Russia To Allocate $120M In 2017 For ‘Breakthrough’ Nuclear R&D Programme

21 Feb (NucNet): Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom will allocate $120m (€113m) in 2017 for a federal R&D project to develop a fast neutron reactor and closed fuel cycle technology. The Breakthrough project started in 2011 and is part of a federal programme for new nuclear technologies running until 2020. As part of the project, a pilot demonstration power complex (PDPC) with a fast neutron Brest-OD-300 reactor and onsite nuclear fuel cycle facilities will be built at the Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) near the city of Seversk, central Russia. The lead-cooled Brest-OD-300 reactor will have a near-station fuel cycle facility. This includes a module for processing irradiated uranium mixed plutonium (nitride) fuel and a fuel fabrication/re-fabrication unit for the manufacture of fuel elements. The unit will initially use imported materials, and subsequently fuel elements from the reprocessed used fuel from Brest. The PDPC will be supported by a centre of competence for research and processing of nitride mixed uranium-plutonium fuel. This centre will use some of the facilities and expertise of SCC’s radiochemical plant which is being decommissioned. SCC is part of the state nuclear fuel company TVEL, a Rosatom subsidiary. It comprises several nuclear reactors and plants for conversion, enrichment, separation and reprocessing of uranium and separation of plutonium.