Rosatom Upgraded The World’s Largest Critical Nuclear Test Facility

End of December, Rosatom (ENS Corporate Member) completed the upgrade of the world’s largest critical nuclear test facility, the BFS-2 at the AI Leipunsky Institute of Physics & Power Engineering (IPPE) in Obninsk.

The BFS-2, operated by IPPE (part of Rosatom’s scientific division, Science and Innovations), is designed for experiments on innovative nuclear power systems.

These studies are important for ensuring the reliable and safe operation of various types of nuclear reactors, in particular Fast Neutron reactors such as the BN-800 (operating at Beloyarsk-4), the BN-1200M (under development), Brest-OD-300 (under construction as part of a closed fuel cycle demonstration project at the Siberian Chemical Combinate), and MBIR (the multipurpose research reactor under construction at the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad).

The technical re-equipment made it possible to extend the life of the BFS complex by 25 years. All work was carried out within the framework of the Federal Target Programme, “Nuclear Energy Technologies of a New Generation”.

The complex is the only experimental tool for substantiating the reactor physics of fast reactors in the development of a two-component nuclear power engineering with a closed fuel cycle in Russia. In particular, the characteristics of the core of the BREST OD-300 reactor with nitride fuel are now being studied there.

Read the news on Nuclear Engineering International and on IPPE website.