Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika

The peer-reviewed scientific and technology journal. ISSN: 0204-3327

System Features of Fast Sodium Reactors in a Two-Component Structure of Nuclear Power Generating

3/18/2024 2024 - #01 Current issues in nuclear energy

Troyanov V.M. Gulevich A.V. Gurskaya O.S. Dekusar V.M. Eliseev V.A. Korobeynikov V.V. Moseev A.L.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2024.1.01

UDC: 621.039.5

The phased transfer of Russia’s nuclear power industry to a two-component nuclear power system with thermal and fast reactors in a single closed NFC allows solving a number of deferred system problems of modern energy, such as accumulation of spent fuel from thermal reactors and spent fuel returned from foreign NPPs built according to Russian designs; inefficient use of the uranium raw material base; recycling of minor actinides and other long-lived high-level waste accumulated from the activities of thermal reactors.

The article examines the fundamental possibilities of two-component NPS, which appear due to the availability of commercial fast neutron sodium reactors. Due to the synergistic development of thermal and fast reactors, it is expected to achieve an economic effect associated with the emergence of new fuel services in the nuclear power plant system, such as the production and improvement of the isotopic composition of plutonium for thermal reactors, transmutation of «external» minor actinides, production of isotopes for various purposes, production of hydrogen, etc. The expansion of Russia’s export opportunities is also being considered, both in terms of fuel supply for units built using Russian technologies and foreign units with MOX fuel. In this approach, it is important to analyze the technical and economic indicators not of individual reactors, but of the economy of the whole system, where fast reactors perform the necessary system functions due to their inherent excess of neutrons. The article makes a preliminary technical and economic assessment of such system functions provided by fast sodium reactors. It is shown that fast and thermal reactors working together in a two-component nuclear energy system, with the same electrical power and similar technical and economic indicators, can significantly reduce the necessary infrastructure costs and/or generate additional income, thereby reducing the specific levelized cost of electricity production.

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two-component nuclear power system spent nuclear fuel NFC closure technical and economic assessment additional opportunities specific present value of electricity production

Link for citing the article: Troyanov V.M., Gulevich A.V., Gurskaya O.S., Dekusar V.M., Eliseev V.A., Korobeynikov V.V., Moseev A.L. System Features of Fast Sodium Reactors in a Two-Component Structure of Nuclear Power Generating. Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika. 2024, no. 1, pp. 5-17; DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2024.1.01 (in Russian).

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