“Today we have witnessed a historic event as another nuclear power plant has been put in operation in the Urals,” Beloyarsk NPP director Ivan Sidorov said in his statement. “Today is the start of power generation, and it will be celebrated as the new unit’s birthday from now on. The grid connection phase is not over yet. The next step is to reach 50% of the reactor capacity, followed by pilot operation and a gradual increase to 100%. We have still much to do, but the key milestone for the reactor unit has been just passed.”
According to Rosenergoatom CEO Andrei Petrov, bringing the BN-800 unit online is an outstanding event for the Russian nuclear industry. “Last time a fast reactor (then a BN-600) was brought online in the last century, 35 years ago. The situation has dramatically changed since then. This is why I rightfully believe BN-800 to be an extraordinary achievement of its designers, engineers, constructors, equipment manufacturers and, of course, its operational staff,” Petrov said. “This is our truly significant victory. With plenty of challenges behind, we have restored our competencies in the design and construction of fast reactors. Today we have made yet another important step towards a new technology platform for the Russian nuclear industry.”
“Commissioning of Beloyarsk NPP Unit 4 and operation of the fast reactor in conjunction with existing and yet-to-be-built fuel processing facilities at the Mining and Chemical Plant, Siberian Chemical Plant, Mayak and other companies will contribute to the development of closed nuclear fuel cycle technologies, including those for MOX fuel fabrication, re-fabrication and nuclear waste management,” says Vladimir Poplavsky, Deputy Director of Leipunsky Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (a scientific advisor to the BN-800 project). “It is this experience that should be invested in the close nuclear fuel cycle and development of commercial thermal and fast reactors.”
This December alone, BN-800 is expected to output nearly 30 million kilowatt hours into the Urals electricity grid.
FOR REFERENCE: fast breeder reactors open up new prospects for the nuclear industry as they minimize radioactive waste by introducing a closed nuclear fuel cycle.
