Rosatom and three leading Russian universities have united in a scientific consortium that will design educational programmes to train specialists from European countries and China, working on new generation reactors, or fast neutron reactors. This project is needed to support the export of fast reactor technology under the state corporation's Breakthrough (Proryv) industrial project, project manager Vyacheslav Pershukov said on 10 June. The three academic institutions are the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI), Tomsk University and Nizhny Novgorod University. Pershukov said the cluster is being created to "support the export potential of Breakthrough”.
The Breakthrough project aims to demonstrate a closed nuclear fuel cycle. This experimental demonstration project is being developed at the Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC), comprising a fuel production/refabrication module for production of dense uranium plutonium (nitride) fuel for fast reactors; a nuclear power plant with a lead cooled BREST OD-300 fast reactor; and a used fuel retreatment module. In the near future, member of the new consortium plan to develop educational programmes in English on the technologies of a closed nuclear fuel cycle and fast reactors, and to establish interaction with foreign partners. Educational organisations in Europe and China are viewed as promising partners in this area.
Pershukov clarified that by 2030 the aim is to train more than 1,000 specialists for the SCC project. For this, a training and information centre will be created in Seversk, Tomsk Region, where the BREST-300 is being built.
