Construction sites. Flushing of the reactor safety systems began at China’s Tianwan Unit 7 being constructed with input from Rosatom. One of the most critical pre-commissioning operations, it serves to clean the circuit pipelines of the debris left after the installation and check the operation of pumps, instrumentation and controls, and safety systems. When completed, the flushing will be followed by the reactor assembly and other pre-commissioning operations, such as cold and hot functional tests and trial runs of the primary circuit systems. The Tianwan NPP is the largest Russia-China economic cooperation project. Construction of Tianwan Unit 7 and Unit 8 started in May 2021. The four earlier built power units with Russian-designed VVER-1000 reactors are in operation, supplying millions of kilowatts of electricity to the country’s power grid.

Audit. Akkuyu Nuclear’s integrated management system (IMS) passed the first surveillance audit for compliance with the requirements of international standards. The auditors inspected the Akkuyu NPP construction site and examined documents at the company’s offices in Ankara and Moscow. Audited were the management processes in engineering, construction, installation and commissioning. Organization of supply chain audits, alertness of mobile response units, improved safety culture at the contractors’ sites, and other factors were named by the auditors among the strengths of Akkuyu Nuclear’s IMS. The Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant will have four power units with Russian-designed Generation 3+ VVER reactors.

Fusion. Rosatom researchers and their colleagues from the National University of Science and Technology developed a new material for the innovative ‘reactor technology’ tokamak (RTT). This material will be employed to make plasma-facing components of the divertor. The researchers suggested using a tungsten-copper composite with a tungsten matrix made with additive technology. Combining exceptional thermal conductivity, strength and ductility properties, the composite can form a heat-dissipating base layer to which protective cladding will be soldered. Samples of the new material have been subjected to mechanical tests, thermal conductivity analysis by laser flash method and microscopic studies, and demonstrated good performance. RTT is a prototype fusion reactor with a tokamak featuring a long discharge pulse, strong magnetic field, and an electromagnetic system made of high-temperature superconductors. Many cutting-edge technologies, unavailable anywhere else in the world, will be tested at TRT for the first time.

Rosatom: 2024 in review . In early 2024, the first concrete was poured for Unit 4 of Egypt’s El Dabaa NPP, and construction of its last reactor unit entered an active phase. Concreting of the outer containment shell was completed at Rooppur Unit 2 in Bangladesh. In the spring, full-scale pre-commissioning operations started at Unit 1 of Turkey’s Akkuyu NPP. In the autumn, installation of the molten core catchers began at El Dabaa Unit 3 and Unit 4. Reactor assembly operations were completed at Rooppur Unit 1, and engineers proceeded with the loading of dummy fuel assemblies. Rosatom also moved ahead with its first international wind power project to build a 100 MW wind farm in the Issyk-Kul region of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Rosatom: 2024 in review. In May, the first ever international contract was signed to build a 330 MW small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear power plant in the Jizzakh region of Uzbekistan. In the autumn, a contract was signed to construct a lithium carbonate plant at Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest lithium-bearing salt flat. Rosatom and Ethiopia signed a contract to conduct a feasibility study for a nuclear research and technology center, which might be built in the country. In the past year, Rosatom also signed memorandums of cooperation with Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and other countries.

Rosatom: 2024 in review. In 2024, cargo traffic on the Northern Sea Route set a new record with almost 37.9 million tonnes of cargo delivered, up 1.6 million tonnes from 2023. Another record was set by transit traffic, with 92 transit voyages made and over 3 million tonnes of cargo transported, up nearly one and a half times from 2023. The 231m-long and 32m-wide NewNewStar, the largest ever container ship to travel the Northern Sea Route, was escorted by an icebreaker of the Russian nuclear fleet operator Rosatomflot. Early last year, a new icebreaker, Leningrad, was laid down to become the fifth multi-purpose nuclear-powered icebreaker in the Project 22220 series. November saw another icebreaker of the same series, Chukotka, floated out, followed by the commissioning of Yakutia icebreaker in late December.