MOSCOW, January 17Rosatom specialists have begun installation of the BREST-OD-300 fast neutron reactor plant, which will become the “heart” of the experimental demonstration complex necessary for the development of nuclear energy.
“»In Seversk, Tomsk Region, at the construction site of the experimental demonstration energy complex (ODEC), a landmark milestone was achieved in the construction of a power unit with the innovative fast neutron reactor BREST-OD-300. A steel reactor support plate with a total weight of 165 tons was installed. In the shaft reactor builders loaded the first part of the BREST-OD-300 reactor vessel — the lower tier of the enclosing structure,” reported the Rosatom fuel company TVEL.
The enclosing structure is the outer part of the reactor vessel. It ensures the retention of heat-insulating concrete and forms an additional, so-called localizing barrier of protection.
The experimental demonstration energy complex, being built in Seversk at the site of the TVEL Siberian Chemical Combine enterprise, will consist of a power unit with a fast neutron reactor BREST-OD-300 with a power of 300 MW with a lead liquid metal coolant and a station plant that closes the nuclear fuel cycle, which includes includes a module for processing irradiated mixed nitride uranium-plutonium nuclear fuel of the BREST reactor and a module for the production of such nuclear fuel. Construction of the BREST reactor began in June 2021.
For the first time in the world, ODEC must demonstrate the sustainable operation of a full range of facilities that ensure the closure of the nuclear fuel cycle (CNFC). The on-site option for organizing the fuel cycle makes it possible to develop the technologies of the so-called “short fuel cycle” in the shortest possible time within one site.
The CNFC will make it possible to expand the reproduction of nuclear “fuel”, plutonium, essentially organizing its “cycle”, and therefore significantly increase the fuel base of nuclear energy, eliminating the need to extract natural uranium in large volumes.
It will also be possible to reduce the amount and biological danger of radioactive waste remaining after the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) — the most dangerous radionuclides are planned to be “burned out” in fast neutron reactors. In this way, it will be possible, as nuclear scientists figuratively say, to “remove two key thorns” of the current nuclear energy industry, related to the limited reserves of natural uranium and the deferred problem of spent nuclear fuel.
It is planned that in the first quarter of 2024 the plant for the production of nuclear fuel of the BREST reactor (the so-called fabrication/refabrication module) will be put into operation.
The BREST reactor belongs to the IV generation of nuclear power plants. It involves the use of various technologies that are united by a common result — higher fuel efficiency, increased safety, energy efficiency, reduction in spent fuel volumes.
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