Installation of equipment at Russia’s dense nitride fuel fabrication/re-fabrication module (FRM) will start in September. The module will be the first plant to be built within the pilot demonstration power complex (PDPC) with a BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast reactor at Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) in Seversk. The PDPC is part of the Proryv (breakthrough) Project. Vyacheslav Pershukov, deputy director general and director of innovations management at state nuclear coporation Rosatom said the fabrication module will be completed in 2018.
Installation of equipment at Russia’s dense nitride fuel fabrication/re-fabrication module (FRM) will start in September. The module will be the first plant to be built within the pilot demonstration power complex (PDPC) with a BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast reactor at Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) in Seversk. The PDPC is part of the Proryv (breakthrough) Project. Vyacheslav Pershukov, deputy director general and director of innovations management at state nuclear coporation Rosatom said the fabrication module will be completed in 2018.
He said that the design estimates of the reactor plant had passed the state expert review, the operating documentation was prepared, and long-lead equipment order was under consideration. Construction of BREST-OD-300 will start next year after the relevant licence is issued by regulator Rostechnadzor is obtained.
Pershukov said the federal target programme “Nuclear Power Technologies of the New Generation for the Period Commencing 2018 and until 2035” (FTP-2) will include “serious amounts” for testing the technology for commercial use of the solutions developed as part of the Proryv Project. SCC said the construction control panel had reviewed the schedule of purchase, manufacture and delivery of equipment for the FRM and BREST reactor, including manufacture of non-standard equipment for the FRM process lines.
Meanwhile, the Bochvar High-Technology Scientific Research Institute for Inorganic Materials (VNIINM) has produced two pilot fuel assemblies with mixed nitride fuel for testing in the BN-600 reactor at the Beloyarsk NPP. Design documents for the components were produced by VNIINM and OKBM Afrikantov. Mikhail Skupov, head of research and technical development at VNIINM, said in a Rosatom statement on 22 July that the institute will "continue to produce experimental fuel assemblies, collate data and thus improve the design codes used for the technical design of the fuel elements”.
The new experimental FAs and data obtained during their irradiation will improve computer codes for engineering design of fuel rods, the institute explained.