Overview
Français
ABSTRACT
In the late 50s, civil applications of nuclear energy, such as electricity generation, were developed in parallel in the West and in the Soviet Union. For pressurized light water reactors, the concepts are much the same, with liquid water in the primary circuit, steam generators and secondary circuits; nuclear fuel is uranium oxide weakly enriched up to around 5%. However, these are the only similarities, engineering solutions developed being quite different between the West and the Soviet Union. This paper presents the history and development of the Soviet-designed pressurized water reactors, including the latest generation III designs.
Read this article from a comprehensive knowledge base, updated and supplemented with articles reviewed by scientific committees.
Read the articleAUTHORS
-
Vassili BORZOV: International Development Engineer - IRSN BU-DCI, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
-
Borislav DIMITROV: Reactor safety expert - IRSN PSN/SRDS – SSYR, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
-
Christophe HERER: Thermal-hydraulic analysis and simulation engineer - IRSN PSN-RES/SEMIA/BAST, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
INTRODUCTION
The first prototype reactors using nuclear energy were built in the Soviet Union in the 1950s; on June 27, 1954, a 5 MW uranium-graphite reactor went into production at Obninsk near Moscow. The first prototype Soviet-type pressurized water reactor (210 MW electric) went into production in 1964 at Novovoronezh, just over 500 km south of Moscow.
This article gives a chronological overview of the different VVER industrial models. The first section provides a brief description of the principle and main differences between VVERs and Western pressurized water reactors (PWRs), as well as the reasons behind the different technological choices. The main VVER series are then described in detail in the following sections.
The article is limited to a technical description, without addressing economic aspects, reliability and safety and operating considerations. On the latter points, please refer to the article Sûreté des centrales nucléaires des pays d'Europe de l'Est
The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference
KEYWORDS
pressurized water reactor | light water | WWER
This article is included in
Nuclear engineering
This offer includes:
Knowledge Base
Updated and enriched with articles validated by our scientific committees
Services
A set of exclusive tools to complement the resources
Practical Path
Operational and didactic, to guarantee the acquisition of transversal skills
Doc & Quiz
Interactive articles with quizzes, for constructive reading
Russian-designed pressurized water reactors: the VVERs
Context
Bibliography
On VVER 440 V-230
The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference
