Delayed Reaction Nuclear power mounts a comeback, but obstacles remain

It could be the other way around thanks to the Russia-Ukraine war.

For a long time Russia has been the dominant exporter of nuclear reactors. The Russian VVER is their version of the American PWR. Early Soviet reactors were pretty bad but their current reactors are up to Western safety standards and are competitive with designs like the EPR and AP1000.

Where Russia pulls ahead is that they have been consistently selling and building VVERs in countries like Turkey and Egypt whereas that is aspirational for western manufacturers and even for Chinese manufacturers who have big plans to export the Hualong One.

Russia has competitive fuel cycle services and has constructed and now operates a large scale fast breeder that appears to be highly successful.

They are endangering this world-beating business not just by getting into ‘sanctions hell’ but also by demonstrating that they aren’t trustworthy by their actions at the plant at Enerhodar. If there is a serious accident there it will be a black eye for the whole industry but particularly for Russian participation in that industry.