He will be located in Seversk
Installation of «reactor of the future» on fast neutrons with lead coolant BREST-300 began in Seversk in the Tomsk region, as reported by the press service of JSC «TVEL» (fuel division of Rosatom).
In Seversk, Tomsk region, at the construction site of the Experimental Demonstration Energy Complex (ODEC), a significant milestone was achieved in the construction of a power unit with the innovative fast neutron reactor BREST-OD-300. A steel reactor base plate with a total weight of 165 tons was installed. Builders loaded the first part of the BREST-OD-300 reactor vessel into the reactor shaft — lower tier of the enclosing structure.
Press service of JSC «TVEL»
The enclosing structure is the outer part of the reactor plant vessel, which ensures the retention of thermal insulating concrete and forms an additional localizing protection barrier that follows the boundary of the coolant circuit. On its surface the temperature should be no more than 60 degrees, and the radiation background is actually equal to natural.
A 300 MW power unit based on the BREST-OD-300 fast reactor with lead coolant is a key element of ODEK, which is being created under the Breakthrough project ; at the site of the Siberian Chemical Plant. In addition to the power unit, ODEC will include facilities for the on-site nuclear fuel cycle — complex for the production of mixed uranium-plutonium nitride fuel, as well as a module for reprocessing irradiated nuclear fuel.
Installation of the world's first lead-cooled fast neutron reactor plant has begun — fourth generation reactor BREST-OD-300. Unlike traditional light water thermal reactors VVER, the BREST fast reactor has an integral layout. His body — This is not an all-metal structure, like VVER, but a metal-concrete structure, in which metal cavities are provided for the placement of primary circuit equipment. During construction, the space between the cavities is gradually filled with concrete filler. In addition, the BREST building — larger, it can only be delivered in parts, and final assembly is possible only at the ODEK construction site.
Chief designer of the BREST-OD-300 reactor plant Vadim Lemekhov
Editor-in-chief of the resource atominfo.ru Alexander Uvarov said that the start of installation of the BREST reactor — significant event: «BREST — This is largely a new reactor technology; it is a fast reactor with a heavy metal coolant (lead). Although experts have been talking about the prospects of this technology for a long time (and to be completely precise, the combination of uranium and lead was talked about even before the advent of nuclear energy itself), its practical application came only in the USSR, where reactors with a lead-bismuth coolant were developed for underwater boats. Therefore, the construction of BREST — The event is in many ways significant. This is the first serious attempt to go one step further than our predecessors did in the 20th century. It seems to me that the global nuclear industry is missing something fundamentally new, such as the BREST project. And I’m glad that our country, our nuclear specialists are offering this new thing.