Key equipment for BREST-OD-300 reactor completes lengthy journey

The parts delivered to the construction site at the Siberian Chemical Combine site in Seversk in the Tomsk region of Russia were the central void shell and inner casing for the core support barrel, components which will hold nuclear fuel once installed and the first of four shells for the peripheral cavity - which will house steam generators and pumps for circulation of the coolant - which was shipped from the Izhora plant in St Petersburg.

Their journey took as much as two months, and involved travel by river and the Northern Sea Route to Samus, from where it travelled along roads on a multi-axle platform to distribute the load and ease pressure on road surfaces. Power lines had to temporarily be lifted and road signs removed along parts of the road to allow their passage.

The BREST-OD-300 reactor has an integral layout - its vessel is not an all-metal structure, instead it is a metal-concrete structure with the space between the cavities gradually filled with concrete during construction. Because of its large size it can only be delivered in parts with assembly only possible at the construction site.

Konstantin Izmestyev, Technical Director of JSC SCC, said: "This year, the main elements of the BREST-OD-300 reactor will be installed in the design position, and the reactor will receive not only its shell in the form of walls, but also a metal body."

The aim is for the further three elements of the peripheral shell to be delivered this month, with the metal shell of the central cavity to be installed in its design position by the end of 2025.

The background

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.

A progress update in November said 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.

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.