TVS-2M IS FUEL-EFFICIENT, RELIABLE AND COST-EFFICIENT

The construction of nuclear reactors for civilian nuclear energy began in the distant 1954. Exactly this year, on June 26, the world's first nuclear power plant (NPP) was put into operation in Obninsk, USSR. More than sixty years have passed since then. The Russian Federation has been working tirelessly all this time to improve the safety of nuclear power plant operation and at the moment has achieved one of the best indicators in the world

- DMITRII SAMOKHIN

The decision in 2002 to build in India the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the state of Tamilnadu in southern India, according to Russian design, marked the beginning of the future operation of nuclear power plants equipped with Russian nuclear reactors of the VVER-1000 type. The first stage as part of power units No. 1 and No. 2 was put into operation in 2013 and 2017, respectively. At the moment, the construction of power units. 3, 4 (second stage) and 5,6 (third stage) is underway.

One of the main structural elements of a nuclear power plant is a nuclear reactor. The reactor core operates 163 fuel assemblies, each containing a bundle of 312 fuel rods. The fuel operates under severe irradiation conditions, variable pressures and thermal stresses due to uneven thermal fields. Therefore, fuel rods operate under very stressful conditions and their mechanical properties change during operation.