Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika

The peer-reviewed scientific and technology journal. ISSN: 0204-3327

The Firstling of Commercial Nuclear Power and a Landmark for the Power of the Future

9/10/2025 2025 - #03 Current issues in nuclear energy

Shutikov A.V. Sidorov I.I. Nosov Yu.V. Shcheklein S.E.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2025.3.01

UDC: 621.039

The production and consumption of electric energy and fuels for transport in the 21st century require increasing consumption of fossil natural energy sources – coal, gas, oil and uranium. Currently, more than 20 billion tons per year are consumed by organic fuels alone. This scale of extraction and use of energy resources at the modern technological manner (the thermodynamic cycles of Rankine, Brighton, Otto and Diesel) leads to a change in the temperature regime of the planet due to the direct discharge into the geosphere of huge flows of low-potential thermal power, as well as the emission into the atmosphere of 3 atomic gases disrupts the radiative heat balance of the planet’s surface and the surrounding space.

This paper considers the possibility of reducing the negative climatic consequences associated with the production of electric power using fully mastered nuclear and thermal power technologies. To rise the actual temperature limits for LVR nuclear power plants the operational experience of the AMB 100 and AMB 200 power units is considered. A nuclear power plant includes reactor, steam generator and other equipment of the 1st circuit, produces saturated steam, which is overheated with organic fuel.

A nuclear power plant includes reactor, steam generator and other equipment of the 1st circuit, produces saturated steam, which is overheated with organic fuel. Nuclear overheating is used in boiling reactors of the AMB channel type (Russia) and Grosswalzheim vessel type (Germany), but did not receive further development, mainly due to the need to use high-temperature steels in the reactor core, which reduce the efficiency of using uranium fuel in thermal neutron reactors.

Non-nuclear fire superheating of steam in the 60-70s has been implemented at the nuclear power plants Indian Point-1, Elk River (USA), Lingen (Germany). It was a necessary measure to prevent the high humidity of steam in the turbines, which causes problems in their operation due to the low initial parameters of the generated steam. The level of thermodynamic steam parameters of actual design nuclear power plants is significantly higher, as are the environmental requirements for modern thermal power plants. In this regard, there is an interest in analyzing the possibilities of synergetic use of thermal power plants and nuclear power plants.

An analysis of the effectiveness for the environmental impact of a hybrid nuclear thermal power plant based on a VVER-1200 is carried out in this paper. It is shown that the approach to radically reduce environmental impact by power facilities in the foreseeable future is to create hybrid energy based on the mastered VVER and non-nuclear «fire» steam overheating technologies to achieve the parameters of modern thermal power plants and to compensate nuclear fuel consumption by using BN type reactors, and later BRS and TNR. Compared with «conventional» nuclear power plants, this technology has higher efficiency, lower specific capital investment, and lower fuel consumption, lower emissions of greenhouse gases and other combustion products, as well as a lower fuel component of energy costs, compared with «conventional» thermal power plants.

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non-nuclear steam overheating ecology greenhouse effect efficiency safety reliability energy efficiency

Link for citing the article: Shutikov A.V., Sidorov I.I., Nosov Yu.V., Shcheklein S.E. The Firstling of Commercial Nuclear Power and a Landmark for the Power of the Future. Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika. 2025, no. 3, pp. 8-27; DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2025.3.01 (in Russian).

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