The status of work on the development of a 1200 MW sodium-cooled reactor facility for serial construction is presented. The general characteristics of the facility and the power-generating unit as well as the objectives which must be attained as a result of the design are presented. The design of the power-generating group is based on solutions some of which have been checked during the operation of sodium-cooled reactors in Russia and some have been validated by the appropriate research and development work performed for BN-800. At the same time, new solutions are used which are aimed at improving the technical-economic indicators and increasing the level of safety. Additional R&D work will be needed to validate them.The nuclear future of Russia and most other countries developing nuclear power involves fast reactors and a closed fuel cycle. Thus far only sodium-cooled fast reactors are ready for commercial adoption on a wide scale. In our country, we have more than 50 years of experience in developing and successfully operating such reactors: BR-5 (1959) → BR-10 (1973-2002) → BOR-60 (1969 -in operation) → BN-350 (1973-1998) → BN-600 (1980 -in operation) → BN-800 (under construction). A design of an advanced power-generating unit with a sodium-cooled BN-1200 reactor as the foundation for the initial step in the serial construction of reactors of this type is under development.Target Indicators of Reactor Facility and Power-Generating Unit Design. The development of a power-generating unit must meet the following requirements set for new-generation reactors and nuclear power plants:1) competitiveness with advanced power-generating unit based on reactors of a different type and power-generating units operating on fossil fuel;2) safety increased to a level that makes it unnecessary to take measures to protect the general public outside the borders of the nuclear power plant site for any possible accidents;3) attainment of breeding ratios from 1.2 (stage 1) to 1.3-1.35 (stage 2) using mixed oxide fuel and 1.45 with nitride fuel; 4) reducing the construction time for serially built power-generating units to 48 months; and 5) possibility of introducing a series of reactors in 2-3 years after the startup of the main power-generating unit.
The development of BN-1200 is based on the greatest possible use of tested and scientifically validated and developed technical solutions implemented in , and the BN-800 design as well as new technical solutions that increase facility cost-effectiveness and safety. The BN-1200 design must permit the reactor to operate with different cores, including with denser fuel. The main fuel variant considered is oxide fuel and for the nearest term nitride fuel, for which the production technology involves the same steps as the oxide technology. The main approaches for choosing the parameters of the BN-1200 core as well as the results of computational studies are presented.An advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor satisfying the requirements for nuclear power in the 21st century is now being developed in our country. Initially, 1800 MW(e) capacity was being considered for this reactor [1]. However, for many reasons, specifically, to ensure transportability of the main equipment by rail, its capacity was lowered to 1200 MW. The development of BN-1200 is based on the maximum use of the solutions implemented in BN-350 and -600 and in the BN-800 design as well as new technical solutions which increase cost-effectiveness and safety.BN-1200 Core. The main variant considered is oxide fuel and for the nearest term nitride fuel, whose production technology is largely identical to that of oxide fuel. Variants with heterogeneous introduction of regions with depleted metallic uranium are also considered. Metallic fuel does not satisfy the BN-1200 thermodynamic indicators which have been adopted. For fuel elements to work reliably with such fuel, the maximum coolant temperature must be lowered by approximately 100°C.The high burnup adopted for the fuel (16-18% h.a.) is attained by using in the fuel-element cladding EP-450 type ferrite-martensite steel; for this, the maximum cladding temperature in the design is limited by 670°C. For such fuel-element cladding temperature, the coolant heating in the reactor is lowered (140°C). This makes it possible to lower the maximum sodium temperature at the entrance to the fuel assemblies; this temperature is associated with the nonuniformity of the coolant heating in the core and the fuel assemblies. In the future, a transition is planned to low-swelling ferrite-class high-temperature steel, dispersion hardened by oxides of rare-earth elements.An important characteristic of the core is its volume heat density, since it actually determines the core size and critical load. Initially, a high heat density (~500 MW/m 3 ) was chosen for fast reactors. This choice was made to minimize the
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