BN-800 design validation and construction status

Abstract

Information is presented on the BN-800 design, the second design following BN-600, power-generating unit with a fast reactor. The main stages of the development of the design begun in the 1980s, modified in the 1990s after the Chernobyl accident, and accepted for construction within the government program starting in 2000 are presented. The fundamental differences of BN-800 from BN-600 are characterized, and current R&D work is briefly described. Information is presented on the construction of BN-800 at the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant, where the BN-600 has been operating since 1980.The development of the BN-800 reactor started in the USSR immediately after the completion of the BN-600 design, which reactor was started up in 1980 at the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant. At that time, the BN-800 was regarded as an intermediate stage in the development of large-scale power generation using fast reactors. A small series of four reactors was planned for construction at the Beloyarskaya and Southern Urals nuclear power plants. Subsequently, a transition was planned to high-capacity reactors -up to 1600 MW. However, the construction of the first two BN-800 started at these sites was stopped because of the Chernobyl accident in 1986.Nonetheless, work on the BN-800 design continued. This was directed toward increasing safety and improving costeffectiveness. The research performed in these directions in 1990 was recognized as being successful. A license was obtained for resuming BN-800 construction at the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant in 1997 and a license for construction at the Southern Urals nuclear power plant was obtained in 1998. These were the first licenses for building nuclear power plants after the Chernobyl accident.Together with accelerated construction of the high-capacity power-generating units with VVER-1000, a special federal program provides for the development of innovative technologies for nuclear power generation. This includes work on fast reactors to which the future transition to a closed fuel cycle is tied; such a fuel cycle will permit the most efficient use of uranium resources and solving the ecological problems of handling spent fuel and radioactive wastes. In the innovative part of the special program, a central role is given to the construction of a BN-800 sodium-cooled fast reactor, which should become an important stage in the development of fast breeder reactors and the formation of a closed fuel cycle in nuclear power [1,2].

Application of diffusion approximation in the calculations of reactor with cavities

“…There are cells with external steel cladding and central cells with coolant and some structures (end fittings of fuel rods in reactors of BN type (Saraev et. al.…”

Fast reactors in the energy security for the stable development of Russia

“…• a 30-year stage of operation in a commercial regime of the only prototype-commercial fast reactor (BN-600) in the world has been successfully completed [8]; • the BN-800 fast sodium reactor is under construction; this reactor is supposed to solve the problems of the subsequent experimental development of closed-fuel-cycle technologies, including burning of long-lived actinides as an intrinsic spent fuel and as fuel accumulated in thermal reactors [9]; and • spent fuel from VVER-440 thermal and BN-600 fast reactors is successfully processed at the RT-1 plant, after which recovered uranium is used in RBMK and the separated plutonium and vitrified radioactive wastes are stored. Hence it is not difficult to conclude that in the not too distant future fast sodium reactors will comprise the basis of the prototypical-commercial infrastructure of a closed nuclear fuel cycle for nuclear power.…”

Analysis of Fuel Burn-up Calculations of 3600 MWth Sodium cooled Fast Reactor Core

“…The EBR (Experimental Breeder Reactor) and the FFTF (Fast Flux Test Facility) in USA, the series of BN systems in Russia, the Monju reactor in Japan and the commercial Super Phénix in France have added over 400 years of operational experience in the technology of SFR [2]. Latest members of sodium-cooled reactors are the China Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR) recently connected to the grid [3], in Russia the BN-800 reactor [4] and in India the PFBR (Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor) [5]. In Europe, the ESNII "European Sustainable Nuclear Industrial Imitative" has carried out an industrial project for demonstration purposes called "Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor" (ASTRID).…”