Russian Nuclear Power Plant Exports: A Major Player in a Small Market
Hardly any global market is as heavily dominated by Russia as the export of nuclear power plants. The state-owned company Rosatom is not only active in China and India, but is also building Russian reactors in Turkey, a key NATO country. In early February, Rosatom celebrated the groundbreaking of another reactor in Hungary, a NATO and EU member state. Yet the number of completed, operational, and contracted power plant projects abroad is limited. Rosatom’s financial figures suggest that nuclear power exports have recently lost significance.
Russia as the World Champion in Nuclear Power Plant Exports
Russia is the undisputed world leader in nuclear power plant exports. As of mid-2025, it was responsible for 19 of the world’s 22 reactor projects abroad, according to the WNISR industry report. In February 2026, another Russian export project was added in Hungary. The Russian state-owned corporation Rosatom, which conducts its international business through several subsidiaries such as Atomenergoexport and Rosatom Energy Projects, is also a leader in other areas of civil nuclear power. This includes the production and export of uranium, the fuel for nuclear power plants. We published this focus analysis on the topic in August 2024.
Apart from Rosatom, only companies from France and China are currently building nuclear power plants abroad. The French state-owned utility EDF, together with its reactor-building subsidiary Framatome, is responsible for the construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in southwest England. Construction officially began in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and completion is not currently expected before 2030. China is building by far the most new reactors. However, of the 33 projects currently underway, only one is being built abroad. At the end of 2024, construction began on Chashma-5 in Pakistan, the only country to date to import Chinese reactors. The state-owned reactor builder China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has already completed six reactors in the neighboring country since 2000. In the future, however, additional host countries for Chinese nuclear power plants are likely to emerge. As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing aims to advance the construction of around 30 reactors in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, according to the trade journal Nuclear Engineering.
Completed Russian Nuclear Power Plant Projects Abroad
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has completed a total of nine commercial nuclear reactors abroad, according to an overview by the international industry association World Nuclear Association (WNA). These include Units 1 through 4 at Tianwan in China, Kudankulam 1 and 2 in India, and Ostrovets 1 and 2 in Belarus. The best-known project is likely the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, whose sole reactor to date began commercial operation in 2013. Its construction was originally decided upon in pre-revolutionary Iran in the 1970s and was an export project by Siemens. In the mid-1990s, Iran and Russia agreed to resume construction. Upon its completion nearly two decades later, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (ASE) emphasized that it had succeeded in “integrating” Russian technologies with the approximately 12,000 tons of existing German equipment.
Ongoing construction projects abroad
Currently, 20 reactors built by Rosatom abroad have reached the official construction stage. Four each are located in India, Turkey, China, and Egypt. Two reactors have been under construction in Bangladesh since 2017/2018, one each in Iran and, most recently, in Hungary.
The expansion of Iran’s first and so far only nuclear power plant, Bushehr, began in 2016; three years later, the “first concrete” was poured for the reactor building’s foundation. According to international criteria, this step marks the start of construction. For the first reactor of the Hungarian Paks II nuclear power plant, this occurred on February 5, 2026. Rosatom is building two more reactors in Bushehr and one more reactor in Paks. WNA does not yet count these projects among Russia’s ongoing reactor construction projects, as they have not yet reached the “first concrete” stage.
The fact that Rosatom is permitted to build nuclear power plants in Hungary, a NATO and EU member state, despite Western sanctions, is due to exemptions granted by the EU and the U.S. Rosatom itself has so far been exempt from harsh sanctions, not least because some European countries rely on Russian uranium supplies for their Soviet-era nuclear power plants.
Any sanctions will not halt Rosatom’s existing projects abroad, the London-based risk and strategy consultancy Knightsbridge stated in the fall of 2024. At most, problems with payment transactions and financing in general could slow down the implementation of new projects. The analysis also noted that the loss of Western equipment, such as gas turbines from Siemens, would not be critical, as Chinese and, by now, Russian alternatives are available. Whether this forecast proves accurate will become clear during the construction of Paks II, for which Siemens equipment was also planned. Rosatom terminated the supply contract at the end of 2025 because the German government apparently did not grant an export license.
The construction of Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant, Rooppur, was agreed upon in 2011 through an intergovernmental agreement and reached the official construction phase for the first reactor in 2017 and for the second reactor a year later. Russia pre-financed the project with a loan of $11.4 billion, as the Russian state news agency TASS notes in its overview. Almost simultaneously with Rooppur, Moscow also agreed with Belarus on the construction of its first nuclear power plant and granted a $10 billion loan for the project. The two units of the Ostrovets nuclear power plant went online in 2021 and 2023.
The construction of Egypt’s first nuclear power plant, El Dabaa, was agreed upon in 2015 and began five years later. The megaproject on the Mediterranean coast, with an estimated cost of $30 billion for four reactors, is being made possible by a Russian loan of $25 billion. The first reactor is scheduled to go online in 2028.
In China, Rosatom is currently the only foreign nuclear power plant builder involved in two projects. At the Tianwan nuclear power plant, the Russians were responsible for the construction of four of the six existing reactors. They are currently building reactors 7 and 8, which will make Tianwan the world’s largest nuclear power plant starting in 2028. By then, Rosatom also plans to complete its work on units 3 and 4 of the Xudabao nuclear power plant. Rosatom is contributing only a relatively small portion of the work on these four Chinese reactor projects. China’s nuclear regulatory authority, the CAEA, estimates the value of the contract with the Russians at $3.1 billion, which corresponds to one-fifth of the total project costs.
In India, Rosatom is implementing the second and third construction phases of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant on the southern tip of the country, having already completed the first phase with two reactors about ten years ago. When the contract for the construction of reactors 3 and 4 was signed in 2014, the project cost was estimated at $6.4 billion, of which $3.4 billion was attributable to the contract with Rosatom. Reactors 5 and 6, agreed upon three years later, were expected to cost a total of approximately $8 billion, with a contract value with Rosatom of $4.2 billion. In both cases, Russia is fully funding Rosatom’s share in the form of government loans.
For Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu, Rosatom is not only the builder but also the owner and future operator all in one. This marks the first time worldwide that the so-called Build-Own-Operate model is being applied. CEO Alexei Likhachev estimated the construction costs, borne solely by Rosatom, at $24–25 billion by mid-2024. The company will later generate revenue from the project through a long-term power purchase agreement with guaranteed purchase prices. This year, the Turks are expected to award the contract for a second nuclear power plant, to be built on the Black Sea coast. According to reports in Turkish media at the end of 2025, Rosatom is no longer considered the favorite; instead, companies from the U.S. are now seen as the frontrunners.
Russian Revenues Rise, Contracts Stagnate
Rosatom generates about half of its foreign revenue from the construction of nuclear power plants. According to the company’s 2024 annual report, published in the fall of 2025, this sector accounted for $8.75 billion of a total of nearly $18 billion. This represented a 79% increase compared to 2021. Another major revenue stream is the fuel cycle, which includes the extraction and enrichment of uranium, its conversion into nuclear fuel, and the retrieval, reprocessing, or disposal of spent fuel elements. Rosatom generated nearly $5.5 billion in this sector in 2024, 64% more than in 2021. Rosatom has not yet provided detailed figures for 2025. In a TV interview, CEO Alexei Likhachev merely put total foreign revenue at $16.5 billion, which remained about 8% below the 2024 level.
According to Likhachev, the value of the total order portfolio stood at $200 billion at the end of last year. The annual reports distinguish here between the volume of orders over the entire lifetime of projects and, in particular, of nuclear power plants, which can remain in operation for several decades. This lifetime portfolio had a volume of $200.4 billion at the end of 2024 and had remained at roughly that level in previous years as well. In addition, the reports specify the respective volume of orders for the coming ten years, which generally likely includes new nuclear power plant projects. Here, Rosatom has recorded a significant decline since 2021, from $139.9 billion to $128.8 billion in 2024.
Portfolio of nuclear power plant orders abroad
According to its own figures, Rosatom has an order portfolio of 33 large and 6 small reactors abroad as of the end of 2024. The company does not provide details on the construction projects and contracts. This total includes reactors currently under construction whose contracts date from before 2022.
In the past, Russia has initiated deeper cooperation in civil nuclear power with a number of other countries, including the construction of new nuclear power plants. For example, since 2018, Russian media have repeatedly reported an agreement between Russia and India to build six additional reactors in the country, in addition to the two already completed and the four currently under construction. By the end of 2025, however, the Interfax news agency was only cautiously suggesting that India might be interested in another Russian nuclear power plant and in small reactors. Russia agreed with Nigeria in 2009 and again in 2017 on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, which also included plans for the construction of the African country’s first nuclear power plant. However, these intergovernmental agreements have not yet resulted in concrete plans or preparations for construction, nor have the memorandums of understanding that Rosatom signed last year with Ethiopia, Mali, and Niger.
New Nuclear Power Plant Projects Starting in 2022
Rosatom has also secured new international projects beyond 2022. In mid-2024, Russia and Uzbekistan signed a contract for the construction of the Central Asian country’s first nuclear power plant. The plan is not to use the large Russian reactor types, which have a capacity of 1,000–1,200 megawatts, but rather six small reactors, each with a capacity of just 55 megawatts. A year later, both sides amended the contract, which now provides for the construction of two large and two small reactors, as well as an option for two additional 1,000-megawatt units. The official start of construction (“first concrete”) was planned for March 2026 but, according to the Uzbek government, was postponed by nine months from early 2026.
In Kazakhstan, Rosatom won the bid last year for the country’s first nuclear power plant. The cost of the plant, planned with two large reactors, is currently estimated at $15 billion. The contract and financing documents are in the final stages of negotiation, Russian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Alexei Borodavkin announced in mid-February 2026. The original agreement between the two countries provides for financing through discounted Russian loans. The Kazakh Atomic Energy Agency (AAE) expects work on the reactor foundation to begin in 2029.
Russia had already agreed with Iran in 2014 to build a total of eight large reactors, four each in Bushehr and at another future nuclear power plant. In the fall of 2025, Rosatom and Iran agreed on the construction of this second nuclear power plant with four units in the province of Hormozgan on the Persian Gulf. The Iranian news agency IRNA estimated the cost at $25 billion. Russian experts believe that financing is likely to become the key issue for the project. Given Russia’s high budget deficit, they consider a solution involving Russian export credits to be unlikely.
This article first appeared in the exclusive newsletter of the German-Russian Chamber of Foreign Trade
