Russia plans to complete the construction of the fifth power unit with a BN-1200M fast reactor at the Beloyarsk NPP by 2035, according to the press service of the Beloyarsk NPP.
"The construction of the BN-1200 power unit is planned at the industrial site of the unit 4, the auxiliary facilities and communications of which were installed taking into account the need to supply unit 5," the press service said on 14 January. The management of Rosatom plans to consider the proposals of specialists for the construction of a pilot commercial power unit with the BN-1200M reactor in early 2022.
“Technologically, the industry is ready for the construction of the unit. In September 2021, the scientific and technical councils of Rosatom recommended it for construction, proving the competitiveness of the optimised resource characteristics. Now it remains to be seen whether machine-building plants will be able to integrate the production of equipment for the BN-1200M into the flow of existing orders, develop a roadmap for the construction of the unit and determine the scheme for managing the construction project," the press service added.
Two fast neutron power units are already in operation at the Beloyarsk NPP - unit 3 with the BN-600 reactor, which began operation in 1980, and unit 4 with the BN-800 reactor, which began operation in 2015. Their total installed capacity of 1485MW is about 16% of the installed capacity of all power plants in the Sverdlovsk energy system. These the world's only operating power units with fast neutron reactors.
The plant began operation in the city of Zarechny in 1964. Units 1 and 2 with the AMB-100 and AMB-200 supercritical water reactors were shut down in the 1980s. Unit 1 operated from 1964 to 1981 and unit 2 from 1967 to 1989 and are in the first stage of decommissioning.
