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Nuclear power and safety policy in Russia
Published in David Toke, Geoffrey Chun-Fung Chen, Antony Froggatt, Richard Connolly, Nuclear Power in Stagnation, 2021
David Toke, Geoffrey Chun-Fung Chen, Antony Froggatt, Richard Connolly
The only other commercially active reactors in Russia that do not make use of the VVER-1000/1200 reactors are either of the much older (updated) RBMK design, the BN-800 sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor at the Beloyarsk NPP, or the two KLT-40S small modular naval reactors used on the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant, which became operational in December 2019 when it was deployed off Russia’s north-eastern Arctic coast, near the town of Pevek in Chukotka (Vavina 2019). While the latter in particular has been the subject of intense international (and domestic) criticism, Glavgosexpertiza (the State Expert Examination Board), the body responsible for appraising design documentation on behalf of the Ministry of Construction, stated that the design documentation and the results of engineering surveys on the facility comply with IAEA technical regulations (Neftegaz.ru 2018; Rosatom 2018c).
From “Inherently Safe” to “Proliferation Resistant”: New Perspectives on Reactor Designs
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2021
Around the same time OSU granted NuScale Power exclusive rights in 2007, TerraPower chose a very different path. Funded by private capital, something unique to the United States, TerraPower clearly falls into the category of revolutionary designs, even though fast neutron reactors (variously referred to as breeders or burners) have been around for decades and were built and operated, albeit not always successfully, in several countries from the 1950s onward.85 Fast neutron reactors typically allow for flexible core arrangements that can be configured so as to “breed” more fuel or to “burn” long-lived actinides, depending on the initial fuel composition. Originally viewed as a solution to the scarcity of nuclear fuel, nowadays they promise a solution to the spent nuclear fuel (and more generally waste) problem that haunts the nuclear industry. Historically, fast neutron reactors have not had the best safety record. The combination of materials and complicated systems has repeatedly led to fires and other accidents in existing facilities. Both Japan and France shut down their respective facilities (Monju and Superphénix) after a series of accidents.wIndia and Japan have test facilities.86 The formerly Soviet reactor in Shevchenko, now Aktau, Kazakhstan, has also been permanently shut down and is undergoing decommissioning.87 Currently, only Russia operates commercial-scale fast neutron reactors at the Beloyarsk site in the Ural mountains (BN-600 and BN-800, referring to their megawatt-electric output).