The contract includes a full cycle of design and survey work necessary for the development of design documentation and materials to justify the construction licence for the reactor, which will be built as unit 5 of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in Russia's Sverdlovsk region.
Currently, comprehensive engineering surveys have begun, which is one of the first stages of design. The aim of these surveys is to study natural conditions and man-made impact factors to develop design documentation for the construction of the power unit and to assess the impact of the designed facility on the environment. Engineering surveys will be carried out on a site with an area of 620,000 square metres.
By the end of 2024, the general designer will have developed design documentation for the first stage of construction, the preparatory period works, which will allow the general contractor, JSC Atomstroyexport, to begin the preparatory period of construction as early as 2025.
The design documentation for the main stage of construction of the power unit will be submitted by the end of 2025 to the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant for approval.
In 2026, it is planned to conduct a state examination of the design documentation and submit an application to Russian nuclear regulator to obtain a licence for the construction for Beloyarsk unit 5.
Rosenergoatom has scheduled the pouring of the first concrete for the reactor in June 2027.
The sodium-cooled BN-series fast reactor plans are part of Rosatom's project to develop fast reactors with a closed fuel cycle whose mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel will be reprocessed and recycled. In addition to the BN-600 reactor at Beloyarsk unit 3, which began operation in 1980, the 789 MWe BN-800 fast at Beloyarsk unit 4 entered commercial operation in October 2016. This is essentially a demonstration unit for fuel and design features for the larger BN-1200, which will be unit 5 at Beloyarsk.
Rosatom said the service life of the BN-1200 power unit will be at least 60 years. Its design uses technical solutions that have proven themselves in the operation of the BN-600 and BN-800 reactors. The justification of structural materials and fuel for the BN-1200 is carried out using the operation of the BN-600.
Rosatom noted the BN-1200 also features innovations. For example, the BN-1200 will have four instead of three loops for the circulation of liquid sodium, like its predecessors; the volume of the in-reactor storage facility will be increased to allow the unloading of fuel assemblies from the reactor directly into the used fuel pool, eliminating the intermediate drum for used assemblies; and the turbine condensers will be cooled using a chimney-type evaporative cooling tower.
"As part of the work in the Generation IV direction, the Rosatom State Corporation is creating a new technological platform for the deployment of nuclear energy of the future, based on fast reactors operating in a closed nuclear fuel cycle," said Beloyarsk NPP Director Ivan Sidorov. "The lead model of such a serial power unit, BN-1200, will be located at the Beloyarsk NPP. Rosatom has moved from individual unique projects, such as BN-600 and BN-800, to serial, conveyor production at BN-1200. New technological solutions allow for the full use of the energy potential of uranium raw materials, and also have a new level of safety."
Alexander Yashkin, director for the Design of Advanced NPPs and Special Facilities - Head of the Breakthrough Responsibility Center of JSC Atomenergoproekt, added: "Rosatom is the world leader in fast reactor NPP technology. Many years of experience in the development, construction and subsequent support of BN-600 and BN-800 reactors led us to the creation of Generation IV projects - the BN-1200 power unit and the project to close the nuclear fuel cycle."
