No nuclear waste: Fuel of future produced at Russia's high-tech underground plant

[senheiser]

No nuclear waste: Fuel of future produced at Russia's high-tech underground plant
Published time: September 17, 2014 11:47
Get short URL

Photo from sdelanounas.ru


Russia’s ‘Breakthrough’ energy project enables closed a nuclear fuel cycle and a future without radioactive waste. The first batch of MOX nuclear fuel has been manufactured for the world’s only NPP industrially power generating breeder reactors.

The first ten kilograms of the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) - a mixture of plutonium and uranium dioxides (UO2 and PuO2), have been industrially produced by Russia’s nuclear monopoly, Rosatom, at the Mining & Chemical Combine (GKhK) in the Krasnoyarsk region.

A world first, tablets of the fuel of the future have been put on serial production and are destined for Russia’s next generation BN-800 breeder reactor (880 megawatts), currently undergoing tests at the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant.

The production line, now undergoing start-up and adjustment, was assembled in a mine 200 meters underground and will become fully operational by the end of 2014.

Demonstrating the work of the spent fuel storage of the Mining and Chemical Plant. (RIA Novosti/Alexandr Kryazhev)



Fast fission reactors solve the problem of depleted uranium nuclear fuel on the planet. They can ‘burn’ not only ‘classic’ uranium-235, (scarce and already coming to an end), but also uranium-238, which is abundant, and expands the world’s nuclear fuel capacity by an estimated 50 times.

Fuel for breeder reactors could even be made from nuclear waste, which from an ecological point of view is a priceless advantage.

The GKhK facility will be equipped with a unique dissolvent reactor that will break down nuclear waste containing plutonium and extract plutonium dioxide to be used in MOX-fuel production.

The spent fuel storage of the Mining and Chemical Plant. (RIA Novosti/Alexandr Kryazhev)



Also, while producing electric energy, breeder reactors actually generate more fissile material, and that one also can be used as nuclear fuel.

The GKhK plant is Russia’s leading full nuclear fuel cycle complex, processing nuclear waste from power generating nuclear reactors to establish future nuclear fuel ring closure.

MOX-fuel for previous versions of fast breeder reactors in the USSR and Russia had limited production at Russia’s oldest Mayak nuclear processing facility.

Starting from 2016, industrial-level MOX-fuel production in Russia will run at full capacity.

“Produced MOX-fuel tablets fully conform to the technical specifications,” Rosatom’s statement said, adding that the fuel will now be thoroughly tested.

The spent fuel storage of the Mining and Chemical Plant. (RIA Novosti/Alexandr Kryazhev)



Energy from here to eternity
Humankind has already produced so much nuclear waste that it would take decades, if not hundreds of years to process and recycle it. As of now, the only light at the end of the tunnel is fast-neutron reactor technology.

The fast-neutron nuclear – or breeder - reactors use technology that enables the use of a wider range of radioactive elements as fuel, thus considerably enlarging the potential stock of nuclear fuel for electric power generation.
Russia is the only country that operates fast neutron reactors industrially.

After decades of research, practically all breeder reactor projects around the world, including in the US, France, Japan and several other countries possessing nuclear energy technologies, were closed down. The only country that currently has operating breeder reactor power generation is Russia.

Over the last 50 years the USSR, then Russia, introduced a number of industrial and research fast neutron reactors. One of them, the BN-600 (600 megawatt), running at the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant since 1980, is the only fast neutron reactor in the world that generates electricity on an industrial scale. The BN-600 is also the most powerful operable fast neutron reactor in the world.

The Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant is in Zarechny, some 45 kilometers from the regional center of Yekaterinburg, in the Urals region.

The front of the BN 600 generating unit control building at the Beloyarsk I.V.Kurchatov Nuclear Power Plant. (RIA Novosti/Pavel Lisitsyn)



This year a new BN-800 breeder reactor will become operable at the Beloyarskaya plant.

The service life of the BN-800 breeder reactor is expected to be 45 years. Every month it will produce 475 million kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to ensure constant supply to 3.15 million families (the average monthly consumption of a family of three is 150 kilowatt hours).

The BN-800 uses liquid metal sodium (Na) as a coolant heat transfer agent. Commercial operation of the new reactor is planned to start in early 2015.

Construction of the BN-800 breeder reactor. Photo from sdelanounas.ru



Russian physicists have already elaborated the next step for the revolutionary technology: a BN-1200 breeder reactor that is set to be assembled at the same Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant by 2020.

Overall, eight BN-1200 breeder reactors are expected to be constructed by 2030, which means that Russia is the only nation that is entering a new era of nuclear energy power generation – the closed nuclear fuel cycle, in other words truly clean and practically unlimited nuclear power generation.

 

[notgoodenough]

And people think these mental giants cant build proper cars? Ha.

 

[vostok]

thats cool, this reactor thing is awesome, one of the marvels of modern science

btw whats the first of? is that nuclear fuel?

Yes, tablets for fuel rods.

 

[Solomon2]

Remarkable that the article discusses only the advantages of this reactor technology and not the risks. Liquid sodium, for example, is a very finicky substance for it has proved unpredictably corrosive. To the best of my recall Russian reactors are designed with a positive temperature reactivity coefficient which means that a loss-of-coolant accident in this design would not result in an operating reactor shutting down (as is the case in standard water-cooled reactors) but one that accelerates out of control - that is, a nuclear explosion.

Luckily Russia is very large: Beloyarskaya is over 40,000 square kilometers in size but has only 30,000 or so inhabitants. Some countries have room for risky experiments.

 

[notgoodenough]

If they are going live its because they are at a different stage of development that you obviously arent aware of. Israel is tiny yet you people did all sorts of nuclear experiments at Dimona so lets at least keep it serious.

Remarkable that the article discusses only the advantages of this reactor technology and not the risks. Liquid sodium, for example, is a very finicky substance for it has proved unpredictably corrosive. To the best of my recall Russian reactors are designed with a positive temperature reactivity coefficient which means that a loss-of-coolant accident in this design would not result in an operating reactor shutting down (as is the case in standard water-cooled reactors) but one that accelerates out of control - that is, a nuclear explosion.

Luckily Russia is very large: Beloyarskaya is over 40,000 square kilometers in size but has only 30,000 or so inhabitants. Some countries have room for risky experiments.

 

[Solomon2]

If they are going live its because they are at a different stage of development that you obviously arent aware of. Israel is tiny yet you people did all sorts of nuclear experiments at Dimona so lets at least keep it serious.

I'm an American. Don't know about Israel but the U.S. has built a few sodium-cooled reactors.

The first nuclear Seawolf submarine was originally powered by one and it was plagued by leaks. (Did you know that sodium burns or explodes when in contact with water? )

The U.S. civilian version of the Russian reactor described above appears to be the 1960s-era Fermi One nuclear reactor, nicknamed "We-Almost-Lost-Detroit" for it suffered a dangerous core accident about a year after it started producing electricity.

 

[dray]

@levina

 

[notgoodenough]

Solomon. Youre a jew. So try to be sincere in your comentary. And lets be serious. You have no idea what the Russians have created. How could you. Or are you trying to caim as much? Lets try andstick to statements of fact. Not wild assumptions and conjecture. You cant make a point by guessing.

I'm an American. Don't know about Israel but the U.S. has built a few sodium-cooled reactors.

The first nuclear Seawolf submarine was originally powered by one and it was plagued by leaks. (Did you know that sodium burns or explodes when in contact with water? )

The U.S. civilian version of the Russian reactor described above appears to be the 1960s-era Fermi One nuclear reactor, nicknamed "We-Almost-Lost-Detroit" for it suffered a dangerous core accident about a year after it started producing electricity.

 

[Solomon2]

Solomon. Youre a jew. So try to be sincere in your comentary.

An odd comment.

And lets be serious. You have no idea what the Russians have created. How could you. Or are you trying to caim as much?

I don't know the details of this Russian project. I do know that similar U.S. projects turned out to be nightmares. Maybe the Russians have licked these issues. But if they were really confident they had done do you think they would have built a reactor powerful enough to service three million homes in a district with one percent of that number?

 

[notgoodenough]

An odd comment.

I don't know the details of this Russian project. I do know that similar U.S. projects turned out to be nightmares. Maybe the Russians have licked these issues. But if they were really confident they had done do you think they would have built a reactor powerful enough to service three million homes in a district with one percent of that number?

Stop acting like you have no idea what went on in dimona yet you claim to be an expert on what the Russians are doing.

As to your second point. Any country that went through Chernobyl would be extra careful when testing out new technologies. Although this doesnt seem to be in an experimental phase anymore. This is a trial run. So it seems obvious they licked any problems that the americans couldnt.

 

[Solomon2]

Stop acting like you have no idea what went on in dimona yet you claim to be an expert on what the Russians are doing.

Non-sequitur.

As to your second point. Any country that went through Chernobyl would be extra careful when testing out new technologies. Although this doesnt seem to be in an experimental phase anymore.

Yes and yes.

This is a trial run. So it seems obvious they licked any problems that the americans couldnt.

Non-sequitur.

 

[notgoodenough]

Yeah. No. Either you fancy yourself an expert or you dont. Pick a story and stick to it. And yes, if they are going public with the news its not because they are still in the experimental stage.

But at least youre no longer making wild assumptions.

Non-sequitur.

Yes and yes.

Non-sequitur.

 

[Solomon2]

Yeah. No. Either you fancy yourself an expert or you dont.

That's not a democratic sentiment at all. Decision-making in a democracy requires an informed citizenry. Experts are called for advice and knowledge, not to make decisions.

And yes, if they are going public with the news its not because they are still in the experimental stage.

Umm, this project has been in the works for decades. The plant design, once perfected, is to be built under license in China. It hasn't been "secret" for many years.

But at least youre no longer making wild assumptions.

Oh, so suddenly I am the one making "wild" assumptions?

 

[notgoodenough]

I never said it was secret. You see, there you go again, making ***-umptions. I said they are going public as in they are giving all this information on this to public media. If it wasnt ready for prime time, RT wouldnt be reporting it.

And yes youve been making assumptions about this since you started commenting. I get it though, any little jab you can get in. You will.

Anyway. Russians 1 ; nato countries 0

That's not a democratic sentiment at all. Decision-making in a democracy requires an informed citizenry. Experts are called for advice and knowledge, not to make decisions.

Umm, this project has been in the works for decades. The plant design, once perfected, is to be built under license in China. It hasn't been "secret" for many years.

Oh, so suddenly I am the one making "wild" assumptions?

 

[Solomon2]

I never said it was secret. You see, there you go again, making ***-umptions. I said they are going public as in they are giving all this information on this to public media. If it wasnt ready for prime time, RT wouldnt be reporting it.

Why are you worried, even the slightest, that this "news" report carries no hint of the dangers of this power plant? I don't see much difference between it and a Soviet puff piece from the early 1980s.