Russia's Rosatom launches first phase of Proryv project

SEVERSK. Dec 25 (Interfax) - Rosatom began pilot industrial operation on Wednesday of the fabrication/refabrication fuel module (FRM) for the BREST-300 fast neutron reactor, which is currently under construction, marking the first phase of the Proryv or Breakthrough project, an Interfax correspondent who attended the launch ceremony said.

"Today, Rosatom has moved further in developing fourth-generation nuclear technologies than anyone else in the world. According to the IAEA classification, these technologies provide higher efficiency in uranium fuel utilization, enhanced safety standards for nuclear facilities and significant reductions in nuclear waste volumes," Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said.

The fully automated facility has produced the first mock-up fuel assemblies designed for the BREST-300 core, featuring fuel pellets made from depleted uranium nitride. All production areas of the new plant have undergone comprehensive testing, Rosatom said.

The fuel fabrication/refabrication module includes four technological lines: carbothermic synthesis of uranium-plutonium mixed nitrides, fuel pellet manufacturing, the production of fuel rods and the assembly of complete fuel assemblies. The facility's core technical staff will total 250 people.

The facility is currently fine-tuning the technology for manufacturing BREST-300 fuel assemblies using a composition based on depleted uranium, under an operating license issued by the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor) on March 29, 2024. Once the regulator approves plutonium handling, the Siberian Chemical Plant will begin producing the FRM's target product - mixed dense uranium-plutonium nitride fuel. More than 200 fuel assemblies with this fuel will need to be manufactured for the reactor's initial load.

New production capacities were created at Rosatom's fuel division enterprises to support fuel fabrication at the FRM, the state corporation said. Notably, components for the BREST-300 reactor's initial loading and mock-up core were developed at the Chepetsk Mechanical Plant in Glazov (JSC CMP), the Machine-Building Plant in Elektrostal (JSC MBP) and the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant (PJSC NCCP) .

The Proryv project, which aims to build an experimental demonstration nuclear energy complex, was launched in 2011. It involves implementing three phases at the Siberian Chemical Plant - the fuel fabrication/refabrication module, construction of which began in 2016, a nuclear power plant with the BREST-300 reactor (construction begun in 2021, launch scheduled for 2026) and a module for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel (construction planned for 2025-2026, commissioning after 2029).

As of September 2022, the total investment in the project was estimated at 240 billion rubles.

The project is being implemented at the Siberian Chemical Plant in Seversk, in the Tomsk region. The plant encompasses four facilities for handling nuclear materials.