Russia has developed a project for small modular nuclear reactors for use in the Arctic, remote territories, and space missions. This was announced at the "Innoprom-2026" forum by Ilya Chekh, CEO of the scientific and technical guild "Rubezhi Nauki". The project involves the creation of compact power plants in the form factor of a standard shipping container.

According to the developers' concept, the reactors will be produced as serial modules. The declared electrical power of one unit is about 170 MW. This, according to the project authors, is sufficient to power a small city or a future lunar base.

Ilya Chekh reported that a physical model of the reactor has already been designed. The next step is preparation for mass production.

In the long term, the possibility of reaching production rates of up to one reactor per day is being considered, but specific implementation timelines have not yet been announced.

Developers believe that such systems can be used for power supply to facilities in the Arctic, remote deposits, space missions, future bases on the Moon, orbital and deep space projects.

In parallel, other projects in this area are also developing in Russia. In April, Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov announced the completion of the preliminary design for the "Nuklon" transport and energy complex, which is being created as part of the "Zeus" nuclear tug project.