Turbine island installation work under way at BREST-OD-300
Installation work has begun for the condenser in the turbine hall for the BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast neutron reactor at the Siberian Chemical Combine site in Seversk, in the Tomsk Region of Russia.
The aim is to complete the bulk of the installation by the end of 2024, with installation of the turbine and generator planned to start in 2025.
Ivan Babich, director of the power unit project, said: "Installation of the turbine condenser in its design position is one of the key events at the power unit construction site in 2024. This is the beginning of a very important stage of work - installation of the power equipment of the machine room."
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 a facility for the fabrication/re-fabrication of mixed uranium-plutonium nitride nuclear fuel, as well as a used fuel reprocessing facility.
The latest progress update noted that the cooling tower had been built, the walls of the reactor containment building erected and the reactor shaft and the enclosing structure of the reactor vessel have also been installed. The target for the BREST-OD-300 reactor has been to start operation in 2026.
Initial operation of the demonstration unit will be focused on performance and after 10 years or so it will be commercially oriented. The plan has been that if it is successful as a 300 MWe (700 MWt) unit, a 1200 MWe (2800 MWt) version will follow - the BR-1200.
Condensers are a vital component of all power plants that use steam to spin a turbine, not just nuclear plants. The condenser cools the steam produced in the reactor's steam generators back into water after it has been used to spin the plant's generator turbine.
_92619.jpg)
