State of Development of BR-1200 Reactor Plants

9/17/2026 2026 - #03 Current issues in nuclear energy

Lemekhov V.V. Kaplienko A.V. Sarkulov M.K. Pulinets A.A. Andreev S.S. Proukhin A.V. Belykh Yu.O. Nikolaev V.S. Sapozhnikov I.S. Stremin A.V. Moiseev A.V. Soldatov E.O.

https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2026.3.02

The BR-1200 reactor plant with lead coolant and mixed nitride uranium-plutonium fuel demonstrates a promising level of safety due to design solutions and properties of components, such as small reactivity margin, high heat capacity of the circuit, low fuel temperature, and high boiling point of lead coolant. Six sets of main process equipment ensure coolant circulation, heat transfer to the steam-water circuit, coolant quality maintenance, normal and emergency heat removal: steam generator, reactor coolant pump set (RCPS), cooldown heat exchanger and coolant quality maintenance equipment. The BR-1200 RP equipment has prototypes in the form of BREST-OD-300 RP equipment, with some components being almost completely identical. Cooldown heat exchangers located directly in the primary circuit perform the safety function of emergency heat removal in case of blackout, the ultimate heat sink is atmospheric air. The core uses mixed nitride fuel, which makes it possible to have a more compact core while maintaining a small reactivity margin for the campaign and use its thermophysical properties to achieve a promising level of safety in the event of reactivity accidents. The reactor plant operates in a closed nuclear fuel cycle with complete fuel breeding without a blanket, multiple fuel regeneration and afterburning of minor actinides. The total probability of a severe accident of 1.03⋅10^–9 1/year is significantly lower than the target value of 1.00⋅10^–5 1/year and may facilitate meeting the requirements that no evacuation and resettlement of population is needed. Similar parameters of the steam-water circuits of BN-1200 and BR-1200 fast neutron reactor plants make it possible to unify the most of the main process equipment of the machine room.

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reactor plant with lead coolant BR-1200 justification of reactor plants with lead coolant

Link for citing the article: Lemekhov V.V., Kaplienko A.V., Sarkulov M.K., Pulinets A.A., Andreev S.S., Proukhin A.V., Belykh Yu.O., Nikolaev V.S., Sapozhnikov I.S., Stremin A.V., Moiseev A.V., Soldatov E.O. State of Development of BR-1200 Reactor Plants. Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika. 2026, no. 3, pp. 27-42; DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2026.3.02 (in Russian).