Rosatom is planning to build a high-capacity, modular used nuclear fuel reprocessing plant designed to close the nuclear fuel cycle and power Generation IV reactor systems. The plant is engineered to process 400 tonnes of used fuel annually within its first decade of operation. The layout is based on a modular design allowing for seamless, scalable capacity expansions as global and domestic demand grows. Feasibility and siting evaluations are underway, targeting a final investment and location decision by the end of 2026.
Unlike older radiochemical plants restricted to specific fuel lines, this facility features a unique dual capability. It will clean and recycle fuel from standard light-water fleets (such as the VVER-1000 and VVER-1200 lines). Fast-Neutron Systems: It is structurally integrated to process complex fuel matrices from advanced fast reactors, aligning directly with Generation IV commercial deployments. The industrial facility is the commercial evolution of Rosatom’s Proryv (Breakthrough) project based at the Siberian Chemical Combine (SKhK – Sibirskovo Khimicheskovo Kombinata) in Seversk, Tomsk region.
The BREST-OD-300 is part of the pilot demonstration power complex (ODEK – Opitno Demonstratsionovo Energo-Kompleksa), under the Breakthrough (Proryv) Project intended to demonstrate closed fuel cycle technology. As well as Brest, ODEK also includes on-site nuclear fuel cycle facilities including a module for fuel fabrication and refabrication and a module for reprocessing and recycling irradiated fuel. The fuel fabrication facility began operation in December 2024, and the reprocessing facility is due to start up in 2030. Rosatom is using data from the ODEK tight-loop, on-site fabrication and reprocessing modules.
The large-scale plant will adopt crystallisation refining technology rather than traditional liquid-liquid extraction. This system jointly purifies uranium, plutonium, and neptunium without isolating plutonium into a standalone stream, strictly satisfying non-proliferation regimes while reducing secondary chemical waste volumes.
With global civilian used nuclear fuel stockpiles approaching 360,000 tonnes, Rosatom views the planned facility as a key commercial tool. Linking the construction of exported reactors constructed abroad to a closed-loop recycling ecosystem managed in Russia could transform traditional fuel supply arrangements to century-long strategic partnerships.
According to Rosatom’s Deputy General Director for mechanical engineering and industrial solutions, Andrei Nikipelov: “Industrial nuclear recycling technologies and developed infrastructure — this is not only a solution to an urgent environmental problem in our country. Global reserves of used fuel, reaching 360,000 tonnes and the construction of domestically designed NPPs abroad give Russia a unique chance to consolidate its leadership status in the global market. Expanding capacity and creating new technologies in the field of radiochemistry will allow us to go beyond providing one-time services to other countries and move to developing integrated strategic partnerships. It is based on the principles of environmentally responsible nuclear energy: reducing the carbon footprint and minimizing waste.”.
The technical advance in the high-capacity reprocessing plant is the result of moving away from traditional liquid-liquid solvent extraction (the PUREX process) toward fractional crystallisation as the primary purification step.
Solvent extraction relies on chemical affinity differences. Used fuel is dissolved in nitric acid. An organic solvent – tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) diluted in kerosene – is then introduced. Uranium and plutonium bind to the TBP and cross the phase boundary into the organic liquid, leaving highly radioactive fission products in the aqueous acid.
Fractional crystallisation is based on solubility limits and temperature differentials. The used fuel is dissolved in hot, highly concentrated nitric acid. As the solution is precisely cooled, metal nitrates precipitate out as solid crystals at highly specific temperatures. Uranyl nitrate hexahydrate crystallises out first, naturally separating from the mother liquor.
In traditional systems, chemical reducing agents (such as hydroxylamine nitrate) alter the valence state of plutonium enabling plutonium to be completely stripped from the uranium, producing a pure, isolated plutonium stream. With fractional crystallisation, the crystal lattices are engineered for actinide co-crystallisation. The system alters temperature and acid concentration to force plutonium and neptunium to precipitate together inside the uranium crystal matrices. Because the chemistry cannot isolate plutonium into a standalone stream, the end product remains fundamentally unsuited for weapons production meeting non-proliferation criteria.
With solvent extraction, organic TBP molecules break down rapidly under intense alpha and gamma radiation from high-burnup or short-cooled Generation IV fuels. This radiolytic degradation creates dibutyl phosphoric acid (DBP), which binds irreversibly to plutonium and creates a sticky chemical sludge. Dealing with this requires massive amounts of chemical scrubbing washes, generating millions of litres of secondary liquid waste.
Fractional crystallisation uses completely inorganic nitric acid matrices. Because there are no organic carbon chains to destroy, the processing chemistry suffers virtually zero radiolytic degradation. This allows the plant to process highly radioactive, short-cooled fast reactor fuel that would destroy traditional PUREX solvents.
Solvent Extraction requires large volumes of organic solvents, diluents, stripping agents, and alkaline washing chemicals. This dramatically expands the total volume of intermediate-level radioactive waste that must eventually be vitrified or stored. With fractional crystallisation, the primary reagent is water/nitric acid. After crystals are harvested, the remaining acidic mother liquor containing the fission products is evaporated. The nitric acid is distilled, condensed, and recycled directly back into the head-end dissolution stage, reducing secondary chemical waste volumes by an order of magnitude.
Rosatom has not revealed the shortlist of candidate locations during its ongoing site-selection studies and is withholding a public announcement until the final investment decision is made by the end of 2026. However, Rosatom’s internal industrial framework, domestic supply lines, and recent facility commissions suggest two leading candidates: the Mining and Chemical Combine (GKhK – Gorno Khimicheskii Kombinat), in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk and SKhK.
Mining and Chemical Combine (GKhK – Gorno Khimicheskii Kombinat), in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk, already hosts a Pilot Demonstration Centre for used fuel reprocessing. This centre has completed its final phase-out testing and is beginning commercial validation. GKhK was originally designated during the Soviet era to host RT-2, a massive, unfinished used fuel reprocessing plant designed specifically for VVER-1000 thermal reactor waste. The site retains the extensive deep-geological infrastructure, heavy transport links, and specialised workforce necessary to scale a 400-tonne modular facility.
SKhK is the focal point of Rosatom’s Generation IV initiatives including ODEK with its planned reprocessing plant specifically meant to handle advanced fuel matrices from the fast reactor fleet. Locating the new facility in Seversk would give access to the engineering teams, laboratories, and real-world fuel data gathered during ODEK trials.
“This plant will be an important link in the transition to a closed nuclear fuel cycle in Russia, said Vasily Tinin, Rosatom’s Director of State Policy for Radioactive Waste, Spent Nuclear Fuel, and Decommissioning of Nuclear and Radiation-Hazardous Facilities. “After commissioning, the infrastructure we are creating in the long term will make it possible to repeatedly use regenerated nuclear materials in the fuel cycle and meet the needs for raw materials of fourth-generation power systems.”
