physics

Nuclear power in Russia

Nuclear power in Russia is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nuclear power in Russia rather than just read about it. In short: Russia is one of the world's largest producers of nuclear energy. In 2020, total electricity generated in nuclear power plants in Russia was 215.746 TWh, 20.28% of all electric power plant generation.

Key takeaways

Nuclear power in Russia belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nuclear power in Russia to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nuclear power in Russia from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Russia is one of the world's largest producers of nuclear energy. In 2020, total electricity generated in nuclear power plants in Russia was 215.746 TWh, 20.28% of all electric power plant generation. The installed gross capacity of Russian nuclear reactors was 29.4 GW as of December 2020.In 2025, nuclear power produced 19% of the country’s electricity.

Recent history In accordance with legislation passed in 2001, all Russian civil reactors are operated by Rosenergoatom. More recently in 2007, Russian Parliament adopted the law "On the peculiarities of the management and disposition of the property and shares of organizations using nuclear energy and on relevant changes to some legislative acts of the Russian Federation", which created Atomenergoprom - a holding company for all Russian civil nuclear industry, including Energoatom, nuclear fuel producer and supplier TVEL, uranium trader Tekhsnabexport (Tenex) and nuclear facilities constructor Atomstroyexport. In 2011, 11 RBMK reactors were given life extensions and uprated in output by about 5%. Environmentalists Aleksandr Nikitin and Igor Koudrik say that these reactors are of an "inherently unsafe design", which cannot be improved through upgrades and modernization, and some reactor parts are impossible to replace. Russian environmental groups say that the lifetime extensions "violate Russian law, because the projects have not undergone environmental assessments". But officials and scientists from various institutions have claimed that the reactors have undergone serious modifications and are safe. 4 of them have subsequently been shut down.

The overnight cost of construction in the seventies was a low 800 $/kW in 2016 dollars. In 2019, a S&P Global Ratings report stated Russia's nuclear construction costs were well below European levels because of vertical integration, good learning-curve effects from serial production, and the large currency devaluation of 2014. The Russian nuclear industry employs around 200,000 people. Russia is recognized for its nuclear disaster expertise and for the safety of its technology. Statements made in the review of Russian reactor safety [8] that "Requirements on placing the nuclear installation should not contain additional restrictions in comparison with other industrial facilities," suggest that nuclear plants could be placed within cities and are not considered to pose exceptional dangers. Russia is also pursuing an ambitious plan to increase sales of Russian-built reactors overseas, and had 39 reactors under construction or planned overseas as of 2018. The VVER-1200 pressurised water reactor is the system currently offered for construction, being an evolution of the VVER-1000 with increased power output to about 1200 MWe (gross) and providing additional passive safety features. In August 2016, the first VVER-1200, Novovoronezh II-1, was connected to the grid. Through its membership in the multi-nation ITER project, Russia participates in the design of nuclear fusion reactors. In 2013, the Russian state allocated 80.6 billion rubles ($2.4 billion) toward the growth of its nuclear industry, especially export projects where Russian companies build, own and operate the power station, such as the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. In 2016, initial plans were announced to build 11 new nuclear power reactors by 2030, including the first VVER-600, a smaller two-cooling-circuit version of the VVER-1200, designed for smaller regions and markets. Outline plans for near-surface disposal facilities for low and intermediate-level waste, and deep burial disposal facilities for high-level waste were also approved in the Krasnoyarsk Krai region.

In October 2017, Rosatom was reported to be considering postponing commissioning new nuclear plants in Russia due to excess generation capacity and that new nuclear electricity prices are higher than for existing plants. The Russian government is considering reducing support for new nuclear under its support contracts, called Dogovor Postavki Moshnosti (DPM), which guarantee developers a return on investment through increased payments from consumers for 20 years. In 2019, a S&P Global Ratings report stated that "We expect domestic nuclear capacity to increase only moderately because electricity demand in Russia is stagnating, given only modest GDP growth, a significant potential for energy savings, and the government's intention to avoid raising electricity prices through additional increases in capacity payments". Russia's first floating nuclear power plant, Akademik Lomonosov, is equipped to provide power to a remote Russian town on the Bering Strait. The nuclear unit features small modular reactors (SMRs) technology.

Nuclear power reactors

Reactors in operation

Seven of Russia's reactors are of the RBMK 1000 type, similar to the one at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The rest of the reactors are PWR designs from the VVER series.

International projects

In addition Atomstroyexport challenging NPP projects list contains:

Temelin NPP Power Units 3/4 (Czech Republic) Jordan NPP (single-unit NPP with an option for the second power unit) Metsamor NPP Power Units 3/4 (Armenia) NPP with the Reactor Plant VBER-300 (Kazakhstan) Sanming NPP (China) In March 2022, Russia captured the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, now operated by Rosatom. In August 2022, the Hungarian Nuclear Energy Authority authorized Rosatom to expand the nuclear power plant at Paks with two new VVER reactors with capacity of 1.2 gigawatts each.

Nuclear engineering companies After 2007, powers and assets were to be transferred to the newly created Rosatom.

Atomenergomash: power engineering company; produces steam generators for NPPs Atommash: by far Russia's largest nuclear engineering company designed to build up to 8 reactors per year. Atomstroyexport: nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly OKBM Afrikantov: nuclear reactor design and engineering company. The world's leading company in production of fast breeder reactors. OKB Gidropress: nuclear reactor design and engineering company

Safety Rosatom, responding to the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, announced that it would perform "stress tests" on all its reactors "to judge their ability to withstand earthquakes more powerful than the original design anticipated".

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nuclear power in Russia

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nuclear power in Russia claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nuclear power in Russia before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nuclear power in Russia ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nuclear power in Russia

In research: Nuclear power in Russia appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nuclear power in Russia in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nuclear power in Russia is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Nuclear power in Russia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nuclear power in Russia outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nuclear power in Russia in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nuclear power in Russia means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nuclear power in Russia out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nuclear power in Russia in simple terms?

Why does Nuclear power in Russia matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nuclear power in Russia?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nuclear power in Russia.