Today, nuclear energy is inconceivable without digital technologies and automation. Rosatom implements digital solutions at its own facilities and also offers them to international partners. For instance, the Rooppur NPP will be equipped with Rosatom’s proprietary instrumentation and control systems.

Instrumentation and control (I&C) systems are designed to monitor and operate the nuclear power plant equipment, manage its safety, and register process parameters. The I&C system consists of over 20 subsystems at three control levels:

• Upper level: operational and dispatch control using data on equipment status;
• Middle level: industrial-grade programmable logic controllers, the ‘brain’ of the entire I&C system;
• Lower level: sensors and detectors monitoring equipment parameters.

The I&C system and its subsystems ensure safe and reliable operation of the nuclear power plant by collecting and analyzing data, registering a comprehensive range of various parameters, and conducting in-depth internal self-diagnostics. I&C systems of nuclear power plants with Generation III+ reactors have advanced, reliable, functionally complete, and informative architectures.

They are capable of responding to any, even the slightest, deviations, and operators instantly receive all necessary information. If needed, the I&C algorithms can also independently shut down certain plant systems.

Any safety-critical system of a nuclear power plant is redundant. If one system fails, another system or device takes over its functions. Even if several channels fail, the system continues to operate, reliably ensuring safety of the facility. What is more, different hardware and software are used in different channels to further reduce the probability of error.

Digital ecosystem

Product lifecycle management (PLM) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) solutions comprise another area of Rosatom’s activity. With these solutions, the Russian nuclear corporation is building its end-to-end digital ecosystem.

Rosatom’s customers for IT solutions include major industrial, energy, and oil-and-gas companies. Rosatom’s international partners show particular interest in the Sarus product lifecycle management system. Rosatom Group companies have been successfully using Atom.RITA, a smart assistant for robotic technology.

The digital infrastructure product line includes Atom.Most, a platform for integrating information systems into a single working environment, as well as AI-powered tools, Atom.Poisk and Atom.Oko, for information searching and document recognition and processing.

Standing apart from Rosatom’s industrial solutions is its Smart City, a digital municipal management platform that streamlines interaction between residents, municipal authorities, contractors, utility companies, regional agencies, and other stakeholders. The platform is being successfully deployed in Russian regions.

Digitalization penetrates every key aspect of Rosatom’s business. The so-called digital twins—virtual copies of devices or processes—are used across many different operations, from developing and engineering nuclear power plants to creating new materials, including new types of nuclear fuel and composites. Digital twins help increase efficiency, save time during product development, reduce the number of physical tests, and ultimately lower the cost of the final product.

Data centers paired with nuclear plants

Today, Rosatom is one of the key players in the Russian data center (DC) market. Almost ten years ago, the Russian nuclear corporation pioneered a concept that is now becoming a global trend, combining nuclear power plants with data centers. In 2018, a data center was commissioned near the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant. It supplies the data center with stable electricity at a fixed rate, giving the facility a competitive advantage.

Currently, Rosatom operates five high-tech data centers with a total capacity of over 93 MW and more than 6,500 rack spaces. Rosatom’s comprehensive offering for its partners includes a wide range of possibilities:

• Construction of DCs and providing them with power: DCs can be incorporated right into the nuclear plant design;
• Colocation: DCs can house customer servers and network equipment;
• Cloud services: renting computing power and building custom data centers.

Thus, Rosatom remains at the forefront of technology trends by steadily developing key digital capabilities, successfully deploying its products domestically, and offering the best solutions to both Russian and international markets.