Rosatom Has Successfully Progressed In Manufacture Of Recycled Fuel For Fast Neutron Reactors
Rosatom Has Successfully Progressed In Manufacture Of Recycled Fuel For Fast Neutron Reactors
Rosatom achieved the first key milestone in the development of the Generation IV nuclear power system.
The breakthrough fabrication/refabrication unit will allow to efficiently utilise secondary products of the fuel cycle for power generation.
Rosatom starts pilot operation of a fuel fabrication facility for the BREST-OD-300 fast reactor.
It is the first of the three facilities of the unique Generation IV Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex (PDEC) which is under construction as a part of the “Proryv” (“Breakthrough”) strategic project on the site of Rosatom’s Fuel Division enterprise.
Rosatom Has Successfully Progressed In Manufacture Of Recycled Fuel For Fast Neutron Reactors
The cutting-edge fully automated facility has already successfully manufactured the first mockup fuel bundles of the BREST-OD-300 core design with depleted uranium nitride fuel pellets.
All production sites of the new facility have undergone comprehensive testing.
“For this moment, Rosatom has the world’s furthest advancement the in development of Generation IV nuclear technologies. According to the IAEA classification, this implies higher efficiency in the use of fuel raw materials, increased safety standards for the operation of nuclear plants, as well as a significant reduction in the amount of nuclear waste generation. All these principles are fully consistent with the technological solutions adopted at the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex, such as the fuel made of depleted uranium and plutonium, the BREST reactor facility based on the principles of natural safety, and the latest more efficient radiochemical technologies for irradiated fuel reprocessing,” commented Director General Rosatom Alexey Likhachev.
Rosatom Has Successfully Progressed In Manufacture Of Recycled Fuel For Fast Neutron Reactors
Currently, the facility operators are mastering the technology and gaining experience in fabrication of BREST-OD-300 bundles with depleted uranium fuel matrix.
After the regulator approves handling of plutonium, Russian engineers will be able to start production of the target product – mixed dense nitride uranium-plutonium fuel (or the MNUP fuel), which would enable to fully implement all the advantages of Russian IV generation fuel, reactor and radiochemical technologies.
Prior to the initial core loading of the BREST-OD-300, more than 200 of MNUP fuel bundles are scheduled for fabrication.
A unique technology for fabrication uranium-plutonium nitride fuel was developed by Rosatom scientists.
The trial assemblies with experimental MNUP fuel elements were successfully tested in the BOR-60 fast research reactor, as well as in the commercial BN-600 fast reactor at the Beloyarsk NPP (Russia).
The results of this irradiation and operation enabled to obtain data required for validation of the initial core loading of the BREST-OD-300, including the level of nuclear fuel burnup sufficient at this stage.
In total, the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex will include three unique interconnected facilities: a unit for the manufacturing (fabrication/refabrication) of dense nitride uranium-plutonium nuclear fuel, a nuclear power plant with an innovative fast neutron lead-cooled reactor BREST-OD-300, and a unit for reprocessing of irradiated fuel.
Thus, for the first time in the global practice, a NPP with a fast reactor and a stationary closed nuclear fuel cycle will be built on one site.
After reprocessing, irradiated fuel will be sent for refabrication (i.e., re-manufacturing of fresh fuel).
Thus, this system will become practically autonomous and independent of external supplies of energy resources.
