Innovation and atomic industry today are inseparable. For this reason it was decided to hold an important event at Novovoronezh NPP (city of Novovoronezh, Voronezhskaya oblast). Presidium Meeting of the Russian Presidential Council for Economic Modernization and Innovative Development was chaired by the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
It is for the first time in almost 40 years that Novovoronezh NPP is receiving a visitor of such a high rank. Last time it happened in July 1974, when the NPP on the Don river was visited by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexey Kosygin and the Republic of Cuba leader Fidel Castro.
Dmitry Medvedev started his visit giving a look to the construction process at NPP-2, which is the first NPP being built by Rosatom in Russia under the Development Program for nuclear power generation industry approved in 2006.
The PM was shown construction sites, given detailed description of the construction technologies and specifics. “The pace and scope of production is truly impressive” – noted the Prime Minister.
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Novovoronezh NPP-2 construction is the greatest investment project of Central Chernozem region. The investments in its construction in 2011 amounted to 39, 9 billion RUB. The investment planned for 2012 is 20.26 billion.
During his visit the prime minister took a close look at the fifth block of the NPP, which was put into operation in 1980 and will work till 2035 after the recent modernization.
After a tour around the plant the PM visited an exhibition of promising inventions, where he saw a “project of tomorrow” – the WWER-TOI reactor, which will be finished by the end of this year. It will allow NPP to decrease the cost of construction by 20%, prolong its operation life from 50 to 60 years and reduce the construction time from 54 to 48 months.
Holding Down the Leadership
At the beginning of the meeting Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia is one of today’s world leaders in atomic industry. In 2011-2012 about 60 billion RUB were allocated from the budget under federal programs for nuclear technologies development. 23 billion of that money was spent for research and development (R&D).
“Starting from 2006 Rosatom increased the R&D working expenses by five, which is from about 4 billion RUB to 21 billion a year. It’s not the absolute sum I’m talking about right now, although it is pretty impressing, but the proceeds of sales percentage. The number is about 4.5% which is quite satisfactory, since it’s one of the best results not only for Russia, but for the whole world” – said the Prime Minister.
The issue of Russian nuclear technologies promotion was also touched upon. According to Medvedev, taking into consideration a big foreign order, it is necessary to use all possibilities both of economic motivation and diplomatic support. “This is something that state structures constantly have to work on” – emphasized the Prime Minister, speaking about the importance of participation in major international projects, such as ITER.
Working for Prospective
The atomic industry plans are great and ambitious. According to Sergey Kiriyenko, Rosatom Director General, who also gave a speech at the event, the R&D expenses by 2020 will grow more than twice and may equal to 42.9 billion RUB. “Today the R&D expenses are about 20 billion, by 2016 they are planned to increase to 33,5 billion, while in 2020 the sum may grow up to 42,9” – said Kiriyenko. However it is not worth while expecting any innovation development without equal development of science. That is why, starting from 2011, Rosatom made an order to sectoral research institute for 2,5 thousand specialists for scientific block. Nothing like this has taken place since soviet times.
Sergey Kiriyenko also presented a map of innovation projects among which is the famous “Break-Through” (Proryv). The former is the most widely discussed project, having nuclear fuel cycle close as its objective. According to Kiriyenko, at this point Rosatom is ready to speed up the realization and launch of the projection complex on the Seversk site a great deal, yet by 2020 instead of previously planned 2030. This will demand some big expenses, about 35-40 billion RUB, which the state corporation is ready to cover on its own. That is the reason why the head of Rosatom proposed an alteration to be introduced into nuclear technologies of the new generation Federal Target Program. The Prime Minister supported the idea, promising to give an order to the government.
Another big achievement, according to Sergey Kiriyenko, is the development of supercomputer technologies. “That is something initially designed for defense nuclear facilities demands, however today they help us to design some civil projects as well”. “That’s a good project, already brings some results” – said Dmitry Medvedev.
Bragging Right
Some of Rosatom nuclear plants representatives also had an opportunity to present their projects at the event. Thus, Nikolay Shemigon, “Eleron” Director General (a leading enterprise in security industry, included into Rosatom) told how nuclear technologies were applied in the security systems developed by his company for major industrial objects. For example, their stationary transport and cargo control complexes can “see” what is inside a steel barrel whose skin is up to 320 mm thick.
The Director of a major Russian center for development of nuclear machinery and technology (NIKIET), Yuri Dragunov, presented a transport power module project, based on megawatt-class nuclear energy unit for a spacecraft. The project was launched in October 2009.
Summarizing the results of the meeting the Prime Minister noted that it was necessary to support the implementation of the projects, involving amongst others the government itself. Besides, Dmitry Medvedev liked the idea to present all the projects to Strategic Initiative Agency (ASI). “We should be thinking about going to a new level of the atomic industry development. Not only do we need to keep our positions, we need to strengthen them”, – summed up the PM.
