Cost to construct BN-1200 power unit at Beloyarsk NPP could exceed 500 bln rubles

YEKATERINBURG. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Preliminary estimates indicate that the cost to construct the BN-1200 power unit at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant in the Sverdlovsk Region could exceed 500 billion rubles, NPP Director Ivan Sidorov said on Tuesday at a press conference in Yekaterinburg.

"Slightly more than 500 billion [rubles]," Sidorov said in response to the preliminary cost of constructing the future reactor.

Sidorov said that construction is planned to begin on the facility in 2027, and pre-design work is currently underway.

As reported, the BN-1200 is the prototype of a serial power unit with a fast reactor. This should allow the advantages of a closed nuclear fuel cycle to be realized fully on an industrial scale, namely by reusing spent nuclear fuel, producing new fuel from so-called "uranium tails" remaining after enrichment of natural uranium, and minimizing radioactive waste.

The Beloyarsk NPP was commissioned in April 1964. The first power units with AMB-100 and AMB-200 thermal neutron reactors were shut down owing to the end of the service life. Power units with BN-600 and BN-800 fast neutron reactors have been operating since 1980 and 2015, respectively.