Plan to construct prototype SVBR at Obninsk

21 July 2008

Rosatom and Russian Machines will establish a joint venture to develop a nuclear power plant employing an SVBR reactor, Nuclear.Ru reported. Vladimir Petrochenko, Russian Machines' director of power machine engineering, said the company was ready to invest some $400-$500 million in the project, under which a 100 MWe nuclear power plant would be constructed at Obninsk. The plant should be completed by 2015. Petrochenko said told Russian news agency RIA Novosti, "At present, we are in the process of signing an agreement to design and build the new reactor with Rosatom." The SVBR is modular lead-bismuth-cooled fast neutron reactor from Gidropress, derived from a design used in submarines with 70 reactor-years operational experience. It can use different nuclear fuels, including mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel.