Russia began construction of a “reactor of the future”, with the help of which the most dangerous radioactive elements in waste can be made safer from the point of view of long-term contamination and can also be used for other purposes, like medicine or industry. Another notable feature of this reactor is that a closed nuclear fuel cycle will be implemented for the first time, which involves recycling and reusing fuel.
It is a 300 megawatt (MW) power unit based on the innovative BREST-OD-300 fast neutron reactor, which the company TVEL JSC, belonging to the Russian state corporation Rosatom, is building in the city of Seversk, in the Siberian province of Tomsk.
BREST-OD-300 will be part of the Experimental Demonstration Energy Complex (ODEK, for its acronym in Russian), which will become the most important center of the nuclear industry worldwide.
This group of nuclear technologies of the future includes three interconnected facilities that have no analogues in the world: a module for the production of mixed uranium-plutonium nuclear fuel, the BREST-OD-300 power unit and a module for fuel reprocessing irradiated.
Thus, for the first time in the world, a nuclear power plant with a ‘fast’ reactor and a closed nuclear fuel cycle ‘in situ’ will be built in the same place. The irradiated fuel after reprocessing will be sent for remanufacturing (i.e. reproduction of new fuel), so the system will gradually become practically autonomous and independent of external power supply.
The advantage of fast neutron reactors is their ability to effectively use by-products of the fuel cycle (plutonium in particular) for energy production. At the same time, by having a high reproduction factor, ‘fast’ reactors can produce more potential fuel than they consume.
How is construction progressing?
A 165-ton steel base plate has already been placed at the site where the so-called “reactor of the future” will be installed, which will be cooled with lead. Likewise, the first part of the BREST-OD-300 body was assembled, which is located on the lower level of the containment structure.
It has been documented that the containment structure, which is the exterior part of the reactor body, has the purpose of guaranteeing the confinement of the heat-insulating concrete, in addition to serving as an additional protective barrier for the cooling circuit.
RosAtom
Rosatom highlighted that fast neutron reactors have the particularity of effectively using the secondary products of the fuel cycle, specifically plutonium, for energy production. In the case of BREST-OD-300, it will be supplied with plutonium-239, which will be generated from the uranium-238 isotope. This isotope makes up more than 99% of natural uranium.
Previously, the Russian organization stated that it plans for the BREST-OD-300 to come into operation in 2027. In addition, the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing module is planned to begin construction between 2025 and 2026 and begin operations in 2030. Meanwhile, the fuel production module, whose construction began in 2016, will be completed this year. With RT