Control room simulator launched for lead-cooled BREST-OD-300 reactor

The simulator - see picture above - is in the Educational, Training and Information Centre of the Siberian Chemical Combine in Seversk, Tomsk Oblast in Russia.

The new unit

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, which is part of Rosatom's TVEL fuel division. 

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.

Construction of BREST-OD-300 began in June 2021. Recent progress updates included in May that concreting was taking place for the foundation of the turbine and generator, the news in October that the last roofing truss had been moved into place on the turbine hall and that the metal shell for the central cavity - which weighs 143 tonnes and is more than 14 metres tall with a diameter of 8 metres - had been installed. The four peripheral cavity shells were all installed during December. 

Endurance testing of the prototype main circulation pump unit for the reactor is ongoing - the unit will pump 11 tonnes of molten lead per second at a temperature exceeding 420 degrees Celsius. At the time of construction starting, the target date for completion was 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 1,200 MWe (2,800 MWt) version will follow - the BR-1200.

The control room simulator

Evgeny Adamov, scientific director of the Breakthrough project, said there were no similar simulators in the world, because of the unique design of the new unit, so it would "become a key technical tool for personnel training and licensing".

It was built by JSC VNIIAES, part of Rosatom's electric power division, which has developed more than 40 simulators for various Russian-designed power units.

Konstantin Artemyev, director general of JSC VNIIAES, said: "For VNIIAES, creating a unique simulator for the future power unit presented a real challenge. Only the coordinated work of professionals from all participating organisations made it possible to overcome this challenge. Ultimately, the team created not just a simulator, but an adaptive simulation platform that will evolve alongside the brand-new fourth-generation power unit."