BN-800 reactor

BN-800
Generation	Generation IV[1][2]
Reactor concept	Fast breeder reactor[3]
Status	Operational
Location	Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia
Main parameters of the reactor core
Fuel (fissile material)	U+Pu nitride, MOX, or metal
Fuel state	Solid
Neutron energy spectrum	Fast
Primary coolant	Liquid sodium
Reactor usage
Power (thermal)	2100 MWth
Power (electric)	789 MWe net 885 MWe gross

External image
BN-800 reactor. Photo from Rosatom

The BN-800 reactor (Russian: реактор БН–800) is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, built at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station, in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. The reactor is designed to generate 880 MW of electrical power. The plant was considered part of the weapons-grade Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement signed between the United States and Russia. The reactor is part of the final step for a plutonium-burner core (a core designed to burn and, in the process, destroy, and recover energy from, plutonium) ^[4] The plant reached its full power production in August 2016.^[5] According to Russian business journal Kommersant, the BN-800 project cost 140.6 billion rubles (roughly 2.17 billion dollars).^[6]

The plant is a pool-type LMFBR, in which the reactor, coolant pumps, intermediate heat exchangers and associated piping are all located in a common liquid sodium pool. This is similar to the general design of EBR-II, which went into service in 1963, but is otherwise significantly different. For example, EBR-II used metallic fuel, which is the major factor in its inherent safety, while BN-800 uses oxide fuel. The design of this plant was started in 1983 and was completely revised in 1987 after the Chernobyl disaster and to a somewhat lesser degree in 1993, according to the new safety guidelines. After the second revision, output power was increased by 10% to 880 MW due to the increased efficiency of the power generator steam turbines.

The reactor core is, in size and mechanical properties, very similar to the BN-600 reactor core, but the fuel composition is not. While BN-600 uses medium-enriched uranium dioxide, this plant burns mixed uranium-plutonium fuel,^[7] helping to reduce the weapons-grade plutonium stockpile and provide information about the functioning of the closed uranium-plutonium fuel cycle, which does not require plutonium separation or other chemical processing.

The unit employs a three-circuit coolant arrangement; sodium coolant circulates in both the primary and secondary circuits. Water and steam flow in the third circuit. This heat is transferred from the reactor core via several independent circulation loops. Each is composed of a primary sodium pump, two intermediate heat exchangers, a secondary sodium pump with an expansion tank located upstream, and an emergency pressure discharge tank. These feed a steam generator, which in turn supplies a condensing turbine that turns the generator.^[8]

Many infrastructure facilities were designed to accommodate both the BN-800 and a proposed BN-1200 reactor.^[9]

Construction started in 1983 as Unit 4 at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant. It was put on hold after Chernobyl. It resumed in 2006 and BN-800 achieved minimum controlled power in 2014, but issues led to further fuel development work. On 31 July 2015, the unit achieved minimum controlled power again - 0.13% of rated power. Commercial operation was expected to start before the end of 2016, with a power rating of 789 MWe.^[9] The reactor was connected to the grid in February 2016^[10] and achieved full power for the first time in August 2016.^[5] Commercial power production started on November 1, 2016.^[11]

The United States and Russia reached an agreement in 2001 to render a total of 34 tons of weapons grade plutonium into reactor grade plutonium to reach the "spent fuel standard," which is mixed with other more radioactive products within spent fuel.^[12]

US president Barack Obama canceled construction of the US MOX fuel fabrication facility in 2016, citing cost overruns. He proposed that the US share of plutonium be diluted with non-radioactive material and disposed of in the underground WIPP facility.^[12][13] However, the dilution could be reversed, and the material reconverted into weapons-grade plutonium.^[12]

On October 3, 2016, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the agreement to be suspended because the US did not meet its obligations.^[14]

In January 2020 the reactor started commercial operation with the first batch of MOX reprocessed uranium-plutonium fuel.^[15]

In 2023 the reactor completed one year of operation using a nearly full load of uranium (96%)/plutonium/americium/neptunium MOX fuel.^[16]

The BN-800 could be used to close the fuel cycle. The core load of 15 tons of material consists mostly of U-238 and about 20.5% plutonium. This could be taken from reprocessed spent nuclear fuel assemblies.

• Generation IV reactor
• BN-Reactor – reactor family from RussiaPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• BN-350 reactor – Deactivated fast breeder reactor in Aktau, Kazakhstan
• BN-600 reactor – Russian sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor
• BN-1200 reactor – Fast breeder nuclear reactor under development in Russia
• Integral Fast Reactor – Nuclear reactor designPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets

• The content in this article is from the existing Russian and German Wikipedia equivalents.

• Official website "Reactor Plants". Archived from the original on 4 August 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2019.. (The possible updated link Fast neutron reactors Archived 2019-02-21 at the Wayback Machine)
• "BN-800 Fast neutron reactor plant" (PDF).^{[permanent dead link‍]} - on OKBM Afrikantov official pdf(in English)
• B.A. Vasilyev; S.F. Shepelev; M.R. Ashirmetov; V.M. Poplavsky (4 March 2013). "BN-1200 Reactor Power Unit Design Development" (PDF). International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles: Safe Technologies and Sustainable Scenarios (FR13) Presentations, (p. v). International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): IAEA. IAEA. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
• The BN-800 Fast Reactor – a Milestone on a Long Road