OREANDA-NEWS. September 22, 2010. Startup of the forth power unit reactor of Beloyarsk NPP in Sverdlovsk region is planned for the 1st quarter of 2013.

This information was provided to journalists by General Director of Nizhny Novgorod OKBM Afrikantov Dmitry Zverev. According to his version, the enterprise exercises functions of the chief designer and complete supplier of the BN-800 fast neutron reactor for Beloyarsk NPP. The reactor will be assembled directly on the production site because of its large dimensions, Zverev noted.

According to his story, at present about 50 % of complete equipment for the reactor and reactor installation as a whole have been already supplied. At the end of 2009 OKBM Afrikantov fulfilled one of the key tasks— assembled the reactor shell. This year, in October there will be hydraulic testing of the shell, and after that – assembly of its internal structures. The next stage will be the core charge and physical startup of the reactor. “It’s planned for the 1st quarter of 2013,” Zverev specified.

General Director of OKBM noted that the BN-800 reactor being constructed for Beloyarsk NPP was a high-power reactor, its power was equal to 860 megawatt. This is a fast neutron reactor that ensures implementation of the closed fuel cycle and involves all uranium isotopes into the process of energy generation. “In the future it will allow us to reserve considerable amounts of fuel, nearly for hundreds of years ahead,” Zverev noted.

The head of OKB Mechanical Engineering noted that construction of the BN-800 reactor at the enterprise was started after a 30-year interruption. The BN-600 reactor had been designed here before. “The equipment procurement contract for Beloyarsk NPP was concluded in 2006, and during the first year of its designing we faced great difficulties related to refreshment of technologies. Now we have refreshed them and by 2011 we’ll have completed the reactor equipment supplies,” Zverev said.