Type: Fast Breeder Reactor
Units: One
Total megawatts (net): 560
Location: Zarechniy, Sverdlovsk, Russian Federation (site of the first two commercial RBMK reactors, which no longer operate)
Date of initial operation: November 1981
The sole operating unit at Beloyarsk, the BN-600, is a sodium-cooled breeder reactor that generates new fuel as it operates.
According to reports in 1990, BN-600 has posed no major problems and has produced 35 billion kilowatt-hours at a cumulative capacity factor of 66 percent during its first 10 years of operation. In 1993, BN-600 produced 4.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity with a capacity factor of 80.3 percent.
Prior to commercial operation, the plant experienced early problems with leaking fuel and steam generator tube breaks resulting from faulty welds. (In breeder reactors, liquid sodium is used to transfer heat away from the reactor to manufacture steam. Volatile sodium/water interactions have occurred as a result of tube breaks in the steam generator.)
In December 1992, radioactive water from the liquid radwaste storage tank was spilled during transfer and seeped into the plant cooling pond. The incident was classified as Level 2 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).
In October 1993, the plant was shut down following a sodium leak in an auxiliary system. A small fire occurred in a cleanup circuit for the primary sodium. The incident was classified as Level 1 on the INES. In November, the plant was shut down after an increase in radiation levels was detected in the exhaust fan system. The problem was traced to a sodium leak from one of the auxiliary cooling systems. The incident was classified as Level 1 on the INES.
In May 1994, a fire broke out at the plant, which was shut down for repairs at the time. Sodium from the secondary circuit piping leaked and caught fire on contact with air. The incident was classified as Level 1 on the INES.
In July 1995, a sodium leak from one of the reactor's secondary circuits caused a shutdown of the unit for about two weeks.
WANO Exchange Visits. Under the auspices of the World Association of Nuclear Operators, the Beloyarsk plant hosted a visit of personnel from the Japan Atomic Power Company in June 1994, and Beloyarsk staff visited the Japan Atomic Power Company and the Monju reactor in October 1994.
Plant Twinning. The Beloyarsk plant is twinned with France's Creys-Malville plant.
In 1986, the Soviet government added BN-600 to its list of nuclear facilities subject to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The first Soviet breeder reactor, an experimental 200-kilowatt unit, began operating in 1956 at the research and design center at Obninsk. The reactor was eventually upgraded to a 10-megawatt model.
A 135-megawatt breeder, BN-300, has operated since 1972 in Kazakhstan at Aktau (formerly Shevchenko) on the Caspian Sea. The unit also desalinates about 80,000 tons of water each year for the city of Aktau. The plant was troubled by a sodium/water reaction in 1975 that resulted in a two-hour sodium fire.
The Soviets began work on a larger breeder reactor, BN-800, at the Beloyarsk site. According to 1990 reports, work on the unit had slowed to a near halt. In its 20-year nuclear plant construction plan, announced in December 1992, the Russian government called for completion of the BN-800 reactor after the year 2000, as well as the construction of three BN-800 units at the South Urals site by 2000. But in December 1995, an atomic energy ministry spokesman reportedly said that two BN-800s would be built at the site sometime after 2000.
December 1995
