The construction of Russia’s innovative lead-cooled Brest-300 fast neutron reactor is seven months ahead of schedule, according to Gennady Sakharov, Director of Rosatom’s Industry Centre for Capital Construction (OCKS – Otraslevoi Centr Kapitalnovo Stroytelstva). He was speaking on the sidelines of the Second International Construction Championship for Capital Investments on 12 October.
The reactor is under construction at the Siberian Chemical Plant (SCC) in Seversk, Tomsk Region as part of the Experimental Demonstration Energy Complex (ODEK), which is being built under the Breakthrough (Proryv) strategic industry project intended to demonstrate closed fuel cycle technology. It will include three unique facilities: a module for fabrication and refabrication (MFR) of mixed dense uranium-plutonium nitride (MNUP) fuel, a 300 MWe Brest-300 lead-cooled fast reactor, and a module for reprocessing and recycling irradiated fuel.
"The project is even a little ahead of schedule, because it consists, among other things, of the MFR facility… and the Brest reactor itself. First the MFR facility and then the reactor are now being installed and we are about seven months ahead of schedule," he said.
He noted that this is a key project for Rosatom. “It is a most technologically complex project and there are not very many construction capacities in the region. Therefore, now we will try to bring people from other regions there… Well, so far everything is working out," he added. He noted that all problems regarding foreign equipment have been resolved.
"Practically, Rosatom facilities, in fact, are based on our own technologies, on our own equipment – with the possible exception of some elementary things. We had this problem in the summer, so a separate programme for import substitution for Brest was created. We found all the required analogues – Russian, or maybe sometimes Chinese, and so on," Sakharov said.
Image: The two halves of the base plate for the reactor which were delivered at the end of September (courtesy of TVEL)
