Lead-cooled nuclear plant part of pilot demonstration energy complex.
The 165-tonne steel reactor base plate has been installed at Russia’s Brest-OD-300 pilot demonstration power plant at the site of the Siberian Chemical Combine in Seversk, southwest Siberia, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said.
Construction workers have also loaded the first part of the reactor pressure vessel into the reactor shaft, an enclosing structure that forms an additional barrier of protection, Rosatom said.
It said the work marks the start of major installation work at the world’s first Generation IV fast neutron reactor plant with a lead coolant.
In 2021 Rosatom announced that the concrete base slab had been completed for the plant. Construction of the plant began with pouring of first concrete in June 2021.
The 300-MW Brest-OD-300 is part of a pilot demonstration energy complex which comes under Russia’s “Breakthrough” project for the development of closed nuclear fuel cycle technology.
A closed nuclear fuel cycle means spent fuel is reprocessed and partly reused. Closing the nuclear fuel cycle would ease concerns over limited uranium resources and contribute towards making nuclear energy sustainable over the long term.
According to Rosatom, the Brest-OD-300 plant will form an integral part of the so-called Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex, a cluster of three main interconnected facilities – a nuclear fuel production plant, the reactor unit itself and a facility for irradiated fuel reprocessing.
The reactor unit is expected to become operational in 2026. The fuel production facility will be built by 2023 and the construction of the irradiated fuel reprocessing plant is scheduled to start by 2024.