Vladimir Poplavsky, Adviser of General Director of the State Scientific Center of the RF Institute for Physics and Power Engineering:

 — The 30-year time lag proves that sodium technologies of fast reactors are rather safe and efficient

On July 23, 2010 the IXth scientific-technical conference dedicated to 30 years of successful operation of the unique BN-600 power unit with fast neutrons reactor was held in Zarechny city, Sverdlovsk region. The conference was organized by Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC and Beloyarsk NPP. The conference was attended by over 100 professionals. Among them — representatives of Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC, research studies institutes, design organizations as well as foreign nuclear specialists from Italy, France, India and Japan.

Vladimir Poplavsky, Adviser of General Director of the State Scientific Center of the RF Institute for Physics and Power Engineering:

The matter is that Beloyarsk NPP appeared to be the polygon for new technologies. The first and the second power units are reactors with nuclear steam superheating used for the first time – another achievement of the new technological line. Moreover, Beloyarsk NPP is oriented as a nuclear polygon for testing of the fast reactors technology. BN-600 is a very good example in this respect. Today we conduct a conference. The 30-year time lag proves that sodium technologies of fast reactors are rather safe and efficient. Basically it was the reason for development of the BN-800 project being the next step towards development of sodium fast reactors technology. And it was also the basis for our concern about commercial reactors. BN-800 will not be a commercial reactor since, basically, it’s the only one and it’s no good talking about achievement of economical competitive ability using unique examples of nuclear power industry as the unique example is always rather expensive. Yes, the fast neutron reactors technology is rather complicated, more complicated than that of light water reactors being the basic sources of power generation not only in Russia but in the world. Still there are two fundamental properties of fast reactors connected with fuel breeding, i.e., as you know, in such reactors the amount of plutonium combusted is less than bred, i.e., if the breeding ratio is less than unity it’s, as a matter of fact, quite a unique thing.

It’s not even a perpetuum mobile, it’s something even greater — since out of a kilogram of combusted nuclear fuel we can produce 1.5 kilograms of fuel, i.e. it gives us the option of expanded reproduction in nuclear power industry owing to intrinsic reproduction, without any extraction, any external supplies, naturally, without uranium extraction at mining enterprises. This is the fundamental property, in other words, technically, using this technology we can ensure steady progression of the mankind from the point of view of easy power supply. It is the main task. And the second task is ecological acceptability. The point is that the fast reactor eliminates radioactive waste produced by the thermal reactor. It’s so called minor actinides, such as neptunium, curium.

BN-800 is the first reactor in Russian realia that will use non-uranium fuel unlike BN-600. That’s why we speak about mankind development when using the eighth uranium in the fuel process. Look, we speak about oil, coal, gas, but if we take power capacity of all possible sources 60 per cent of the Earth power resources are in the 8 uranium instead of coal, oil and gas. Production of cost-effective hydrogen and its usage as automotive fuel using nuclear power industry is quite acceptable.

Nowadays there are 370 gigawatt of installed capacity and about 450 operating power units in the world of which 104 are in America, but America doesn’t construct anything because after the disaster at the Three Mile Island they ceased construction. Certainly, thermal reactors will be the basis of nuclear power industry up to 2050 but gradually the fuel balance, i.e. depletion of the fifth uranium required for operation of thermal reactors will result in more and more rapid introduction of fast reactors. Calculations show that if we take the fuel balance for the Russian conditions, if by 2050 there will have been 150 gigawatt of the nuclear power installed capacity, fast reactors will possibly amount to 35% of them, i.e. there will be two-component power industry: thermal and fast neutron, with gradual substitution of the thermal spectrum with fast reactors.

REFERENCE: Beloyarsk NPP is a branch of Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC operating all nuclear power plants of Russia. This is the first NPP in the nuclear power industry of the country and the only one with reactors of different types on the same site. At Beloyarsk NPP the unique power unit with a fast neutron reactor of industrial power level is being operated — BN-600. The BN-800 power unit with a fast neutron reactor is being constructed. The fast neutron power units serve for substantial extension of the fuel base of the nuclear power industry and minimization of radioactive waste due to the closed nuclear fuel cycle. The first power units of Beloyarsk NPP with the AMB-100 and AMB-200 fast neutron reactors have outlived their usefulness.