Rosatom engineering division said on 1 March in 2021 it will allocate RUB400 million ($5.4m) for innovative projects and R&D. The division unites leading nuclear companies, such as JSC ASE EC (Nizhny Novgorod), JSC Atomstroyexport (Moscow), JSC Atomenergoproekt (Moscow), JSC Atomproekt (Saint-Petersburg) and others. Over the past five years, the division's employees have received 110 certificates for computer programs and databases, as well as 112 patents for inventions, of which 47 were issued in Russia and 65 in foreign countries. Currently, 14 new applications for inventions are pending examination at Rospatent, and about 400 patent applications are in patent offices of 33 countries.
Engineering projects have included design work to determine how VVER technology will develop in the future, in particular the design of a nuclear power plant with a VVER-S reactor which uses spectral shift technology. This will increase the competitiveness of the VVER technology and prepare the technological foundations for solving long-term problems with fuel supply by creating a two-component nuclear power industry, Rosatom noted.
In 2020, JSC Atomenergoproekt, began work on the project “Development of a system for managing the ageing of structures, systems and elements at all stages of the life cycle of NPP power units in accordance with the IAEA recommendations”. The five-year project aims to develop a regulatory framework for managing the ageing of NPP systems, conduct large-scale analytical and experimental work, as well as create an information system for managing NPP ageing.
To form a unified scientific and technical policy and support its implementation in the division, a collegial consultative and expert public body was created - the Joint Scientific and Technical Council of JSC ASE EC. This is an open discussion platform for the scientific and technical community of the enterprises of the Engineering Division as well as for other third-party specialised organisations.
