Plutonium disposition in the BN-600 fast-neutron reactor at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant

In 1996, the United States and the Russian Federation completed an initial joint study that evaluated the candidate options for the disposition of surplus weapons-derived plutonium in both countries. While Russia advocates building new reactors for converting weapons-derived plutonium to spent fuel, the cost is high, and the continuing joint study of the Russian options is considering only the use of the existing VVER-1000 LWRs in Russia (and possibly in Ukraine) and the existing BN-600 fast-neutron reactor at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia. The BN-600 reactor, which currently uses enriched uranium fuel, is capable with certain design modifications of converting up to 1.3 metric tons (MT) of surplus weapons-derived plutonium to spent fuel each year. The steps needed to convert BN-600 to a plutonium-burner core will be discussed. The step involving the hybrid core allows an early and timely start that takes advantage of the limited capacity for fabricating uranium–plutonium mixed-oxide fuel early in the disposition program. The design lifetime of BN-600 must safely and reliably be extended by 10 yr to at least 2020 so that a sufficient amount of plutonium (∼20 MT) can be converted to spent fuel.