The BN-800 sodium-cooled fast reactor at unit 4 of Russia’s Beloyarsk NPP has registered a year of reliable and safe operation using an almost full load of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. Russia says this proves the readiness of the closed nuclear fuel cycle technology for implementation on an industrial scale.
The BN-800 is using depleted Uranium (Uranium 238), Plutonium, americium-241 and neptunium-237.
Normal nuclear fission reactors use the enriched Uranium 235. It is easier to split the odd numbered Uranium isotopes.
96% of the unburned nuclear fuel by weight is uranium 238. The BN-800 fast reactor is designed with faster neutrons that can split the Uranium 238. The mass use of MOX fuel will increase the usable nuclear fuel by ten times and nearly eliminate the long lived nuclear waste.
The raw materials for the MOX fuel pellets includes plutonium oxide obtained during the processing of used fuel from conventional VVER reactors alongside depleted uranium oxide, obtained by defluorination of depleted uranium hexafluoride (tails from enrichment production). The first serial MOX-FAs were loaded into the BN-800 core in January 2020. The first complete refuelling of the BN-800 with MOX fuel took place in January 2021, and then, over the next two refuelings, all fuel assemblies were gradually replaced with innovative MOX assemblies.
Russia’s has decided to build a BN-1200 sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor at unit 5 of the Beloyarsk NPP. Rosatom plans to obtain a licence for the construction for the BN-1200 in 2027. It will be the world’s largest fast reactor breaking the record already held by Russia for the BN-800. Construction of Beloyarsk 5 is scheduled for 2035.
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THORIUM!
Demonstrating reprocessing doesn’t make it economical. There are other goals such as meeting the intent of the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement of 2000. Reprocessing LWRs fuel is at best a hedge against supply interruption in France and Japan. Russia likes to push forward to showcase its abilities in the field, which is why they publicize RMIX.
Cut away all the red tape and you STILL won’t see the north American operators jump at the opportunity to [literally] chop-up and acid-dissolve spent fuel, then re-precipitate, blend and put into new tubes…. all while protecting workers from significant hazards.
It’s nothing we couldn’t have done years ago, if our own regulators didn’t see their task as winding down the nuclear power industry, instead of just preventing bad accidents.
The problem we face, as a sort of free market with a regulatory overlay, is that it’s not enough for the regulators to approve of an advance NOW. You have to have confidence that they aren’t going to shut you down after you’ve spent capital, and haven’t earned the profits to break even. We’re no longer the sort of high trust society where long term investments are rational. In any field where there’s any prospect of hostile regulators getting the upper hand for even a short period, you don’t dare pursue the project.
I don’t know how you’d return us to being such a society.
In a command economy with a dictatorship, you just have to think the dictator who approves of what you’re doing will be around for a while.
Using sodium metal is asking for a sodium leak fire that water can’t put out. Thorium molten salt reactors offer the same advantages without the sodium metal disadvantage.
Totally agree that, plus no cooling if that s fail
Yes sodium reactors are a nightmare. You shouldn’t make anything that if it goes wrong becomes a huge disaster.
As noted here before there are accelerator reactors. I wonder why this is not the number one method that people are going after? If I understand correctly, it can burn all sorts of fissile material and all of it. If the accelerator is too long/costly, many years ago I read about using lasers to make very small fast accelerators. The particles were made to surf on the laser waves like boats or surfers. They made some of these, but I never heard anymore about them. That they can be made would seem to put accelerator reactors in a most favorable position. I feel the same about space based reactors. Using lightweight trusses, you could have cheap accelerators and lots of nuclear power with light weight. The fuel output per weight is extraordinary with nuclear. If you could get it to work, it would open up the solar system.