On September 22, Unit 4 of the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia reached 100 percent capacity for the first time.
According to the Atomic Energy web portal, the entire active zone of the BN-800 fast breeder reactor at Unit 4 has been fully switched to mixed oxide fuel (or MOX fuel for short) made from plutonium dioxide, which is made from reprocessed fuel rods used in standard VVER pressurized water reactors, and depleted uranium oxide made from reprocessed byproducts of the uranium enrichment process.
The use of MOX fuel essentially brings the entire Russian nuclear industry a step closer to a “new technological platform based on the closed nuclear fuel cycle,” drastically increasing the fuel base of the nuclear power generation sector and further minimizing radioactive waste, the portal suggests.
21 September 2022, 20:59 GMT
Ivan Sidorov, director of the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant, has explained that, as per the license agreement, the reactor at Unit 4 had to spend 300 hours working at 85 percent capacity after the new fuel was loaded, and that nothing out of the ordinary happened during that time.
Therefore, Sidorov stated, the “innovative” MOX fuel works as intended and the reactor can now generate electricity and heat “reliably, safely and at full capacity.”