Russia plans to build nine fast-neutron nuclear power units by 2042

Russia plans to build nine fast-neutron nuclear power units by 2042 as part of its long-term electricity generation strategy, according to Alexander Lokshin, first deputy director-general of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

Speaking at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s FR-26 conference in Beijing, Lokshin said the reactors would form part of Russia’s General Plan for the Allocation of Electric Power Facilities through 2042, as Moscow accelerates efforts to develop advanced nuclear technologies and closed fuel-cycle systems.

“The gradual transition to fast reactor technologies and a closed nuclear fuel cycle is a necessary and strategically important guideline for the entire global nuclear energy sector,” Lokshin said, according to a Rosatom statement released on May 19 TASS reports.

“Fast reactors with a closed fuel cycle are not just a means of increasing the efficiency of nuclear energy, but a prerequisite for its long-term existence,” he added.

Fast-neutron reactors are designed to reuse spent nuclear fuel and reduce dependence on freshly mined uranium. Russia has been one of the few countries to deploy the technology commercially, operating the BN-600 and BN-800 fast reactors at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in the Sverdlovsk region.

Lokshin said that as the number of fast reactors expands, “their contribution to conserving natural uranium and solving the problem of managing spent nuclear fuel from thermal reactors will increase”.

The FR-26 conference, organised by the IAEA in Beijing from May 18 to May 22, is focused on the theme “From Innovation to Implementation”. The event follows earlier conferences in Kyoto, Paris, Yekaterinburg and Vienna and includes discussions on reactor safety, fuel-cycle technologies, economics, modelling and public communications.

Rosatom has made fast-reactor development central to its “Breakthrough” project, a programme intended to create next-generation nuclear systems based on a closed fuel cycle. Key facilities are being developed at the Experimental and Demonstration Energy Complex in Seversk, in Russia’s Tomsk region, including the BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast reactor and associated fuel fabrication and spent fuel reprocessing modules.

Yevgeny Adamov, scientific director of the Breakthrough programme and a former Russian atomic energy minister, is serving as honorary chairman of the conference.