The turbogenerator and the stator of the generator set for the innovative Brest-OD-300 reactor power unit have been delivered to the construction site in the city of Seversk, Tomsk Region. The Brest-OD-300 lead-cooled fast reactor is being built at the Siberian Chemical Combine (SKhK – Sibirskovo Khimicheskovo Kombinata) in Seversk, Tomsk region.
Brest (Bistrii Reaktor Estestvennoi-bezopasnosti co Svinstovim Teplonositelem – Fast Natural-safety Reactor with Lead Coolant) is part of the pilot demonstration power complex (ODEK – Opitno Demonstratsionovo Energo-Kompleksa), being built 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: a module for fabrication and refabrication (MFR-YaT – Modulya po Fabrikatsii/Refabrikatsii Yadernovo Tolpliva) and a module for reprocessing and recycling irradiated fuel.
The turbogenerator and stator were transported via the Northern Sea Route and the Tom and Ob Rivers, with the final leg completed by special road transport after transshipment at a river port. The 245-tonne stator is 8 metres long, approximately 4.5 metres high, and 4.8 metres wide. The 98-tonne turbogenerator was also delivered by water and then by rail. “The turbogenerator for the Brest-OD-300 power unit is a unique Russian design featuring full air cooling, said Ivan Babich, Director of the Brest-OD-300 at SKhK. “Its design ensures enhanced safety and efficiency. For the Tomsk energy system, this will be the most powerful energy facility.”
Regulator Rostekhnadzor issued a construction licence for Brest in 2021. At the moment, at the construction site, installation of a cooling tower has been completed, the walls of the reactor building have been erected, the reactor shaft has been erected, and the enclosing structure of the reactor vessel has been installed.
Work to install the bridge crane in the turbine hall began in May and in June, tests of the analytical simulator (AT – Analiticheskovo Trenazhera) for the Brest reactor were completed at the All-Russian Research Institute for the Operation of Nuclear Power Plants (VNIIAES – Vserossiiskii Nauchno Issledovatelskii Institut po Expluatatsii Atomnikh Elektrostantsii), part of Rosatom’s Electrical Energy Division, where it had been under development since December 2022.
Earlier in August, six items, together weighing more than 1,000 tonnes, manufactured at the Atommash plant in Volgodonsk were shipped to the construction site – the central void shell and inner casing for the core support barrel. These components will hold nuclear fuel once installed. The Izhora plant in St Petersburg shipped four peripheral cavity shells, which will house steam generators and pumps to ensure the circulation of the coolant.
Together with the shipping packaging, the total weight of these deliveries was almost 2,000 tonnes. The height of some of the shipped products exceeds 15 metres, and the width with packaging is 10 metres. This is much larger than the dimensions of reactors and steam generators for traditional high-power NPPs.
“To organise logistics to protect products on the road, we have developed and manufactured unique packaging weighing 1000 tonnes. Unimpeded travel was provided along the entire route. It was agreed to allocate to us so-called windows, during which we could transport cargo through railway crossings”, noted the technical director of the Izhora plant, Maxim Isaev.
Meanwhile transportation of equipment for Brest from various enterprises of Rosatom’s Mechanical Engineering Division continues. The journey to Siberia takes more than two months. To deliver large cargo manufactured, roads are blocked, train schedules are changed, power lines are raised along the entire route, and in some cases, traffic lights are even dismantled.
Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev told Russia-24: “I think that in 2028-2029 we will launch Brest as a reactor and the whole complex, as an industrial unit. Pilot operation of the MFR-YaT fuel fabrication/refabrication plant began in January. The module for reprocessing irradiated fuel from Brest is planned to begin construction in 2025-2026 for commissioning in 2030.
The experience of design, construction, commissioning and operation of ODEK will pave the way for construction of an industrial energy complex (PEK – Promiishlennovo Energo Kompleksa) based on a larger lead-cooled fast neutron reactor BR-1200 with a capacity of 1,200 MWe.
