Russia aims for leading global positions in small-scale nuclear power
MOSCOW. June 4 (Interfax) - Russia plans to take leading global positions in the field of small-scale nuclear power generation, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday.
"I believe that the future is also in nuclear energy. Despite the fact that it has not yet entered the European taxonomy, nonetheless, about ten countries expressed disagreement with this, us included. Generation of electricity from nuclear sources at nuclear power plants has the lowest carbon footprint - 6 grams per 1 kWh of CO2 equivalent, while solar and wind, solar about 80, I think, and wind 14 grams. I won't give figures for coal and oil, they're higher, of course, and gas," Novak said.
"New areas in nuclear energy that Russia will now work on are also a strategic area, the development of small-scale nuclear generation. We're the leaders in development of large-scale generation, large units of 1000-1200 MW, but now we're setting the goal of becoming the world leaders in production of nuclear energy with small units of 5 MW to 100 MW. And these are completely new possibilities for the use of nuclear energy in the world in general. These are fundamentally new prospects," Novak said.
It was reported earlier that state nuclear corporation Rosatom plans to launch a pilot small-scale nuclear power plant in Yakutia in 2027.