RUSNANO and TVEL launched the production of superconductors

SPE NANOELEKTRO, RUSNANO Project Company and OJSC Bochvar VNIINM (a part of TVEL) launched the production of fundamentally new composite electrical products that combine high conductivity and ruggedness - nanostructured wires. The total investment in the project will be a little more than a billion rubles, including RUSNANO’s co-financing in the amount of 450 M RUR, and OJSC TVEL - 570 M RUR.

As a part of the project's first phase the new plant will produce up to 50 tons of superconductors per year by 2014. It is planned to start high volume industrial production in the future, which will allow the project company to occupy up to 15% of high-strength wires global market, Rusnano says.

The class of superconductors includes wires, the strength of which is comparable with the strength of steel, and electrical conductivity ranges from 40 to 80% of the electrical conductivity of pure copper. The target market segment for the project is the wires for special application with severe requirements for the combination of these two parameters. Project’s production can be used in pulsed magnets for scientific and industrial applications, the contact wires for high-speed rail. Nanostructured conductors are also needed to create electronic and electrical devices that operate in extremely difficult conditions of the aerospace industry and nuclear power.

According to analysts, the Russian market of superconductors could exceed $ 33 M (58.3 tons in volume terms) by 2015, which represents nearly 5% of the global market.
The technologies of the project company make it possible to receive heavy section wires up to several kilometers in length and of twice strength in comparison with the current analogue to use them in rail industry, for example.

Recently, new class of materials, with particle size of less than 100 nanometers – is in demand, RUSNANO Managing Director Olga Shpichko said. – The interest is understandable, because these materials have a set of properties significantly different from those of conventional coarse-grained materials, which in some cases open up completely new perspectives in the design and creation of devices and products. Such materials are developed by SPE NANOELEKTRO, and the properties of its products are directly related to the transition to the nanostructured materials.

Senior Vice President of OJSC TVEL Vladimir Rozhdestvensky: It is planned that the annual sales revenue will reach 885 M RUR when the production reaches its full capacity in 2014.