BREST-OD-300 fuel fabrication facility begins pilot operation
The unit for fabrication/refabrication of nuclear fuel for the BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast neutron reactor has been put into pilot operation, Rosatom has announced.
The facility, in Seversk, Tomsk Region, in Siberia, has already manufactured prototype fuel assemblies with depleted uranium nitride fuel pellets. It will have a complete staff of about 250 people.
There are four production focuses: carbothermal synthesis of mixed uranium and plutonium nitrides; fabrication of fuel pellets; manufacturing of fuel elements; and assembly of complete fuel bundles.
The BREST-OD-300 fast reactor is part of Rosatom's Proryv, or Breakthrough, project to enable a closed nuclear fuel cycle. The 300 MWe unit will be the main facility of the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex at the Siberian Chemical Combine site. The complex will demonstrate an on-site closed nuclear fuel cycle with the facility for the fabrication/re-fabrication of mixed uranium-plutonium nitride nuclear fuel, as well as a used fuel reprocessing facility.
At the moment the operators are fabricating BREST-OD-300 bundles with depleted uranium fuel matrix in compliance with the current licence from regulator Rostechnadzor. Once the regulator approves the handling of plutonium, production will start of mixed dense nitride uranium-plutonium fuel (MNUP). Prior to the initial core loading of the BREST-OD-300, more than 200 MNUP fuel bundles are scheduled for fabrication.
Rosatom says it will be a world first to have all the facilities on one site with reprocessed irradiated fuel sent for refabrication so the site will be "practically autonomous and independent of external supplies of energy resources".
Alexey Likhachev, CEO of Rosatom, noted the progress of the company's development of Generation IV nuclear technologies: "According to the International Atomic Energy Agency 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.”
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