Russia’s ZIO-Podolsk plant (part of Rosatom’s mechamical engineering division) is currently assembling eight RITM-200 reactor vessels, including two for the Leningrad nuclear-powered icebreaker. “For the first time in the plant’s history, there are eight RITM series reactor units at different stages of production (for icebreakers and floating power units),” Rosatom noted.
Russia’s new generation of nuclear-powered icebreakers (Project 22220) each feature two RITM-200 reactors and the ZIO-Podolsk plant has already manufactured 10 of them for the icebreakers Arktika, Sibir, Ural, Yakutia and Chukotka. The Leningrad will be the sixth in the Project 22220 series of icebreakers. These are 173 metres long and 34 metres wide, with a height from the waterline to the main mast of 57 metres. They are designed to break through ice up to three metres thick and have a speed of 22 knots in clear water.
The RITM-200 is a pressurised water reactor with a thermal capacity of 175 MW, which converts to 30 MWe at the propellers. It is 7.3 metres high with a diameter of 3.3 metres and an integral layout which means it is lighter, more compact and 25 MWe more powerful than earlier reactors used on nuclear-powered icebreakers. Their service life is 40 years.
Plant Director Anton Lebedev said: “We have accumulated a colossal amount of knowledge and skills, and today we have competencies that no one else in the world has, having mastered and launched the flow production of the latest reactor units of the RITM series. This is not only RITM-200 for nuclear icebreakers and small nuclear power, but also their more powerful analogues RITM-400, which will help ensure year-round navigation along the Northern Sea Route.”
As well as nuclear icebreakers, RITM-200 reactors will be used in floating power plants which are being built to supply electricity for a large industrial consumer in Arctic regions such as Chukotka. The world’s first floating NPP, the Akademik Lomonosov has been providing power to the town of Pevek in Chukotka since 2020. Akademik Lomonosov uses two smaller KLT-40S reactors.
The upgraded RITM-200N reactors will also be used at a land-based small modular reactor NPP under construction in Yakutia. The project, which was granted a construction licence in April 2023 and which has a commissioning target of 2028, will feature one or two RITM-200N 55 MWe reactors, with a service life of 60 years and a five-year refuelling schedule.
Under a contract signed in 2021, Rosatom is supplying four floating NPPs, each with a capacity of up to 106 MWe, for the Baimsky Mining & Processing Plant. Three of the NPPs will be primary units, and the fourth will serve as a backup. The project is designed to be the first “serial” reference for floating power units and the world’s first demonstration of electrification using a floating power unit for mineral extraction projects.
The proposed RITM-400 is an 80 MWe pressurised water reactor and is being considered for a 320 MWe four-SMR plant in Norilsk. There is also an agreement with Uzbekistan for a six-unit small modular reactor project featuring the 55 MWe RITM-200N, adapted from that used in the icebreakers.
“For Rosatom’s Machine-building Division, the production of RITM-200 reactor units has become serial and on-line,” said Maxim Tyukavkin deputy head of Rosatom’s mechanical engineering division. “Our technical solutions make it possible to advance science, industry and solve government problems. Our solid experience in manufacturing and operating the latest RITM series reactor plants is the basis for achieving the goals of developing the Northern Sea Route and promoting small–scale nuclear energy technologies.”
The RITM is twice as light, 1.5 times more compact and significantly more powerful than its Soviet counterparts.This has improved the characteristics of icebreakers in terms of speed and ice penetration. Their use has enabled an increase in cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route to a record 37.9m tonnes in 2024 and ensured 92 transits last year. Rosatom is responsible for the development of reactors for nuclear–powered ships – from the design and production of blanks to the manufacture and installation of equipment. Rosatom’s Afrikantov Design Bureau is the designer and overall supplier.
The Russian government has authorised Rosatom as the infrastructure operator of the Northern Sea Route. The Corporation oversees the federal project “Development of the Northern Sea Route”, and is involved in implementation of the plan for the development of the Northern Sea Route until 2035.
