The welding of a core basket shell and a reactor pressure vessel for MBIR was completed at Atommash (a subsidiary of Rosatom’s AEM Technologies). The welded seam is more than six meters long and 22 mm deep.

The core basket will be installed inside the reactor vessel and is designed to separate inward and outward coolant flows in MBIR, cool down the reactor vessel and vessel internals, and fix other components inside the vessel. Weighing 45 tons, the core basket is more than five meters high and three meters in diameter. Atommash will manufacture 14 components for the reactor, including vessel supports and structural elements with the total weight of over 360 tons.

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The multi-purpose fast breeder research reactor (MBIR) is constructed at the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (RIAR) in Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk Region, Russia) to become the most powerful of all research reactors in operation, under construction or under design in the world. The construction is to be completed by 2020. MBIR will replace the BOR-60 fast breeder reactor that is approaching the end of its service life. The sodium-cooled reactor has a thermal capacity of 150 MW and a service life of 50 years.

MBIR’s unparalleled specifications allow solving a broad variety of research tasks within shorter time periods, including research into performance and safety of fast breeder reactors as part of the closed nuclear fuel cycle. The reactor will be accessible for international research teams.