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A steel reactor base plate and the lower tier of the containment has been installed in what is being called a landmark moment for construction of the BREST-OD-300 generation IV fast neutron reactor in Russia.

Date: Thursday, 18 January 2024
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/First-lead-cooled-fast-neutron-reactor-s-installat

Specialists at the AI Leipunsky Institute of Physics & Power Engineering (IPPE – part of Rosatom) in Obninsk have launched a physical model of the active zone of the BN-1200M fast neutron reactor unit using the complex of fast physical stands (BFS) at the institute. “This was assembled in record time – in less than two months. Typically, such tasks require about 4-5 months, said Alexander Zhukov, head of the BFS complex. “We manually collected more than 4,700 fuel rods, which made it possible to successfully complete the critical mass set and go into critical condition. This was achieved thanks to the first-class work of the entire team of the BFS critical stands.”

Date: Saturday, 16 December 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsrussian-institute-unveils-physical-model-of-bn-1200-fast-neutron-reactor-core-11375183

Russia’s Experimental-Demonstration Centre for Decommissioning Uranium-Graphite Nuclear Reactors (UDC UGR, part of state nuclear corporation Rosatom) has completed the dismantling and fragmentation of technological equipment and pipelines at the industrial reactors ADE-4 and ADE-5 at the Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) in Seversk. The AD series reactors, designed by OKBM, are water-cooled uranium-graphite thermal neutron reactors.

Date: Saturday, 14 January 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsrussia-dismantles-two-uranium-graphite-reactors-10515622

Iraq is working on a plan to build nuclear reactors in face of widespread blackouts that have sparked social unrest, Bloomberg reported on 8 June. Despite being OPEC’s second biggest oil producer, Iraq is suffering from power shortages and insufficient investment in ageing plants, and needs to meet an expected 50% jump in demand by the end of the decade. Building NPPs could help to close the supply gap.

Date: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsiraq-looks-to-revive-its-nuclear-programme-8822664

Russia has loaded about one-third of the reactor core of the BN-800 fast neutron reactor at Beloyarsk-4 with commercial mixed oxide uranium-plutonium (MOX) fuel, state nuclear operator Rosenergoatom said.

Rosenergoatom said the move to MOX fuel at Beloyarsk-4 brings the Russian nuclear industry “one step closer” to its goal of closing the fuel cycle.

It said that for the first time during a planned outrage, which began on 8 January 2021 and concluded this week, only MOX fuel was loaded into the reactor.

Staff loaded 160 MOX fuel assemblies to complement the first 18 which were loaded in January 2020. There are now 178 MOX assemblies from a total of 565 in the reactor core.

Date: Friday, 26 February 2021
Original article: nucnet.org/news/russia-one-step-closer-to-goal-of-closing-nuclear-fuel-cycle-2-4-2021

169 assemblies scheduled to be loaded into core in January A MOX fuel assembly for the Beloyarsk-4 nuclear power plant in Russia. Photo courtesy Tvel. Russia has manufactured the first full reload batch of fresh uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for the Beloyarsk-4 BN-800 fast neutron reactor.

State nuclear fuel company Tvel said the 169 fuel assemblies, manufactured at the Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk, eastern Siberia, have been accepted by nuclear operator Rosenergoatom, which has confirmed the consignment is ready for shipment.

Tvel said the refuelling of Beloyarsk-4, near Yekaterinburg in central Russia, is scheduled for January 2021.

The 820-MW BN-800 reactor began commercial operation in October 2016 with a hybrid core, partially loaded with uranium fuel produced by Elemash, Tvel’s fabrication facility in Elektrostal, near Moscow, and partially with experimental MOX fuel bundles manufactured at the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad, southwest Russia.

Date: Friday, 24 July 2020
Original article: nucnet.org/news/first-full-batch-of-mox-fuel-produced-for-beloyarsk-4-fast-neutron-reactor-7-4-2020

Transition to begin in first half of 2021 The Beloyarsk nuclear power station in Russia. Photo courtesy Rosenergoatom. Russia’s BN-800 fast neutron reactor at Beloyarsk-4 is expected to fully switch to commercial uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel use in 2022, according to a statement by state nuclear operator Rosenergoatom.

The development, a first for Russia, will be an “important step” towards closing the fuel cycle, the statement said.

Rosenergoatom said transition to MOX fuel is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2021, with loading of one-third of the reactor’s core with the new fuel.

In January 2020, operators loaded the first batch of commercial MOX fuel, consisting of 18 assemblies, at Beloyarsk-4. The plant has been since operating a mix of conventional uranium-based fuel and MOX assemblies.

Date: Saturday, 13 June 2020
Original article: nucnet.org/news/beloyarsk-4-fast-reactor-set-to-fully-run-on-mox-fuel-in-2022-6-5-2020

First phase of plan to replace all uranium-based fuel with MOX  The Beloyarsk-4 nuclear power plant in Russia. Photo courtesy Tvel. The first batch of commercial mixed oxide (MOX) fuel has been loaded into the BN-800 fast neutron reactor at Beloyarsk-4, a statement by Russian state-owned nuclear fuel manufacturer Tvel said.

During the plant’s first refueling outage, staff loaded 18 MOX assemblies into the reactor core – the first phase of a plan to replace all remaining uranium-based fuel at Beloyarsk-4 with MOX fuel by the end of 2021.

Tvel said another batch of 180 MOX assemblies is scheduled to be loaded into the BN-800 reactor core later this year.

In August 2019, Tvel delivered the first MOX fuel batch to Beloyarsk-4. The assemblies were manufactured by the Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk region.

The industrial production of MOX fuel in Russia is part of a federal programme to develop a new generation of nuclear technologies. The MOX fuel project was led by Tvel. Production began in late 2018.

Date: Wednesday, 29 January 2020
Original article: nucnet.org/news/first-commercial-mox-assemblies-loaded-for-beloyarsk-4-fast-reactor-1-2-2020

Despite the deterioration in US-Russian relations and the effective ending of nuclear co-operation on many levels, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said it was not contemplating any measures restricting uranium products deliveries to the American market. Commercial cooperation in the peaceful use of atomic energy is based on long-term contracts subject to strict implementation, Rostom said. It was responding US media reports that Russia was planning to stop uranium products deliveries to the US utilities in retaliation for US sanction on Russia. “Rosatom’s company JSC Techsnabexport (Tenex), the leading exporter of uranium products, has been operating for more than 40 years on the global market, and has been impeccably fulfilling its obligations even throughout uneasy periods in Russia-US relations, said Rosatom’s First Deputy General Director for Development and International Business, Kyrill Komarov. “Today there is no reasons to doubt the reliability of Russian deliveries,” he emphasized.

Date: Wednesday, 09 November 2016
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsrussia-yes-to-uranium-no-to-plutonium-5663767