Russia Starts Batch Production of MOX Fuel for Fast Neutron Reactor

The first serial batch of nuclear fuel assemblies for BN-800 fast neutron reactor with mixed uranium-and-plutonium MOX fuel has successfully passed acceptance inspection. The TVEL Fuel Company of Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation manufactured fuel pellets from a mixture of oxides of depleted uranium and oxides of plutonium extracted during reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.

The MOX fuel is produced at Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk city, Siberia region.

Konstantin Vergazov, Senior Vice President of TVEL for R&D, technology and quality, said that the start of MOX fuel production for BN-800 is an important milestone for solving the strategic task of establishing the closed nuclear fuel cycle. Significantly, the involvement of the large stock of depleted uranium and bred plutonium into the fuel cycle is expected to enable expansion of the resource base of the nuclear power industry and also to reduce natural uranium consumption.

Contents of U-238 isotope in natural uranium deposits is about 99.3 percent, while contents of uranium U-235 (it is used for initiation of a controlled fission chain reaction) is just 0.7 percent. Currently, thermal neutron reactors which comprise the base of contemporary nuclear power industry consume about 1 percent of the extracted natural uranium, the rest 99 percent is forwarded to temporary storage, or disposed of as the radioactive waste.

Fast neutron n-reactors fuelled by mixed oxides of uranium and plutonium would breed enough plutonium for own needs and producing a certain amount of fuel for other reactors. Recycling of spent nuclear fuel and fabrication of new bundles with the uranium-and-plutonium mixture is estimated to ramp up approximately hundred-fold the volume of electric power which could be potentially generated using natural uranium resources.

Commercial operation of the fourth power unit of Beloyarsk NPP with BN-800 fast neutron reactor started in 2016.

TVEL Fuel Company of Rusatom incorporates enterprises for the fabrication of nuclear fuel, conversion and enrichment of uranium, production of gas centrifuges, as well as research and design organizations. Interestingly, this is the only supplier of nuclear fuel to Russian nuclear power plants. TVEL Fuel Company of Rusatom provides nuclear fuel for 72 power reactors in 14 countries, research reactors in eight countries, as well as transport reactors of the Russian nuclear fleet. It is also pertinent to mention here that every sixth power reactor in the world actually operates on fuel manufactured by TVEL.