MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2023) Russia's nuclear state corporation Rosatom said on Monday it plans to finish the construction of the world's largest multi-purpose fast neutron research nuclear reactor, MBIR, in 2026, one year ahead of schedule.
MBIR, a reactor with a thermal capacity of 150 megawatts, has been under construction at Rosatom's Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (RIAR) in Dimitrovgrad and is expected to be commissioned before 2030.
"In January 2023, the installation of the reactor vessel in the design position was completed. More than 1,300 workers and engineers are currently working on the construction site. It is planned to complete the construction work in 2026, a year ahead of schedule," the company said in a report on achieving target benchmarks for 2022.
In 2022, Rosatom completed the planned research and development work to justify the safety of MBIR and extend the life of the previous generation fast neutron reactor BOR-60, which was put into service at RIAR in 1969, the statement said. The nuclear corporation added that it has also continued to develop innovative radiochemical technologies.
The reactor's technical characteristics will allow it to solve a wide range of research tasks to justify the creation of new competitive and safe nuclear power systems, including fast neutron reactors for closed nuclear fuel cycles, Rosatom said.
An advisory council of the MBIR International Research Center was established under a 2021 industry program for advanced experimental research with the participation of leading Russian and foreign experts in the nuclear field, according to the statement.
The first meeting of the council, held at RIAR in July 2022, was attended by 56 scientists in person and online, including experts from more than 13 scientific centers in Russia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Algeria and Armenia, as well as the IAEA and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR).
After completing such complex nuclear facilities as MBIR, the high-flux neutron source, also known as the PIK reactor, at the Kurchatov Institute and the new neutron source at JINR, Russia will become the only country that has various neutron sources for nuclear research.
