TOMSK, Jun 8 – RIA Tomsk. The Proryv ("Breakthrough") project, under which a pilot demonstration energy complex (PDEC) is being built in Seversk, the Tomsk region, to test the latest technologies in nuclear power, is currently estimated at about 188 billion rubles, President of the Rosatom Fuel Company TVEL Natalia Nikipelova told reporters on Tuesday.
Earlier it was reported that Rosatom has been implementing a Proryv ("Breakthrough") project to create a closed fuel cycle technology at the Siberian Chemical Plant (SCP) in Seversk since 2011. The pilot demonstration complex will appear there which will include three industrial facilities having no analogues in the world: the module for fabrication/re-fabrication of uranium-plutonium nuclear fuel, the BREST-300 power unit and the module for reprocessing of irradiated fuel.
"So far, about 188 billion is the cost of this facility (pilot demonstration energy complex), but the sources of financing are different," Nikipelova said.
As Evgeny Adamov, Scientific Director of the Proryv ("Breakthrough") project explained in turn, this is a uniquely low cost. "Because when two units are built abroad, it's 12 billion - there are figures floating around in the press. But it's 12 billion dollars or euros. We have quite a big gap, mostly economic," Adamov said.
It was previously reported that the pilot demonstration energy complex is going to start operating in 2030. The already built fabrication/re-fabrication module is to be launched in 2023, by 2024 the irradiated fuel reprocessing module will start construction, and in 2026 the BREST-300 reactor will be launched (the construction of which was officially launched on June 8, 2021).
Rosatom experts expect that the technologies perfected at the PDEC will qualitatively improve the economics of nuclear power through the continuous use of natural uranium and spent nuclear fuel, reducing to zero radioactive waste and virtually eliminating beyond design basis accidents.
© РИА Томск. Павел Стефанский
President of the Rosatom Fuel Company TVEL Natalia Nikipelova