COMPACT FISSION: Rosatom’s Shelf-M nuclear reactor
On November 10, a high-level meeting took place between Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Russia’s energy conglomerate Rosatom State Corporation, and Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Chairman of the Department of Atomic Energy.
Among the issues discussed was Rosatom’s offerings of ‘small modular reactors’ (SMRs). New areas of cooperation are also under discussion, including the construction of Russian designed SMRs in India, Rosatom said, recalling that in April 2024, the company had presented information on the corporation’s floating nuclear power solutions.
Rosatom has several SMR designs on its shelves. It owns and operates eight nuclear-powered ice-breakers — with many more under construction — so it has plenty of experience in operating SMRs. Quantum had reported on August 11 that Rosatom is interested in offering India its RITM-200 series of reactors. The company’s India head, Vijay Joshi, described RITM-200 as a new-generation integral pressurised water reactor (PWR) with an electrical capacity of 55 MW and thermal capacity of 190 MW. Further, it has a design life of 60 years and offers long refuelling cycles — six years for land-based installations, and up to 10 years for floating variants.
Now, it is learnt that Rosatom has a much smaller SMR — 10 MW — which could be offered to Indian industry. Rosatom has named it Shelf-M and describes it as “the world’s first NPP with a capacity of up to 10 MWe (35 MW thermal)”. The size would make it a ‘micro’ reactor, rather than small.
Silumin matrix
Shelf-M is a water-cooled, watermoderated reactor fuelled with uranium dioxide dispersed in a silumin (aluminium-silicon alloy) matrix. The refuelling interval will be eight years.
The fully assembled reactor module is 11 m long and 8 m in diameter; it weighs 370 tonnes and will have a service life of 60 years. If necessary, the reactor can be transported from one site to another — for example, on a barge, says Rosatom.
It is building the first Shelf-M for installation and power supply in the remote Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region, in Russia’s Far East, where over 30 gold deposits have been identified.
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Published on December 29, 2025
