Nizhny Novgorod students and young scientists develop domestic industry

 Russia holds a leading position in the global nuclear technology market. The nuclear industry is one of the most important for the country's economy. The Institute of Nuclear Energy and Technical Physics (INEiTF) of Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University plays an important role in training specialists for this industry. The university is a partner of the International Engineering Championship "CASE-IN", and students have repeatedly become participants in the prestigious project.

Sergey Dmitriev, Scientific director of the Institute, Rector of the Russian State Technical University named after R.E. Alekseev He told AiF-NN about the research work that is being carried out in the Year of Science and Technology, about talented students and the future of nuclear energy.

The largest stands in the world

The Institute of Nuclear Energy and Technical Physics was established by order of the Rector of the R.E. Alekseev NSTU in 2008 on the basis of the Faculty of Physics and Technology. This is the basic institution of many Rosatom enterprises. The company itself is a strategic partner of the CASE-IN championship.

INEiTF has a unique experimental base. For example, there are two of the largest stands in the world here. One of them is a test bench for pumps for the BREST fast neutron reactor plant with lead coolant, which is currently under construction in Seversk (Tomsk Region). At the stand, a pump circulates liquid lead at a temperature of 500 degrees with a flow rate of two thousand tons per hour.

 "Another stand, which we built in cooperation with the Afrikantov Design Bureau, is designed to study the mixing of flows with different temperatures in the pressure chamber of a nuclear reactor. The reactor model is one to four. The measuring equipment was supplied to us by the Institute of Thermophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences, and the entire technological part was made by the Sedakov Research Institute of Physics and Technology based on the latest developments. It's fully automated, like a modern nuclear power plant.", — says Sergey Dmitriev.

Another important area of the institute's work is the verification of the domestic Logos software package to create a new unit for calculating durability and resource. Logos is a package of supercomputer modeling and engineering analysis programs that is used in the aviation industry, nuclear energy, rocket and space industry, automotive industry and other industries.

"The design of fuel assemblies for modern VVER-1200 reactors, for KLT-40 reactors installed at the Akademik Lomonosov floating NPP and for RITM-200 and RITM-400 reactors was also confirmed at our stand.", — Sergey Dmitriev continues.

RITM-200 reactors are being installed on new icebreakers of Project 22220 — Arctic, Siberia, Ural, Yakutia and Chukotka. And the new generation RITM-400 reactor will be used on the Leader Project 10510 nuclear icebreaker, which is to become the most powerful in the world. This vessel will provide year-round navigation along the Northern Sea Route. The construction of the first icebreaker of the Leader project began in Primorsky Krai last year, and it is planned to build three nuclear-powered ships in total.

The Institute also conducts research under an agreement with the directorate of the MYRRHA reactor (Belgium).

The future belongs to hydrogen

A new direction of development of the Institute of Nuclear Energy of the R.E. Alekseev NSTU is atomic and hydrogen energy. The environmental problem is more urgent today than ever, and the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier is one of the ways to solve it.

The key issue of the transition to hydrogen energy is how to establish environmentally friendly and economically acceptable production of large—scale hydrogen. One option is the electrolysis of water, which decomposes into hydrogen and oxygen. The necessary electricity can be obtained at nuclear power plants. In particular, they plan to establish pilot production of hydrogen at the Kola NPP, which currently does not use its capacity at 100%.

However, electrolysis is a very expensive way to produce hydrogen. High-temperature gas-cooled reactors make it possible to produce hydrogen more efficiently.

Good engineering school

According to Rosatom, the Institute of Nuclear Energy and Technical Physics named after Academician F. Mitenkova has the highest competencies in the field of nuclear plant design. And designers are now in high demand in the nuclear industry.

"In addition to teachers, lectures to our students are given by leading scientists from the nuclear industry enterprises. They talk about design methods and the projects that their enterprises are engaged in. This is very important now, and Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has said that more practice is needed. Our graduates come to enterprises fully prepared for work", — This is Sergey Dmitriev.

According to him, personnel training for the nuclear industry begins from school, in fact from the first grade. Teachers of Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University give lectures to schoolchildren, and high-level Olympiads are held, according to the results of which they are enrolled in universities without exams. Students are actively involved in research work. Thanks to this training, students of Nizhny Novgorod Polytechnic University have won first place in the unique engineering CASE-IN championship in the Digital Atom field for three years in a row.

The Institute of Nuclear Energy and Technical Physics of the R.E. Alekseev NSTU has also become the head office for training and additional professional retraining of foreigners in small and medium-power nuclear power plants.

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