Russia has achieved a breakthough "milestone," the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation has announced.
The BN-800 fast reactor at unit 4 of Russia’s Beloyarsk NPP has for the first time been completely fueled with uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) after a scheduled overhaul, according to Rosatom’s fuel company TVEL.
“Full conversion of the BN-800 to MOX fuel is a long-anticipated milestone for the nuclear industry. For the first time in the history of Russian nuclear power, we proceed to operation of a fast neutron reactor with a full load of uranium-plutonium fuel and closed nuclear fuel cycle. Advanced technologies of fissile materials recycling and re-fabrication of nuclear fuel will make it possible to expand the resource feed-stock of the nuclear power, reprocess irradiated fuel instead of storing it, and to reduce the volumes of waste,” said Alexander Ugryumov, senior vice president for research and development at TVEL JSC.
Serial batch-production of MOX fuel originally began in late 2018 at the site of the Mining and Chemical Combine. The first serial MOX-FAs were loaded into the BN-800 core in January 2020. The first complete refueling of the BN-800 with MOX fuel took place in January 2021, and then, over the next two refuelings, all fuel assemblies were gradually replaced with innovative MOX assemblies.
MOX fuel pellets, unlike traditional nuclear fuel with enriched uranium, are based on a mix of nuclear fuel cycle derivatives, such as oxide of plutonium bred in commercial reactors, and oxide of depleted uranium which comes from de-fluorination of depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF6), the so-called secondary tailings of uranium enrichment facilities.
“Today, Beloyarsk NPP is one of the flagships bringing the Russian nuclear industry closer to a new technological platform based on a closed nuclear fuel cycle,” said Beloyarsk NPP Director Ivan Sidorov.
He added that use of MOX fuel will make it possible to increase the fuel base of the nuclear power industry tenfold.
"And most importantly, in the BN-800 reactor, after appropriate processing, used nuclear fuel from other NPPs can be recycled,” Sidorov stated.