BN-600 reactor

The BN-600 reactor is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, built at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station, in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. It has a 600 MWe gross capacity and a 560 MWe net capacity, provided to the Middle Urals power grid. It has been in operation since 1980 and represents an improvement to the preceding BN-350 reactor. In 2014, its larger sister reactor, the BN-800 reactor, began operation.

The plant is a pool type LMFBR, where the reactor, coolant pumps, intermediate heat exchangers and associated piping are all located in a common liquid sodium pool. The reactor system is housed in a concrete rectilinear building and provided with filtration and gas containment.

In the first 24 years of operations, there have been 12 water-into-sodium leaks^[2] in the steam generators, routinely addressed by isolating the faulty module with gate valves.^[3] These incidents did not have off-site impact, did not generate radioactive material (sodium in the secondary circuit is not neutron-activated) and were not reported to IAEA, since they were deemed to have no impact on safety.

As of 2022, the cumulative "energy Availability factor" recorded by the IAEA was 76.3%.^[4]

The reactor core is 1.03 metres (3 ft 5 in) tall with a diameter of 2.05 metres (6 ft 9 in).^[5] It has 369 fuel assemblies, mounted vertically; each consists of 127 fuel rods enriched to between 17–26% ²³⁵U. In comparison, normal enrichment in other Russian reactors is between 3–4% ²³⁵U. The control and scram system is composed of 27 reactivity control elements including 19 shimming rods, two automatic control rods, and six automatic emergency shut-down rods. On-power refueling 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 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 (1,022 °F) in the reactor during normal operations. This heat is transferred from the reactor core via three independent circulation loops. Each has 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.

There is much international interest in the fast-breeder reactor at Beloyarsk. Japan has its own prototype fast-breeder reactors. 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.^[6]

See also

• 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-800 reactor – Russian fast breeder nuclear reactor, operating since 2016
• BN-1200 reactor – Fast breeder nuclear reactor under development in Russia
• Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor – Indian fast breeder nuclear reactor design

References

External links

• Rosenergoatom the Reactor BN-600
• Overview of Fast Reactors in Russia and the Former Soviet Union
• BN-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, IAEA
• Assessment of changes to the BN-600 to operate with a plutonium burner core

• v
• t
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Nuclear power in Russia

• Energy policy of Russia
• Energy in Russia

Reactors

Active	Akademik Lomonosov Balakovo Beloyarsk Bilibino Dimitrovgrad Kalinin Kola Kursk Leningrad Leningrad II Novovoronezh Novovoronezh II Rostov Smolensk
Under construction	Kursk II Seversk
Closed	Obninsk Siberian Troitsk
Canceled	Bashkir Crimean Gorky Kaliningrad Krasnodar Primorsk South Ural Tatar (Kama) Tver Volgograd Voronezh
Planned	Central Kola II Nizhny Novgorod Smolensk II

Reactor types

Power plant reactors	BN-600 BN-800 BREST-300 RBMK EGP-6 VVER VVER-TOI KLT-40S
Research, experimental and prototype reactors	GT-MHR VBER-300 T-15

Research locations

• Kurchatov Institute

Companies

• Atomenergomash
• Atommash
• Atomstroyexport
• OKBM Afrikantov
• OKB Gidropress
• Rosatom

Category

56°50′30″N 61°19′21″E / 56.8416°N 61.3224°E / 56.8416; 61.3224