01.11.2016  The Information and PR Department of the Beloyarsk NPP

The Beloyarsk NPP: the newest 4th power block (BN-800) has been commissioned for commercial operation within the deadline

The Beloyarsk NPP has hosted one of the most considerable atomic power event in Russia, with its 4th power block operating BN-800 fast neutron reactors launched for commercial operation within the deadline.

Andrey Petrov, the Rosenergoatom Concern’s CEO, has signed the commissioning order on October 31, 2016, based on the approval from the Rosatom State Corporation. Prior to it, Rostechnadzor as a regulatory body has completed all the necessary verifications and issued a conclusion that the facility to be launched complies with the project documents, the technical guidelines and the legal acts, including the energy efficiency requirements.

It is important to note that the BN-800 4th power block was included in the unified energy system of the country and started producing electric power on December 10, 2015. In 2016, its capacities were gradually introduced at multiple steps of the power start-up and the pilot production, with verifications and equipment trials at different capacity levels and in multiple operational modes.

The trials were finalized in August 2016 with a 15-days’ complex testing at 100% of the capacity when the power block re-confirmed that it can bear the nominal capacity load consistently in accordance with the project parameters and without any deviations.

Since the time the power block has been included in the energy system and before it was commissioned into commercial operation it has produced over 2.8 billion kilowatt-hours.

Specialists believe that the fast neutron power blocks have strong advantages for nuclear power industry development. Those can be used to extend the atomic power’s fuel base and to reduce the amount of radioactive waste by implementing a closed-loop nuclear fuel cycle.

At the moment, 10 nuclear power station in Russia operate 35 power blocks (excluding the Novovoronezh NPP’s 6th power block in the trial production), with their total designed capacity reaching 27.127 gigawatts.

* A BN-800 reactor (a fast neutron reactor with the electric capacity of 880 megawatts) is an experimental production reactor operating fast neutrons with sodium as a liquid metal coolant.

The Beloyarsk NPP was launched operational in April 1964. The first power blocks operating the AMB-100 and AMB-200 reactors on thermal neutrons were shut down because of their life span expiration. The Beloyarsk NPP operates BN-600 fast neutron reactors along with the BN-800 power block commissioned in October 2016.

The up-to-date information on the nuclear environment close to the Russian NOOs and other nuclear objects is available at www.russianatom.ru


The Information and PR Department of the Beloyarsk NPP.


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