15 Jan (NucNet): The technical specifications for Russia’s Generation IV BN-1200 sodium-cooled fast neutron nuclear reactor have been developed and sent for an expert review, project developer Afrikantov Experimental Design Bureau for Mechanical Engineering (OKBM) has said.
OKBM said it has completed the development of technical specifications for the project’s primary side, housing the nuclear reactor, and the secondary, non-nuclear side which contains the turbine. This includes project specifications about all systems and equipment, supported by results of experimental studies and calculations.
Alexey Vasyaev, head of the BN-1200 project at OKBM, said the fundamental technical specifications for the construction, communications and main system processes had been completed, as well as an economic evaluation of the project.
The next step in the project is to have the documentation examined by a technical expert committee of the joint scientific and technical council of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the nuclear operator, Rosenergoatom, OKBM said.
The results of the examination will be used to finalise the technical design of the BN-1200 in 2015 or 2016, after additional scientific research and development work is completed, OKBM said.
The BN-1200 is a Generation IV sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor which will be built at the Beloyarsk site in central Russia, near Yekaterinburg.
There are two sodium-cooled fast reactors at Beloyarsk – the BN-600 and BN-800, which are smaller versions of the BN-1200. There are also two permanently shut-down reactors at the site.
The Russian government said in November 2013 that if the BN-1200 design is successful, two reactors of this type will be built at a new nuclear station called South Ural, about 200 kilometres southeast of Yekaterinburg. The units could enter commercial operation before 2030.
In October 2014, Rosatom’s director-general Sergei Kiriyenko said construction of the BN-1200 will begin after 2020.
