— When will the reactor construction start? What are the milestones which have to be passed before entering the construction site?

— Formally, we already entered the construction site when we got the siting license. It means that we can start preparing the construction site and carry out the leveling works. And we start excavating the pit after we have been granted the construction license.

— How much will MBIR cost?

— The facility is unique; there are no parallels across the world. At the stage of development of the first revision of the design documentation MBIR was estimated at RUB 48 billion, without consideration of the infrastructure for experiments. By world standards, it is not an outstanding cost for such type of facilities. For the sake of comparison, construction of the French research reactor Joule Horowitz now is estimated at about € 1 billion; with this, the facility doesn’t have the turbine unit and has 1.5 times less power capacity. However, we are optimizing [the cost] and, definitely, will be doing this further on. As the experience in contracting the reactor vessel goes, I can say that it is realistic to reduce cost by several times.

— Do foreign project companies participate in the project?

— Yes, they do. For example, Czech ones. EGP-Invest (part of the former Prague-based Atomenergoproekt) has designed the turbine hall for us. Energovyskum, as part of the Russian-Czech consortium of designers, is completing the engineering design of the reverse steam generator. Potential producers of various equipment for the reactor and turbine units include Czech companies such as Skoda Doosan, Skoda J.S., and PBS-Industry. We try to take a broad view when selecting partners.

— When should MBIR be started up?

— We set the target to complete the project by 2020. We try to involve various organizations in the cooperation, including international ones, for instance, to ensure a mandatory volume of research work at the reactor.

— Has anyone shown interest already?

— We signed memoranda of intention to cooperate with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and the U.S. Department of Energy; in essence, a cooperation development roadmap was agreed upon. However, the cooperation has suspended because of the political situation. We continue interacting with representatives of CEA and hope that soon we will manage to separate the issues of the science and technology cooperation and politics; history has precedents.
We are looking for partners in other countries as well. The cooperation with South Korea, India, Latin America countries can be of interest. In any case, the mutual interest in the development of the multilateral cooperation with the countries of BRICS has apparently come into view, including in the nuclear sector.

— When will the research program be available?

—  We hope to formulate the research program before the reactor start-up. Theoretically, we would like to understand every second of the first five years after start-up (excluding time for the equipment trials after commissioning), i.e. who irradiates, what and for what purposes. I think there will be a rather high demand for research in MBIR. I believe that our potential consumers include not only the nuclear sector; new functional materials are in demand in medicine, space industry, machine engineering …

— Is there an example for MBIR to follow in terms of organization of work?

— In terms of the organizational structure we take example of the Halden Reactor project in Norway, which has operated for several decades already. The reactor owner is the Institute for Energy Technology in Norway; it maintains the facility, operates it and is responsible for its safety. And there are project participants who are interested in running joint programs and finance these studies. The expenses are shared proportionally: some are taken care of by the operator and some are covered by the participants’ pool. This is the basic pattern we want to refine and use in the project of the International Research Center MBIR. But we have to try to make a quantum jump. The dream to go for is a research facility which supports itself. The scientific cooperation has to be organized so that the expenses for the facility are fully covered at the expense of the research. And I believe this can be achieved if we manage to offer such studies and such research results, which would offset all borne expenses.

— In other words, you expect breakthroughs from MBIR?

— Definitely. The new system, MBIR is, should bring about not just a quantitative, but qualitative improvement of research result: emergence of some new materials, actual technology solutions to closing of the nuclear fuel cycle, solutions to the minnow actinides problem etc.
The system is very potent; it has a high flux of neutrons, which allows studying different types of fuel. Nearby, there will be infrastructure, which is to support post-reactor examinations and reprocessing of irradiated nuclear fuel. This is the poly-functional radiochemical complex, which will be built soon as well. And many clever people who live in this town.

— Is it clear now how much MBIR operation would cost?

— We have preliminary cost estimates of the irradiation time, which would certainly be refined in the course of the project implementation process. It is early to give specific figures. But I am sure that the sums wouldn’t shock our potential partners.