Rosatom has finalised the Investment Justification (Obosnovanie Investitsiy) for its land-based small modular reactor (ASMM – Atomnoi Stantsii Maloi Moshnosti) plant featuring the Shelf-M microreactor in Chukotka. This milestone secures the technical-economic viability and regulatory roadmap required to proceed with constructing the power facility at the remote Sovinoye gold deposit in Russia’s Far East.
The Shelf-M is an ultra-compact, transportable “nuclear battery” providing 10 MWe or 35 MWt from a pressurised water reactor. The entire unit is integrated into a capsule measuring 11 metres long and 8 metres in diameter, weighing roughly 370 tonnes. It is designed to be shipped fully assembled via barge or heavy transit and operates continuously for eight years on a single fuel load with a 60-year design life.
Shelf-M incorporates advanced passive safety mechanisms that use the natural circulation of primary coolant. This allows the reactor to drop to 30% of maximum power during emergencies without needing external power or active pumps.
The justification phase formally anchors the project under the comprehensive federal initiative, New nuclear power industry, including small reactors for remote territories. Chukotka’s Arctic zone currently lacks unified grid infrastructure. Deploying the land-based ASMM will substitute ageing carbon-heavy energy resources and provide localised, stable electricity to the JSC Elkonsky MMC (Elkon Mining and Metallurgical Complex), a key subsidiary of ARMZ Uranium Holding Co, which functions as Rosatom’s mining division, for extraction at the massive Sovinoye mining cluster.
Comprehensive endurance testing on the reactor’s primary assemblies and structural components should be completed in 2026 and delivery of major technological modules directly to the Chukotka deployment site will begin in 2027. Physical start-up, power synchronisation is planned for 2030 for final commercial commissioning in 2032. The Shelf-M pilot will become a reference project to begin serial production for secondary domestic locations (such as Yakutia and Krasnoyarsk) and international markets.
Chukotka is already home to the world’s first floating power unit, Akademik Lomonosov, which has been operating since 2020 supplying heat and power to Pevek. A series of four upgraded floating units (Project 20871) is being built to supply energy to the Baimskaya ore zone in the Bilibinsky district of the Chukotka. The first of the four units is scheduled for commissioning in 2028.
