2026-03-23 07:30:00
RUSSIAN SAFE NUCLEAR FUEL
WNN - 17 March 2026 - The third and final pilot 18-month operation of accident-tolerant fuel has been completed at Rostov Nuclear Power Plant’s unit 2.
The fuel assemblies with experimental fuel elements have undergone a standard cycle of nuclear fuel operation for Russian VVER-1000 reactors - three fuel campaigns of 18 months each.
Accident tolerant fuel (ATF) is a term used to describe new technologies that enhance the safety and performance of nuclear fuel. ATF may incorporate the use of new materials and designs for cladding and fuel pellets.
According to Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom, in the event of coolant loss and disruption of heat removal in the reactor core, "ATF should maintain its integrity for a sufficiently long period of time without the occurrence of a steam-zirconium reaction that would lead to hydrogen release".
In 2021 three fuel assemblies of the TVS-2M design were loaded into the reactor core, each with 12 of the new fuel elements. Six were manufactured using 42KhNM chromium-nickel alloy as a structural material and six were made with chromium-coated zirconium alloy cladding.
Rostov NPP Director Andrey Salnikov said: "The fuel assemblies have completed three full fuel cycles as planned. We now need to prepare a fairly extensive package of documents for Rostekhnadzor (Russia's nuclear regulator), after which the fuel will be transferred for post-irradiation studies to the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad."
Alexander Ugryumov, Senior Vice President for Scientific and Technical Activities at Rosatom's fuel division TVEL, said: "Considering all factors - economics, technology, regulations, and procedures - the optimal option for industrial implementation is cladding made of a classic zirconium alloy with a chromium coating. This is the solution adopted by all leading global nuclear fuel manufacturers. But for Russia, where the strategy of closing the nuclear fuel cycle is being implemented, the ATF development programme has yielded another important result. The properties of the chromium-plated surface make it possible to eliminate a number of operations during the fabrication of nuclear fuel for VVER reactors, which still rely on manual labour. And unmanned fabrication is a prerequisite for the industrial production of fuel with reprocessed uranium and plutonium."
The final stage for qualification of the ATF fuel will be the loading of fuel assemblies containing 312 of the new fuel elements. A production site for applying chromium coatings to shells made of traditional zirconium alloy has been created at the Chepetsky Mechanical Plant in Glazov.
-----
Earlier:
2026, March, 20, 07:30:00
RUSSIAN NUCLEAR FOR KAZAKHSTAN
In an update outlining its first year of operation, the agency highlighted its development of a strategy for the nuclear industry to 2050 and the selection of Russia's Rosatom as the leader of an international consortium to build the country's planned new plant, to be named Balkash and located in the Zhambyl district of the Almaty region.
2026, February, 10, 13:15:00
RUSSIAN NUCLEAR FOR HUNGARY
Paks has four VVER-440 units, commissioned in the 1980s, and two new VVER-1200 units are being built by Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of the Russian Rosatom.
2026, February, 5, 07:25:00
RUSSIAN LUNAR NUCLEAR 2036
Roscosmos, Russia's federal space agency, said the purpose of the nuclear power station on the moon would be "long-term power supply to consumers (moon rovers, observatory) of the Russian Lunar programme, as well as infrastructure facilities of the International Lunar Research Station (including facilities of foreign partners)".
2025, December, 2, 19:05:00
RUSSIAN NUCLEAR FOR AI
Russia has "unique solutions that can be utilised for powering data processing centres" and the plan is "to transition to the serial production of small floating and land-based nuclear stations".
2025, June, 3, 06:40:00
RUSSIAN NUCLEAR FOR EUROPE
“It’s time to stop this Brussels plan to support Ukraine while increasing the utility bills of Hungarian families several times over,”
2025, June, 3, 06:35:00
RUSSIAN NUCLEAR DEVELOPMENT
Russia’s nuclear industry today is a powerful complex of more than 580 enterprises located throughout the country – from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka.
2025, April, 8, 06:45:00
RUSSIAN NUCLEAR FLEET
There is also a larger nuclear-powered icebreaker under construction, the Rossiya, which will be the first of the proposed Project 10510 nuclear-powered icebreakers. It will feature two RITM-400 reactors for a propeller power of 120 MW. It will be able to penetrate ice up to 4.3 metres thick and clear a channel up to 50 metres wide. Its most recent reported construction target service date is 2030.
2024, December, 17, 06:50:00
RUSSIAN FUSION DESIGN
Rosatom describes the TRT as “a tokamak with a long discharge pulse, a strong magnetic field and an electromagnetic system made of a high-temperature superconductor … the construction of the TRT is an important stage in the development of controlled thermonuclear fusion and the creation of a nuclear power reactor in Russia – an environmentally friendly source of energy with virtually inexhaustible fuel resources”.