Russia’s state-owned nuclear company Rosatom is seeking to extend its options with small, factory assembled nuclear power plants following the success with the small reactors deployed in northern Russia for icebreakers and local electricity generation.
The acting Chief Executive Officer of Rosatom in Central and Southern Africa, Ryan Collyer, outlined plans for increased efforts to use small nuclear reactors at an energy conference in March. The executive elaborated on the option to deploy RITM-200 reactors for electricity generation, water desalination and heat production.
Collyer’s remarks validate the company director general Alexei Likhachev’s previous disclosures that two sites had been selected for small modular reactor deployment. The two sites are in the Chelyabinsk and Yakutia regions, Nuclear Engineering International said.
According to Yakutia governor Aisen Nikolaev, a selection process for a specific site is underway for a reactor with a 50-75MWe capacity. The site selection should be completed this year.
Demonstrating the versatility of a SMR option, Rusatom Overseas in 2019 signed an agreement with GHP Group for financing small reactor deployment at the Suroyamskoye iron ore field in Chelyabinsk, which has an estimated supply of 13.8 billion metric tons in reserve.
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