Rosatom has opened a second complex of the reprocessing Experimental Demonstration Centre (ODTs – Opitno Deomonstratsionnovo Tsentr) at the Mining & Chemical Combine (GKhK – Gorno Khimiheskovo Kombinata) in Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk). This is an industrial module (the first was experimental). Its key task, in addition to used fuel processing, is to obtain initial data and test unique equipment for the design of a high-power used fuel processing plant.
At the launch ceremony, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev noted: “The launch of the second stage of the ODTs is an important part of our work to create an entire cluster in the Krasnoyarsk Territory that will participate in closing the nuclear fuel cycle. As in other areas of nuclear technology development, Russia is a pioneer. For the first time in the world, we are closing the nuclear fuel cycle on an industrial scale by significantly reducing the use natural uranium by reusing used nuclear fuel reprocessing products.”
He added that, in the coming decades, the ODTs will become one of the key links for the entire nuclear industry in the transition to generation IV nuclear energy technologies. “After the second stage of the ODTs reaches its design capacity, the plant will be able to process about 200 tonnes of used nuclear fuel a year. Along with the possibilities for processing at production association Mayak, the new production facilities will allow Russia start operation of generation IV energy systems in the next 15 years.”
After testing the technologies and achieving the design parameters, the ODTs will become the world’s first fuel processing plant without the production of liquid radioactive waste.
In 2025, GKhK celebrates its 75th anniversary. The historical mission of the plant was to fulfil the state defence order to develop and allocate weapons-grade plutonium. Construction of the enterprise was carried out at a record pace, and its main feature was its location inside a mountain in order to ensure invulnerability to air attack. Just eight years after issuing the resolution On the plant № 815, the first industrial uranium-graphite reactor at the plant – AD – was launched in the mine workings of the Atamanovsky Ridge. By 1964, the company was operating three reactors, the world’s only underground NPP and radiochemical plant for the production of plutonium dioxide. The main task of GKhK – reactor production and plutonium separation was completed during the 20th Century.
Its mission today is the creation of a complete technological complex for management of NPP used nuclear fuel and the closing the nuclear fuel cycle (NFC) to make nuclear energy safer and almost waste-free. The complex has created an infrastructure for the circulation of used fuel – a complex of wet and dry chamber-type storage facilities that serve Russia’s entire fleet of VVER-1000 and RBMK-1000 reactors.
The dry storage complex is unique: it is autonomous, operates on the principles of natural safety, based on the laws of physics and independent of human intervention. The water-cooled (wet) storage meets the increased safety and seismic requirements for the nuclear industry.
GKhK is also a serial producer mixed oxide (mox) fuel for the BN-800 fast reactor at the Beloyarsk NPP. Mox fuel make more efficient use of nuclear materials and reduce the accumulation of plutonium waste. In addition, the construction of a research molten salt reactor (IZhSR) has started at the plant site, which will be used to dispose on an industrial scale minor actinides – the most radiotoxic substances formed in uranium fuel.
The capacity of the ODTs for radiochemical reprocessing of used nuclear fuel is being constantly expanded. In 2015, the first complex was commissioned, which is a chain of research hot cells with an analytical laboratory where scientific research is carried out to test used nuclear fuel processing technology and handle radioactive waste.
