Russia completes TVS-5 tests

Russia has completed testing of the TVS-5 fuel assembly containing mixed nitrides, the prototype fuel for the pilot demonstration reactor BREST-OD-300 that is to be built at the site of the Siberian Chemical Combine in Tomsk. Construction work is to start in 2016 and be completed in 2020.

An earlier version of this story referred to the fuel as mixed oxide, which we understand is not the case. Those references have been removed.  

Russia has completed testing of the TVS-5 fuel assembly with mixed uranium-plutonium nitride fuel, the prototype fuel for the pilot demonstration BREST-OD-300 reactor that is to be built at the site of the Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) in Tomsk. Construction work is to start in 2016 and be completed in 2020.  

TVS-5 fuel assembly (Image: SCC)

The project is part of Rosatom's 'Proryv', or Breakthrough, project to enable a closed nuclear fuel cycle. The ultimate aim is to eliminate production of radioactive waste from nuclear power generation.

BREST-300 is a lead-cooled reactor system developed by the N A Dollezhal Research and Development Institute of Power Engineering.

SCC said on 18 September it had completed testing of the first full-scale TVS-4 fuel assembly containing nitride fuel. The assembly is intended for the BN-600 fast neutron reactor, which is the third unit of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant.

SCC said yesterday that the TVS-5 fuel is also intended for use in the BN-600 reactor.

In August, SCC started work on construction of a nitride fuel production facility for BREST-OD-300. The facility is to be commissioned by 2018. A facility intended for reprocessing of the used fuel is then to be built, enabling completion of the Breakthrough project in 2023.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News