In November 2023, following the OSART
(Operational Safety Review Team) mission – the world’s first at a large power
unit with a fast neutron reactor – representatives of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) formulated five recommendations to improve safety and
reliability.
For three days, international experts led by John Duguid (United Kingdom), IAEA Senior Nuclear Safety Officer, reviewed Beloyarsk NPP’s “corrective action plan.” They assessed the introduction of new labeling in the diesel generator unit premises, conducted a walkthrough of the switchgear facilities, and examined newly implemented documentation across all areas of review (including training materials on conducting walkthroughs and recording results). The commission prepared and presented a draft final report to the plant management. The station has three weeks to provide comments and suggestions, after which the report will be finalized and submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation.
“If you read the initial OSART mission report on Beloyarsk NPP, you’ll see that the mission was successful: there were very few remarks, and the five issues included in the report were not fundamental. Therefore, before this follow-up review, we could expect that the station would take these remarks seriously. Over the past three days, we saw that Beloyarsk NPP addressed them very seriously and professionally, developed countermeasures, and evaluated their effectiveness,” summarized John Duguid.
Beloyarsk NPP named
after I. V. Kurchatov (Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Region) generates about 16% of the Sverdlovsk Region’s
total electricity balance. The plant operates fast neutron
reactors with sodium coolant: BN-600 (since 1980) and BN-800 (since 2015).
These are the world’s largest fast neutron power units. In terms of reliability
and safety, they rank among the best nuclear reactors in the world. Beloyarsk
NPP contributes to the strategic goal of the nuclear industry: developing a
closed nuclear fuel cycle, which will secure nuclear power with fuel for
centuries, enable the reuse of spent nuclear fuel, and minimize radioactive
waste.
Rosatom’s Electric Power Division is the largest producer of low-carbon electricity in Russia. Its
operating company, Rosenergoatom JSC (www.rosenergoatom.ru),
operates 11 nuclear power plants, including the world’s only floating nuclear
heat and power plant (FNPP). Its 35 power units with a total capacity of 28.5
GW generate about 19% of Russia’s electricity. The division’s enterprises
provide a full range of services for commissioning, repair, maintenance, and
personnel training for nuclear power units; produce isotopes for medicine,
agriculture, and microelectronics; and actively develop new business areas
(charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, biogas plants, production of
industrial robots, etc.).
Russia is among the global leaders in the creation and industrial deployment of Generation IV nuclear technologies. Today, Rosatom is building a new technological platform for the nuclear power of the future: Beloyarsk NPP has launched pre-design works for the BN-1200M unit, while in Tomsk Region, for the first time worldwide, a single site is hosting both a BREST-OD-300 reactor and an on-site closed nuclear fuel cycle. Generation IV nuclear energy systems are set to transform nuclear power fundamentally, thanks to a new level of safety, expanded fuel options, and significant reductions in radioactive waste.
