the Russians have the most commercial experience with fast neutron reactors. They operated the 600 MWe BN-600 for a few decades.
Fast neutron reactors increase the burnup of fuel up to 15-20% vs 5% with LWS and the used fuel is easier to process and with a liquid pyroprocessing method can enable a closed fuel cycle (100% of fuel used).
The BN-800 fast neutron reactor being built by OKBM Afrikantov at Beloyarsk is designed to supersede the BN-600 unit there and utilise MOX fuel with both reactor-grade and weapons plutonium. It will be 880 MWe gross and have fuel burn-up of 70-100 GWd/t. [normal light water reactors now have about 50 Gigawatts per day per ton of fuel, and new LWR will have about 65 GWd/t and annular /cylinder shaped for better hear management fuel will enable older reactors to have higher burnup] Further BN-800 units were planned. China is buying two BN-800 reactors.
The BN-1200 is being designed by OKBM for operation with MOX fuel from 2020 and dense nitride U-Pu fuel subsequently, in closed fuel cycle. Rosatom plans to submit the BN-1200 to the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) as a Generation IV design. The BN-1200 will produce 2900 MWt (1220 MWe), has a 60-year design life, simplified refuelling, and burn-up of up to 120 GWd/t. Intermediate heat exchanger temperature 550°C, with 527°C in secondary sodium circuit and 510°C outlet at 14 MPa from steam generators. Lead cooling is also a possibility. Thermal efficiency is 42% gross, 39% net. It is expected to have a breeding ratio of 1.2 initially and up to 1.35 for MOX fuel, and then 1.45 for nitride fuel. Fuel burn-up is designed to progress from 14.3% to 21%. It will have 426 fuel assemblies and 174 radial blanket assemblies surrounded by 599 boron shielding assemblies. The capital cost is expected to be much the same as VVER-1200. OKBM envisages about 11 GWe of such plants by 2030, possibly including South Urals NPP. Design is expected to be complete in 2014, and tentative plans are for construction of the first unit at Beloyarsk (unit 5) from 2015 with commercial operation from 2020. A construction decision is due in 2014. It is intended to produce electricity at RUR 0.65/kWh (US 2.23 cents/kWh). This is part of a federal Rosatom program, the Proryv (Breakthrough) Project.
The SVBR-100 could be a very low cost modular fast neutron reactor with 11.4% burnup.
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The IAEA has a recent review of trends with fast neutron reactors and fuel cycles (20 pages).
Read more »![]()
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Fast neutron reactors increase the burnup of fuel up to 15-20% vs 5% with LWS and the used fuel is easier to process and with a liquid pyroprocessing method can enable a closed fuel cycle (100% of fuel used).
The BN-800 fast neutron reactor being built by OKBM Afrikantov at Beloyarsk is designed to supersede the BN-600 unit there and utilise MOX fuel with both reactor-grade and weapons plutonium. It will be 880 MWe gross and have fuel burn-up of 70-100 GWd/t. [normal light water reactors now have about 50 Gigawatts per day per ton of fuel, and new LWR will have about 65 GWd/t and annular /cylinder shaped for better hear management fuel will enable older reactors to have higher burnup] Further BN-800 units were planned. China is buying two BN-800 reactors.
The BN-1200 is being designed by OKBM for operation with MOX fuel from 2020 and dense nitride U-Pu fuel subsequently, in closed fuel cycle. Rosatom plans to submit the BN-1200 to the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) as a Generation IV design. The BN-1200 will produce 2900 MWt (1220 MWe), has a 60-year design life, simplified refuelling, and burn-up of up to 120 GWd/t. Intermediate heat exchanger temperature 550°C, with 527°C in secondary sodium circuit and 510°C outlet at 14 MPa from steam generators. Lead cooling is also a possibility. Thermal efficiency is 42% gross, 39% net. It is expected to have a breeding ratio of 1.2 initially and up to 1.35 for MOX fuel, and then 1.45 for nitride fuel. Fuel burn-up is designed to progress from 14.3% to 21%. It will have 426 fuel assemblies and 174 radial blanket assemblies surrounded by 599 boron shielding assemblies. The capital cost is expected to be much the same as VVER-1200. OKBM envisages about 11 GWe of such plants by 2030, possibly including South Urals NPP. Design is expected to be complete in 2014, and tentative plans are for construction of the first unit at Beloyarsk (unit 5) from 2015 with commercial operation from 2020. A construction decision is due in 2014. It is intended to produce electricity at RUR 0.65/kWh (US 2.23 cents/kWh). This is part of a federal Rosatom program, the Proryv (Breakthrough) Project.
The SVBR-100 could be a very low cost modular fast neutron reactor with 11.4% burnup.
The IAEA has a recent review of trends with fast neutron reactors and fuel cycles (20 pages).
Read more »
