BN-600 is an industrial sodium-cooled fast neutron power reactor with an electrical output of 600 MW, installed at the third power unit of the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant (Sverdlovsk Region). The reactor plant was developed by the Nizhny Novgorod-based OKBM Afrikantov — the Experimental Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering, part of the Atomenergomash holding of the state corporation "Rosatom."[1] Russia remains the only country in the world operating industrial reactors of this class.[1]

History of Development

The idea of the BN-600 reactor arose in 1962, when intensive design work was under way on the smaller BN-250 (later renamed BN-350). The initiative to move to a more powerful unit was put forward by Aleksandr Ilyich Leypunsky together with O. D. Kazachkovsky of the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE, Obninsk): they proposed using an improved BN-350 as the basis for a reactor whose characteristics would come substantially closer to those of commercial-scale units.

Several organizations worked on the project: OKBM served as chief designer of the reactor plant, IPPE as scientific supervisor of the project, VNIPIET as general designer, VNIINM as designer-technologist of the fuel elements, and OKB GP as designer of the steam generator. Promstalkonstruktsiya, LOTEP, TsNIIMS, TsNIIKA, SNIIP, and other organizations were brought in to develop individual systems. Scientific supervision on the IPPE side was provided by Leypunsky, who organized research in neutronics, thermal physics, hydraulics, sodium coolant technology, and corrosion processes.

The first two turbogenerators of the third unit of the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant, with the BN-600 reactor, were started up and synchronized with the Sverdlovenergo grid in 1980. The fundamental decision to build a pilot-industrial unit isolated from the unified power system was made by Minister E. P. Slavsky; he and the head of the main directorate, A. D. Zverev, personally oversaw the course of the design work.

Technology and Applications

The BN-600 reactor, like its successors in this line, uses no neutron moderators, and liquid sodium circulates in it as the coolant. The operating experience of the BN-600 and BN-800 at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant is regarded as a key foundation for building the next generation of fast reactors. Both operating reactors are run under the scientific supervision of the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation — IPPE.

In 2017, OKBM Afrikantov began implementing a project for the industrial production of the highly active isotope cobalt-60 (Co-60) using the BN-600 reactor. The documentation for the project was developed by the State Scientific Center — RIAR (Dimitrovgrad), with a contract value of 7 million rubles; the documentation was reviewed by VNIINM (Moscow) for 1.2 million rubles. The scientific partner was the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation — IPPE (Obninsk). According to Vitaly Petrunin, First Deputy General Director of OKBM Afrikantov, prototype samples of the isotope based on the BN-600 had already been obtained by that time, and the matter at hand was the transition to industrial production. The BN-600 reactor makes it possible to produce cobalt-60 in greater volumes than the technologies then in use at the Mayak Production Association, at RIAR, and at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant.[2]

The Role of OKBM Afrikantov

The Nizhny Novgorod-based OKBM Afrikantov is the chief designer of the BN series of reactor plants, including the BN-600 and BN-800, and also carries out experimental design work on the prospective BN-1200 reactor.[1][3] To study thermal-hydraulic processes in models of reactors of this line, OKBM uses the large-scale TISEY test stand (1:5 scale), on which, since 2015–2017, measurements of coolant velocity fields using the PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) method have been carried out jointly with a laboratory of the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, under operating, idle, and emergency conditions.[1] In October 2023, the industry conference "BN-2023," devoted to the 50th anniversary of the BN-350 startup and the development of fast sodium reactor technology, was held at the OKBM Afrikantov site in Nizhny Novgorod.

Sources

  1. ras.ru — Nizhny Novgorod physicists measured the velocity field in a model of a fast neutron reactor
  2. Kommersant (Volga Region) — OKBM Afrikantov begins a project to produce cobalt-60 in the BN-600 reactor — Kommersant Nizhny Novgorod
  3. znanierussia.ru — OKBM named after I.I. Afrikantov — Znanie.Wiki encyclopedia