Engineering:BOR-60

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The BOR-60 is an operational Russian research sodium-cooled fast reactor designed to test nuclear fuels, structural materials and coolants, as well as scientific experiments under fast neutron irradiation.[1]

History

The BOR-60 reactor was constructed to perform tests for the commercial BN-350, BN-600 and BN-800 reactors, which also use fast neutron breeding.[2] Construction began in 1964, and it reached first criticality in 1968.[2] It was commissioned the following year, in 1969.[1]

Originally it used highly enriched uranium, but in 1981 it switched over to burning MOX fuel containing weapons-grade plutonium from decommissioned nuclear warheads.[3]

BOR-60 was intended to be decommissioned in 2010,[3] but was prolonged until 2025, after which the MBIR will replace it.[4]

In 2025 a new technology is being developed for processing of radioactive liquid sodium for proper decommissioning of fast neutron reactors such as BOR-60 and BN-350 (in future it can be used when BN-600 and BN-800 reach the end of life).[5]

Reactor design

The BOR-60 reactor is designed to operate on a mixed-oxide MOX fuel, based on UO
2 (highly enriched uranium, 45%-90% 235U) and PuO
2.[6] The reactor is mainly constructed out of stainless steel.[7]

Core

Diagram of the reactor core of the BOR-60 experimental fast-neutron reactor. (Note that the fuel and blanket assemblies can be easily interchanged)
Grey: fuel assemblies
White: blank assemblies
Blue: experimental material assemblies
Green: experimental fuel assemblies
Red: control rods
Yellow: experimentation channels

The core is made up of a hexagonal grid containing 265 separate elements, with fuel channels, control rods, various experimental assemblies and an outer section of solid blanket assemblies (blanks).[7] The reactor vessel also has several experimentation channels in the outer hull, with widths varying from 90 mm to 230 mm.[8]

Coolant

The reactor is a sodium-cooled fast reactor, which uses liquid sodium as the coolant.[2] It uses two separate sodium loops, and these are connected to a main water-cooled loop which feeds the steam generators and turbines for producing electricity.[7] The sodium coolant is pressurized to 5.5 MPa, and is heated to over 500 °C in the reactor.[6]

Capabilities

BOR-60 allows for wide-scale tests of fuels, materials, coolants and detectors for various fast reactors.[9] It is capable or burning a wide range of fuels, including weapons-grade material, as well as various metallic, oxide, nitride and carbide variations.[3] Thus it has been used to test fuels and reactor physics for a wide array of reactors, such as the BN-350, BN-600 and BN-800, as well as the MBIR and proposed BREST-300 lead-cooled reactors.[2][10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named bor-60-general-info
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Russia Completes Design Work For New Fast Reactor". https://www.nucnet.org/news/russia-completes-design-work-for-new-fast-reactor. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "BOR-60 reactor as an instrument for experimental substantiation of fuel rods for advanced NPPs". https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:35087603. 
  4. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named mbir-pilot-fuel
  5. ↑ "Rosatom develops technology for processing radioactive liquid sodium" (in en-US). 2025-04-03. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/rosatom-develops-technology-for-processing-radioactive-liquid-sodium. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Parameters". https://www.niiar.ru/eng/node/2999. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Prolongation of the BOR-60 reactor operation". https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273836843. 
  8. ↑ "Core Arrangement". https://www.niiar.ru/eng/node/2998. 
  9. ↑ "Experimental Capabilities". https://www.niiar.ru/eng/node/3000. 
  10. ↑ Grachev, A. F.; Zherebtsov, A. A.; Zabud'Ko, L. M.; Zvir, E. A.; Kryukov, F. N.; Nikitin, O. N.; Skupov, M. V.; Ivanov, Yu. A. et al. (2019). "Results of Investigations of BREST-Type Reactor Fuel Rods with Mixed Uranium-Plutonium Nitride Fuel, Irradiated in BOR-60 and BN-600". Atomic Energy 125 (5): 314–321. doi:10.1007/s10512-019-00487-4. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10512-019-00487-4?. Retrieved 14 September 2024. 

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