The BOR-60 is an operational

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

sodium-cooled fast reactor A sodium-cooled fast reactor is a fast neutron reactor cooled by liquid sodium. The initials SFR in particular refer to two Generation IV reactor proposals, one based on existing liquid metal cooled reactor (LMFR) technology using mixed oxide fue ...

designed to test

nuclear fuels Nuclear fuel refers to any substance, typically fissile material, which is used by nuclear power stations or other nuclear devices to generate energy. Oxide fuel For fission reactors, the fuel (typically based on uranium) is usually based on ...

, structural materials and coolants, as well as scientific experiments under

fast neutron The neutron detection temperature, also called the neutron energy, indicates a free neutron's kinetic energy, usually given in electron volts. The term ''temperature'' is used, since hot, thermal and cold neutrons are moderated in a medium with ...

irradiation.

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. Construction began in 1964, and it reached first criticality in 1968. It was commissioned the following year, in 1969. Originally it used highly enriched uranium, but in 1981 it switched over to burning

MOX Mox or MOX may refer to: People * Jon Moxley (born 1985), American professional wrestler * Mox McQuery (1861–1900), American baseball player Technology * Mac OS X, a computer operating system * Microsoft Open XML, a file format * Mixed ox ...

fuel containing

weapons-grade plutonium Weapons-grade nuclear material is any fissionable nuclear material that is pure enough to make a nuclear weapon and has properties that make it particularly suitable for nuclear weapons use. Plutonium and uranium in grades normally used in nucl ...

from decommissioned nuclear warheads. BOR-60 was intended to be decommissioned in 2010, but was prolonged until 2025, after which the MBIR will replace it. 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).

Reactor design

The BOR-60 reactor is designed to operate on a mixed-oxide

MOX fuel Mixed oxide fuel (MOX fuel) is nuclear fuel that contains more than one oxide of fissile material, usually consisting of plutonium blended with natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium. MOX fuel is an alternative to the low-enr ...

, based on (

highly enriched uranium Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 ...

, 45%-90% ²³⁵U) and . The reactor is mainly constructed out of

stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...

Core

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

Coolant

The reactor is a

, which uses liquid

sodium Sodium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Na (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 element, group 1 of the peri ...

as the coolant. 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. The sodium coolant is pressurized to 5.5

MPa MPA or mPa may refer to: Academia Academic degrees * Master of Performing Arts * Master of Professional Accountancy * Master of Public Administration * Master of Public Affairs Schools * Mesa Preparatory Academy * Morgan Park Academy * M ...

, and is heated to over 500

°C The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius temperature scale "Celsius temperature scale, also called centigrade temperature scale, scale based on 0 ° for the melting point of water and 100 ° for the boiling point ...

in the reactor.

Capabilities

BOR-60 allows for wide-scale tests of fuels, materials, coolants and detectors for various

fast reactor A fast-neutron reactor (FNR) or fast-spectrum reactor or simply a fast reactor is a category of nuclear reactor in which the fission chain reaction is sustained by fast neutrons (carrying energies above 1 MeV, on average), as opposed to slow t ...

s. It is capable or burning a wide range of fuels, including weapons-grade material, as well as various metallic, oxide, nitride and carbide variations. 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 Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

-cooled reactors.

References

External links

Official website
{{Nuclear fission reactors Liquid metal fast reactors Nuclear power in Russia Nuclear research reactors Nuclear technology in the Soviet Union Nuclear power in the Soviet Union