Historical notes

OKB “GIDROPRESS” was established by the decree of Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on January 28, 1946 and by the order of the People’s Commissar of the USSR heavy engineering on February 01, 1946..

The enterprise implements a complex of design, theoretical, analytical, R&D and production activities in reactor development for nuclear power plants of various purpose with increased safety, reliability and efficiency, competitive both in Russia and abroad.

Activities of OKB "GIDROPRESS" started with development of designs and equipment for a number of prototype research reactors.

In the 60s OKB “GIDROPRESS” directed its activities mainly to development of the following designs:

• 1 – lead-bismuth cooled reactors for nuclear submarines (later on it is a SVBR reactor for civil use)
• 2 – water-cooled water-moderated power reactors (WWER) for nuclear power plants
• 3 – equipment for sodium-cooled fast reactors

The following facilities were constructed according to the OKB "GIDROPRESS" designs:

• Research heavy water reactor at the Theoretical & Experimental Physics Institute (Moscow);
• MR research reactor at the Atomic Energy Institute (Moscow);
• Steam generator and heat exchangers for the first NPP in the world (Obninsk);
• Steam generators for commercial reactors (Krasnoyarsk and Tomsk);
• VK-50 boiling reactor at the SSC RIAR (Dimitrovgrad);
• Nuclear steam supply systems cooled by liquid metal for a number of transport facilities;
• BOR-60 fast reactor, designed to perform experiments for refinement of fuel rods, steam generators and other components of sodium loops (SSC RIAR, Dimitrovgrad);
• Steam generators and heat exchangers for NPP equipped with the BN-350 sodium-cooled fast reactor (Kazakhstan, Aktau);
• Steam generators and heat exchangers for NPP equipped with the BN-600 sodium-cooled fast reactor (Beloyarskaya NPP);
• Steam separators for NPP equipped with the RBMK-1500 reactor (Ignalina NPP, Lithuania);
• WWER-type reactor plants:
  • WWER-210 (V-1);
  • WWER-365 (V-3M);
  • WWER-440 (V-179, V-230, V-213, V-270);
  • WWER-1000 (V-187, V-302, V-320, V-338, V-428);
  • WWER-1200 (V-392М, V-491).

The enterprise is a coeval with the nuclear industry and has contributed greatly to its development. OKB “GIDROPRESS” has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and the Order of Labour of Czechoslovakia for the designed and introduced reactor plants. A lot of the company’s experts were awarded governmental awards and were the winners of Lenin and State Prizes and the Council of Ministers and RF Government Prizes, tens of employees were awarded the rank of “Honoured Designer of Russia”. A lot of specialists have been conferred the degree of Doctor of Science and Economy. V.V. Stekolnikov who was the Chief Designer-Head of OKB “Gidropress” from 1962 to 1992 was awarded the Star of the Hero of Socialist Labour.

The enterprise was headed by

1946-1954 B. Sholkovitch	1954-1958 А. Agapov	1958-1962 I. Braude	1962-1992  V. Stekolnikov
1992-1998 V. Fedorov	1998-2007 Y. Dragunov	2007-2011 S. Ryzhov