Construction license issued for Russian fast neutron reactor

摘要

Russian regulator Rostechnadzor granted a license to Siberian Chemical Combine, a subsidiary of Rosatom's nuclear fuel division TVEL, to build a Brest-OD-300 lead-cooled fast neutron reactor at a site in the city of Seversk, Russia, Rosatom said in a statement on its website on Feb. 11. Obtaining the license means that all the questions asked for the Brest project by Rostechnadzor have been addressed, Vyacheslav Pershukov, Rosatom's executive in charge of the project, was quoted as saying in the statement. The reactor is a 300-MW unit using lead for cooling and operating on mixed nitride uranium-plutonium fuel, which would be reprocessed on-site, Rosatom has said. The Brest-300 is designed to be a demonstration unit and forerunner to a commercial reactor, the 1,200-MW Brest-1200. Because of its design, the Brest-OD-300 demonstration unit's safety review entailed designing new federal regulations and rules, Rosatom said. These include the "requirements for the design and safe operation of reactors, equipment, and piping of reactor units using lead as a coolant," as well as "requirements for justifying the strength of the reactor vessel, equipment, and piping of reactor units using lead as a coolant,” it added.