The history of decisions on creation of nuclear and metallurgical complex on the basis of the Kola nuclear power plant

• Published in: Vestnik MGTU
• Main Authors: Kudrin B. I., Kosharnaya Yu. V.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Russian
• Published: Murmansk State Technical University 2017
• Subjects: nuclear and metallurgical complex; using heat from a nuclear reactor; distribution of energy expenditure; energy content; replacement of organic fuels; recovery of pellets with hydrogen; General Works; A; Arctic; Kola Nuclear Power Plant
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.21443/1560-9278-2017-20-4-755-760; https://doaj.org/article/4fcb918982484d2da2805320589805b7

Some reasons for the choice of directions for using electric and thermal energy of the Kola nuclear power plant located beyond the Arctic Circle have been presented. The regions of the country and their large-scale industrial productions based on metallurgical enterprises have been indicated; the electrical supply of these enterprises is implemented from the Kola NPP. The results of research of energy inputs for the production of a ton of steel and cast iron have been presented. It has been determined that the main direction of technological modernization in the steel industry is avoiding the use of organic fuels (particularly in coke-blast furnace production as the most energy-intensive) and its replacement with the technology of direct reduction of iron with hydrogen. As an alternative energy source for organic fuels the creation of a fuel-free nuclear-metallurgical electrified complex has been proposed. The principal scheme of the fuel-free nuclear-metallurgical electrified complex has been described, here the main novelty has a reducing gases preparation block giving the potential ability for creating waste-free process. It has been noted that this technology requires using high temperatures and solving technical problems related to heat resistance of constructions. Some examples of world research on the implementation of similar projects have been presented. It has been determined that the use of new technology will cause the need for optimization of power consumption structure due to the redistribution of capacity and electrical consumption between productions. The introduction of new technologies requires solving a number of problems on electric power supply and electrical equipment designing. It has been observed that on the Kola NPP large-scale reconstruction was carried out during the working period, it helped to increase its project capacity and extend the operation life. Nowadays the region has excess installed capacity that can be used to introduce new technology in metallurgy.