![Beloyarsk NNP](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Beloyarsk_NNP.jpg)
The BN-600 reactor is a
sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor
A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile mate ...
, built at the
Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station
The Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station (NPS; russian: Белоярская атомная электростанция им. И. В. Курчатова []) was the third of the Soviet Union, Soviet Union's nuclear plants. It is situated by Zarechny, ...
, in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Designed to generate electrical power of 600
MW in total, the plant dispatches 560 MW to the
Middle Urals
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
power grid
An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...
. It has been in operation since 1980 and represents an evolution on the preceding
BN-350 reactor
The BN-350 is a sodium-cooled, fast reactor located at the ''Mangyshlak Nuclear Power Plant'', located in Aktau (formerly known as Shevchenko under the control of the USSR in 1964–1992), Kazakhstan, on the shore of the Caspian Sea.
Constru ...
. In 2014, its larger sister reactor, the
BN-800 reactor
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 po ...
began operation.
The plant is a
pool type LMFBR
A sodium-cooled fast reactor is a fast neutron reactor cooled by liquid sodium.
The initials SFR in particular refer to two Generation IV reactor proposals, one based on existing liquid metal cooled reactor (LMFR) technology using mixed oxide fu ...
, where the reactor, coolant pumps, intermediate heat exchangers and associated piping are all located in a common liquid
sodium
Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...
pool. This is essentially the same general design as
EBR-II
Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) is a sodium-cooled fast reactor designed, built and operated by Argonne National Laboratory at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. , which went into service in 1963. The reactor system is housed in a concrete rectilinear building, and provided with filtration and gas containment features. In the first 15 years of operation, there have been 12 incidents involving sodium/water interactions from tube breaks in the
steam generators
A steam generator is a form of low water-content boiler, similar to a flash steam boiler. The usual construction is as a spiral coil of water-tube, arranged as a single, or monotube, coil. Circulation is once-through and pumped under pressure, ...
, a sodium-air oxidation/"fire" from a leak in an auxiliary system, and a sodium "fire" from a leak in a secondary coolant loop while shut down. All these incidents were classified at the lowest level on the
International Nuclear Event Scale
The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in order to enable prompt communication of safety significant information in case of nuclear accidents.
The s ...
, and none of the events prevented restarting operation of the facility after repairs. As of 1997, there had been 27 sodium leaks, 14 of which resulted in sodium-air oxidations/"fires". The steam generators are separated in modules so they can be repaired without shutting down the reactor.
As of 2020, the cumulative "energy
Availability factor
The availability factor of a power plant is the amount of time that it is able to produce electricity over a certain period, divided by the amount of the time in the period. Occasions where only partial capacity is available may or may not be deduc ...
" calculated up to year 2019 and recorded by the
IAEA
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...
was 75.6%.
The
reactor core
A nuclear reactor core is the portion of a nuclear reactor containing the nuclear fuel components where the nuclear reactions take place and the heat is generated. Typically, the fuel will be low-enriched uranium contained in thousands of indiv ...
is 1.03 meters tall with a diameter of 2.05 meters. It has 369
fuel assemblies, mounted vertically, each consisting of 127
fuel rod
Nuclear fuel is material used in nuclear power stations to produce heat to power turbines. Heat is created when nuclear fuel undergoes nuclear fission.
Most nuclear fuels contain heavy fissile actinide elements that are capable of undergoing ...
s enriched to between 17–26%
235U. In comparison, normal enrichment in other Russian reactors is between 3–4%
235U. The control and
scram system comprises 27 reactivity control elements including 19 shimming rods, two automatic control rods, and six automatic emergency shut-down rods.
On-power refueling In nuclear power technology, online refuelling is a technique for changing the fuel of a nuclear reactor while the reactor is critical. This allows the reactor to continue to generate electricity during routine refuelling, and therefore improve the ...
equipment allows for charging the core with fresh fuel assemblies, repositioning and turning the fuel assemblies within the reactor, and changing control and scram system elements remotely.
The unit employs a three-circuit coolant arrangement;
sodium
Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...
coolant circulates in both the primary and secondary circuits. Water and steam flow in the third circuit. The sodium is heated to a maximum of 550 °C in the reactor during normal operations. This heat is transferred from the reactor core via three independent circulation loops. Each comprises 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 A Steam generator is a device used to boil water to create steam. More specifically, it may refer to:
*Boiler (steam generator), a closed vessel in which water is heated under pressure
*Monotube steam generator
*Supercritical steam generator or Ben ...
, which in turn supplies a condensing turbine that turns the generator.
There is much international interest in the fast-breeder reactor at Beloyarsk.
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
has its own prototype fast-breeder reactors. Japan paid 1 billion for the technical documentation of the BN-600. The operation of the reactor is an international study in progress; Russia, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom currently participate.
The reactor has been licensed to operate up to 2025.
See also
*
Generation IV reactor
Generation IV reactors (Gen IV) are six nuclear reactor designs recognized by the Generation IV International Forum. The designs target improved safety, sustainability, efficiency, and cost.
The most developed Gen IV reactor design is the sodium ...
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
Rosenergoatom the Reactor BN-600Overview of Fast Reactors in Russia and the Former Soviet UnionBN-600 Hybrid Core Benchmark Analyses(IAEA TECDOC 1623)
BN-600 Fuel(Russian firm that produces fuel for the BN-600)
Liquid Metal Cooled Reactors: Experience in Design and Operation(IAEA TECDOC 1529)
Operating experience from the BN600 sodium fast reactor, IAEAAssessment of changes to the BN-600 to operate with a plutonium burner core
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bn-600 Reactor
Liquid metal fast reactors
Nuclear power in Russia
Nuclear technology in the Soviet Union
Soviet inventions
1980 in the Soviet Union
de:BN-Reaktor#BN-600