries. Let's take a closer look at the largest nuclear power plants. Here are the top five nuclear power plants with the largest installed capacity.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa (Japan)

This power plant has seven boiling water reactors (of which two are improved). Its power is 7965 MW. After the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, it was decommissioned, but in 2012 it came back into operation.

Zaporozhye (Ukraine)

This power plant is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Its six reactors can generate power of 6,000 MW.

Hanul (South Korea)

It is one of the pair of largest nuclear power plants in South Korea. It has six operating and two reactors under construction. The power of the commissioned reactors is 5881 megawatts.

Hanbit (South Korea)

The power of the six pressurized water reactors at the Hanbit power station is 5875 MW. Until 2013, this station was called Yongwan, but due to requests from local fishermen, it received a new name, since many buyers associated the caught fish with nuclear energy.

Nord (France)

This power plant is located in the canton of Gravelines. It is the most powerful nuclear power plant in France, and its capacity is 5460 MW.

What about Russia? What place does nuclear energy occupy in its home country? There are currently 10 nuclear power plants in operation in Russia, producing 18% of all electricity generated in the country. The share of nuclear energy in the overall energy balance is not very large, which is understandable given the country’s rich hydrocarbon reserves and huge hydro potential.

It is quite difficult to determine the most powerful nuclear power plant in Russia - four nuclear power plants have four reactors, each of which has a capacity of 1000 megawatts. These are Balakovo, Leningrad, Kursk and Kalinin nuclear power plants. Therefore, to determine the largest nuclear power plant in Russian Federation it is necessary to resort to an additional indicator - generated electricity per year. According to this indicator, the title of “the largest nuclear power plant in Russia” belongs to the Balakovo NPP - it produces more than 30 billion kWh per year. The same power plant also occupies an honorable tenth place in the world ranking of the most powerful nuclear power plants.

Due to the ever-decreasing reserves of hydrocarbon raw materials and the high cost of alternative energy, nuclear energy has all the prerequisites to take a leading position in the issue of providing humanity with electricity. Unless, of course, a breakthrough in the field of controlled thermonuclear reactions is achieved in the near future.

After the terrible events that occurred in Japan, nuclear power plants began to attract great attention world community. Disputes about the safety of nuclear power plants for environment and human life does not fade away even today. But such power plants require a meager amount of fuel, which is their undoubted advantage over other types of similar structures.

There are more than 400 nuclear power plants in the world, and those discussed below are the most powerful of them.

For comparison: The capacity of the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant was 4,000 MW.

Our rating opens with a station located on Japanese island Honshu. After the Fukushima disaster, the Japanese approached the construction of a new nuclear power plant with high level professionalism and extreme caution: only three of the five reactors are currently in operation. Two reactors were shut down due to technical work to improve the safety system and protection against natural disasters.

9. Balakovo NPP (Russia) – 4000 MW

Balakovskaya is rightfully considered the largest nuclear power plant in Russia and the most powerful power plant of its kind. This is where all nuclear fuel research in our country began. All the latest developments were tested here, and only after that received permission to further use at other Russian and foreign nuclear power plants. The Balakovo nuclear power plant produces a fifth of all nuclear power plants in Russia.

8. Palo Verde NPP (USA) – 4174 MW

It is the most powerful nuclear power plant in the United States. But today, a capacity of 4174 MW is not the highest figure, so this nuclear power plant occupies only eighth place in our rating. But Palo Verde is unique in its own way: it is the only nuclear power plant in the world that is not located on the shore of a large body of water. The operating concept of the reactors is cooling by using waste water nearby settlements. However, violation of the traditions of designing nuclear power plants by American engineers raises many questions about the safety of such a power plant.

7. Ohi Nuclear Power Plant (Japan) – 4494 MW

Another representative of the Japanese nuclear industry. This nuclear power plant has a reserve of four operating reactors with a total capacity of 4494 MW. Paradoxically, this is the safest nuclear power plant in Japan. In its entire history, Okha has not had a single emergency situation related to security. Interesting fact: after the “freeze” of work at all nuclear power plants and a whole series of technical inspections throughout the country in connection with the Fukushima disaster, the Ohi nuclear power plant was the first to resume operation.

6. NPP Paluel (France) – 5320 MW

Although this “French woman” is located on the shore of a reservoir, like other nuclear power plants, it still has one characteristic feature. Not far from the nuclear power plant is the commune of Paluel (the question of what the station got its name from immediately disappears). The fact is that all the residents of this commune are part-time workers of the nuclear power plant (there are about 1,200 people). A sort of communist approach to the problem of employment.

5. Gravelines NPP (France) – 5460 MW

Gravelines is the most powerful nuclear power plant in France. It is located on the shore North Sea, the waters of which are used in cooling nuclear reactors. France is actively developing its scientific and technical potential in the nuclear field and has on its territory large number Nuclear power plants, which together contain more than fifty nuclear reactors.

4. Hanul Nuclear Power Plant (South Korea) – 5900 MW

Hanul is not the only nuclear power plant on the territory South Korea with a capacity of 5900 MW: the Korean “arsenal” also has the Hanbit station. The question arises, why exactly Hanul occupies fourth place in our rating? The fact is that in the next 5 years, leading Korean specialists in the field of nuclear energy plan to “accelerate” Hanul to a record 8,700 MW. Perhaps a new leader will soon top our ratings.

3. Zaporozhye NPP (Ukraine) – 6000 MW

Having started its work in 1993, Zaporozhye NPP became the most powerful station in the entire former Soviet space. Today it is the third nuclear power plant in the world and the first in Europe in terms of power.

Interesting fact: The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant was built in close proximity to the city of Energodar. With the start of construction, the city poured powerful flow investment, and the region as a whole received an economic boost, which made it possible to develop social and production sector at a high level.

2. Bruce NPP (Canada) – 6232 MW

Perhaps the most powerful and largest nuclear power plant in terms of size in all of Canada and the entire North American continent. The Bruce NPP is distinguished by the scale of its area - no less than 932 hectares of land. It has as many as 8 powerful nuclear reactors in its arsenal, which brings “Bruce” to second place in our rating. Until the early 2000s, no nuclear power plant could outperform the Zaporozhye NPP, but Canadian engineers succeeded. Another feature of the station is its “hedonic” location on the shores of picturesque Lake Huron.

1. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP (Japan) – 8212 MW

Even the 2007 earthquake, after which the power in nuclear reactors had to be reduced, did not prevent this energy giant from maintaining world leadership. The maximum capacity of the nuclear power plant is 8212 MW, now its potential has been realized only at 7965 MW. Today it is the most powerful nuclear power plant in the world.

Despite the ambiguous attitude towards nuclear power plants (which is quite justified by many objective reasons), no one will argue that this is the most environmentally friendly production of all existing ones: there is practically no waste from the activities of nuclear power plants. In turn, responsibility for safety lies on the shoulders of engineers. Literacy in design and construction - and the nuclear industry will have no enemies left.

AND dramatic events at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant caused serious damage to the development of nuclear energy throughout the world. Through the efforts of means mass media a strong belief has been created about the inevitable danger of any power plant with a nuclear power plant.

But, according to many scientists, there is not yet a worthy alternative to meeting the need for electricity, and, for example, Balakovo - the largest nuclear power plant in Russia - poses no more of a threat than any other industrial facility of a similar scale.

Operating principle of nuclear power plants

All major nuclear power plants operate on a similar principle. To produce electricity, heat is used that is generated during a controlled chain reaction of fission of nuclear fuel - this process is mainly carried out in nuclear reactor- the “heart” of the nuclear power plant.

Next, hot steam is prepared, which drives the turbines of electric generators. Depending on the design, these can be rotors used in power plants of all types or built taking into account the specifics of installations operating on nuclear fuel.

Reactor types

There are several types of reactors, which differ in the fuel, coolant passing through the core, and the moderator needed to control the chain reaction.

Reactors that use ordinary, “light” water as a process fluid have proven to be the most economical and productive. By design, they come in two main types:

• RBMK is a high-power channel reactor. In it, the steam that rotates the turbines is prepared directly in the active zone, which is why such an object is called boiling. This was the reactor of the fourth power unit in Chernobyl; a similar type of installation is used, for example, by the Kursk station, the largest nuclear power plant in Russia.
• VVER - pressurized water power reactor. This is a system of two sealed circuits: in the first - radioactive - water circulates directly through the reactor core, absorbing heat from the nuclear fission chain reaction, in the second - steam is generated, which is supplied to the turbines of electric generators. Such reactors are used in the most powerful Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Europe, and another largest nuclear power plant in Russia, Balakovo, operates on them.

The second type of reactor is gas-cooled, where graphite is used to control processes (EGP-6 reactor at the Bilibino NPP). The third one uses fuel in the form of natural uranium and with “heavy water” - deuterium oxide - as a coolant and moderator. The fourth - RN - fast neutron reactor.

The first nuclear power plants

First experiment using nuclear reactor for the production of electricity was carried out in the USA, at the Idaho National Laboratory, in 1951. The reactor operated at a power sufficient to illuminate four 200-watt electric lamps. After some time, the installation began to provide electricity to the entire building where the scientific research at a nuclear reactor. It was connected to the power grid after 4 years, and the city of Arco, located near the laboratory, became the first in the world to be provided with electricity using a nuclear power plant.

But the world's first industrial nuclear power plant is a nuclear power plant, launched in the summer of 1954 in Kaluga region USSR and immediately connected to the network. This is where Russian nuclear energy originates. The power of the Obninsk nuclear power plant was small - only 5 MW. Three years later, in the Tomsk region, in the city of Seversk, the first stage of the Siberian nuclear power plant was put into operation, subsequently producing 600 MW. The reactor installed there was intended to produce weapons-grade plutonium, with electrical and thermal energy being a by-product. Today the reactors at these stations are shut down.

Nuclear power plant on the territory of the former USSR

Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, the USSR began intensive construction of such power plants in different regions of the country. The list of nuclear power plants in Russia and the Union republics includes 17 similar structures, 7 of which remain outside the current Russian Federation:

• Armenian, near the city of Metsamor. It has two power units with a total capacity of 440 MW. After the Spitak earthquake of 1988, which the nuclear power plant withstood without serious accidents thanks to the seismic resistance built into the design, a decision was made to shut it down. However, later, due to the high demand for electricity, the government of the republic decided to launch the second power unit in 1995. Despite the fact that this happened taking into account increased requirements for technological and environmental safety, the European Union insists on its conservation.
• in the north-east of Lithuania operated from 1983 to 2009 and was closed at the request of the European Union.
• Zaporozhye, the most powerful nuclear power plant in Europe, is located on the shore of the Kakhovka reservoir, in the city of Energodar, built in 1978. It consists of 6 VVER-1000 power units, producing a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity - about 40 billion kWh per year. It fully complies with the standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
• Rivne, near the city of Kuznetsovsk in the Rivne region of Ukraine. It has 4 VVER power units with a total capacity of 2835 MW. Received a high rating from the IAEA based on the results of a safety audit.
• Khmelnitskaya, near the city of Neteshyn, near the Gorini river in Ukraine. 2 VVER-1000 are involved.
• Yuzhno-Ukrainskaya, located on the banks of the Southern Bug in the Nikolaev region of Ukraine. 3 VVER-1000 power units provide 96% of the electricity needs of the south of Ukraine.
• Chernobyl, near the city of Pripyat, became the site of the largest man-made disaster of the year. The last of the four RBMK-1000 power units was shut down in 2000.

The share of electricity generated at nuclear power plants in the total energy balance of the largest nuclear power plants, hydroelectric power plants, and thermal power plants in Russia is about 18%. This is significantly less than, for example, the leader in the nuclear energy industry - France, where this figure is 75%. According to the energy strategy adopted by the government, for the period until 2030 it is planned to increase this ratio to 20-30% and increase electricity production using nuclear fuel power units by 4 times.

Nuclear energy in Russia

How many nuclear power plants are there in Russia today? There are 10 power plants operating in our country, comprising 35 power units. various types(there are about 100 such installations in the USA). The most widespread in our country are pressurized water reactors (VVER) - 18 in total. Of these, 12 are with a capacity of 1000 MW, another 6 are 440 MW. There are also 15 boiling channel reactors in operation: 11 RBMK-1000 and 4 EGP-6.

Which nuclear power plant is the largest in Russia

At the moment, in the Rosenergoatom system there is no clear leader among nuclear power plants in terms of capacity and contribution to the overall balance of the country. There are 2 complexes where the same number (4) of the same type of VVER-1000 reactors are used. These are the Balakovo and Kalinin nuclear power plants. Each of them has a total capacity of 4000 MW. The same power is included in the Kursk and Leningrad power plants, which each use 4 RBMK-1000 power units. At the same time, the most powerful nuclear power plant in the world - the Japanese Kashiwazaki-Kariwa - has 7 power units with a total capacity of 8212 MW.

The concentration of energy enterprises of this type in has led to the fact that they are playing vital role in providing electricity central regions countries. In the center of Russia, and especially in the north-west, the share of nuclear power plants in the energy balance reaches 40%.

6 other Russian nuclear power plants

The Kola station, Russia's largest nuclear power plant in the northern territories, operating two thousand-megawatt power units, makes its contribution to the Russian energy sector. The introduction of new capacities continues at the Novovoronezh NPP, where new, improved VVER-1200 power units are being used. The Beloyarsk NPP in the Sverdlovsk region can be considered an experimental site for Russian nuclear scientists. It uses several types of power units, including fast neutron reactors. The Bilibino station is located in Chukotka, supplying this region with the necessary heat.

The question of which nuclear power plant is the largest in Russia may again become relevant when new power units are commissioned at the Rostov station, of which there are currently three, and their capacity is 3,100 MW. Smolenskaya, which operates on RBMK reactors, has the same power.

Prospects

The industry development program takes into account how many nuclear power plants need to be built in Russia, how many power units need to be reconstructed and put into operation in order to improve energy supply. This is especially true for the regions of the North, Siberia and Far East. Most of the oil and gas production enterprises, which still form the basis of the Russian economy, are located there.

One of the most promising areas of Russian nuclear energy is the creation of floating nuclear thermal power plants. These are transportable low-power power units (up to 70 MW) based on fast neutron reactors of the KLT-40 type. Such mobile structures can provide the most inaccessible areas with electricity, industrial and domestic heat, and even fresh water. Commissioning of the first floating nuclear power plant "Mikhail Lomonosov" is planned in the coming years.