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Russia's Nuclear Fuel Cycle: an Industrial Perspective

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Russia's Nuclear Fuel Cycle: an Industrial Perspective NATIONAL REPORTS Russia's nuclear fuel cycle: An industrial perspective An overview of policies, plans, and experience in producing and reprocessing nuclear fuels, and in the utilization of plutonium by I rom the very beginning, the development of not for RBMKs, whose spent fuel is placed in Yu.K. Bibilashvili nuclear power in the former Soviet Union was storage. and F.G. based on a closed fuel cycle. Plans included the The decision not to reprocess fuel from Reshetnikov reprocessing of spent fuel from nuclear power RBMK-1000 and RBMK-1500 reactors was plants, and the recycling of recovered uranium taken largely for economic reasons. Reprocess- and plutonium in newly fabricated fuel elements. ing would be uneconomical because of the fuel's For the most part, this policy has not changed, low content of fissile isotopes of uranium and and today it encompasses a new generation of plutonium. Spent fuel from RBMK reactors is reactors whose construction is being planned. placed in sealed canisters and stored in facilities In Russia and countries of the Commonwealth at the nuclear plant site having a capacity of of Independent States (CIS) and Eastern Europe, about 2000 tonnes heavy metal (tHM). nuclear fuel-cycle services currently are required For other types of fuels, one reprocessing for 62 nuclear power plants operating with reactors plant is operating and another one is being built. that were designed in the former Soviet Union. • The RT-1 plant in Chelyabinsk. Located Forty-five of these are pressurized-water reactors at the "Mayak" complex, this plant was commis- known as WWERs. Of these, 19 are WWERs sioned in 1971 and intended for reprocessing having an electrical generating capacity of 1000 fuel from WWER-440 reactors, fast reactors, megawatts and 26 are WWERs having a capac- and the propulsion reactors of ice-breakers and ity of 440 megawatts. The remaining operating submarines. The plant's capacity for the main plants include 15 channel-type, graphite-moder- type of fuel (WWER-440 fuel) is 400 tHM per ated reactors known as RBMKs and two fast- year. It operates with an aqueous extraction tech- breeder reactors known as BNs. nology using tributyl phosphate with a hydrocar- This article reviews Russia's nuclear fuel bon diluent. The process takes places in multi- cycle industry from a technical and industrial stage extractors with mechanical and pulsed perspective. It specifically focuses on reprocess- mixing of phases. The clean-up factor for high ing experience and plans, the fabrication of fuel fission products is between 10 and 109, which for WWER, RBMK, and fast reactors; the man- ensures that pure uranium and plutonium, as well agement of spent nuclear fuel; and the current as neptunium, are produced. The technology also situation and prospects for using mixed oxide allows extraction of strontium-90, caesium-137, (MOX) fuel in Russia's nuclear power reactors. technetium-99, and other radionuclides from the spent fuel. Once reprocessed, the uranium is returned to Reprocessing of nuclear fuel fuel-element production. The final uranium product of the plant is a fused cake of uranyl The reprocessing option is followed for the nitrate hexahydrate with the required uranium- spent fuels of all WWER and BN reactors, but 235 enrichment. The fused cake is obtained after mixing and concentration of the uranium re- extract and a solution of highly enriched ura- nium. The adjustment of the solution for correct enrichment also can be done at the Ust- Mr Bibilashvih is the Deputy Director of the Scientific and Kamenogorsk plant in Kazahkstan, where the Research Institute of Inorganic Materials, Ministry of Atomic Energy, Russian Federation. Mr Reshetnikov, the former fuel pellets are made. Currently, most of the Deputy Director of the Institute, is a senior consultant. fused cake obtained at RT-1 has a uranium-235 28 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1993 NATIONAL REPORTS Be/ow: The automated production line for WWER-440 fuel assemblies at the Electrostal fabrication plant near Moscow. At left: Centrifuges at the uranium enrichment plant at Krasnoyarsk. (Credit: Minatom, Russian Federation) content of 2% to 2.5% and is used to make fuel pellets for RBMK-1000 reactors. Work now is being done to include reprocessed uranium in the fuel cycle of the RBMK-1500 reactors at the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania and in the fuel cycle of BN- and WWER-type reactors. Plutonium obtained at RT-1 is temporarily stored on site in dioxide form. • The R1-2 plant, under construction at Krasnoyarsk. This plant, which is being built to reprocess nuclear fuel from WWER-1000 reactors, is scheduled to come on stream in lines. The first line will be able to reprocess up to 1000-to-1500 tHM per year of spent fuel from WWER-1000s. Like at RT-1, the final uranium product will be a fused cake of uranyl nitrate hexahydrate. It will first go to uranium hexafluoride production and then to uranium enrichment. Until the first line is commis- sioned, spent fuel from WWER-1000 reactors will be stored in the a central facility at RT-2 that already has been built. This facility has a design capacity of 6000 tHM and will be fully packed by the year 2005. Storage capacity presently is 3000 tHM. Fuel enrichment and fabrication The demand for nuclear fuel to supply WWER-type plants currently determines the re- quired volume of industrial fuel element produc- tion. (See graphs.) All these reactors use en- riched uranium (Russia has no reactors operating on natural uranium). IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1993 29 NATIONAL REPORTS By country and region: By reactor type: 2000 1100 : CIS and - ^^ 1000 1750 - Lithuania ^^^ ^^^^ RBMKs "^x 900 1500 800 1 1250 - « 700 x Z ; Russia ^.,»* ••.., S 600 a : ...---" " §• 1000 in o> 8 500 WWERs c c o 750 £ 400 Ukraine 300 500 200 Bilibino and 250 Lithuania 100 AST-500 ^ - _^^ 0 i i i 0 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Years Years Fuel requirements A number of uranium enrichment and fuel used in serial production. The specific energy for water-cooled fabrication plants are operating. consumption of this centrifuge model per sepa- reactors, 1990-2010 • Enrichment plants. The first uranium en- rative work unit is 25 times less than with the richment plant in Russia started operation in gaseous diffusion process. 1949 in Sverdlovsk. Three further plants came In the enrichment process, two methods can into operation later at Tomsk, Angarsk, and be employed to obtain the uranium hexafluoride Krasnoyarsk. The method used in all four ura- used to enrich the uranium — direct fluorination nium enrichment plants was the gaseous diffu- of uranium oxides with gaseous fluorine or fluo- sion method. Development of an innovative en- rination of uranium tetrafluoride. Both methods richment method using gas centrifuges started in are used in Russia. Economically speaking, the the early 1950s. The world's first industrial plant second method is the more attractive since less equipped with gas centrifuges came into opera- expensive gaseous fluorine (by a factor of three) tion in 1964 in Sverdlovsk. Gas centrifuges were is required. In both cases, the processes are exo- then also introduced in the other three plants. thermic and great quantities of heat are released, The transition to gas centrifuges meant that the with extremely high temperatures developing in separation capacity of the plants increased by a the reaction vessel. When designing equipment factor of 2.4 while at the same time electricity for these processes, therefore, particular atten- consumption was reduced by a factor of 8.2. tion must be paid to the removal of heat and to Nowadays fifth-generation gas centrifuges are the choice of material for the reaction vessel. Industrial nuclear fuel and cladding Plant Type of production Annual capacity Production in 1992 production (tonnes) (tonnes) Reactor Final product Electrostal WWER-440 fuel assemblies 700 230 (near Moscow) RBMK fuel assemblies 570 570 BN fuel for reactor core 20 BN fuel for reactor breeding blanket 15 Novosibirsk WWER-1000 fuel assemblies 1000 210 Ust-Kamenogorsk WWER fuel pellet 2650 220 (Kazakhstan) RBMK 570 Glazov WWER zirconium alloy 2000 RBMK tubing 6000 km/a (tubing) 2000 km/a (tubing) 30 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1993 NATIONAL REPORTS • Fuel fabrication facilities. Industrial fab- rication of fuel elements, fuel assemblies, and Plant/Facility Reactor Annual capacity Production fuel pellets is carried out at three plants: two in in 1992 Russia (Elektrostal and Novosibirsk) and one in "Paket" at Mayak, BN-350 10-1 2 FAs 4 FAs Kazakhstan (Ust-Kamenogorsk). Elektrostal Chelyabinsk BN-600 300 kg MOX 100 Kg MOX produces fuel elements, assemblies, and pellets (about 20% Pu) for WWER-440, BN-350 and BN-600 reactors. "Paket" (modified) BN-600 40 FAs It also produces fuel elements and assemblies for since 1993 1 tonne MOX RBMK-1000 and RBMK-1500 reactors using Facility at RIAR BOR-60 1 tome MOX 600 kg MOX fuel pellets supplied from Ust-Kamenogorsk. (Dimitrovgrad) BN-600 (vibropack) The Novosibirsk plant manufactures fuel ele- Plant at Chelya- BN-600 60 tonnes HM ments and assemblies for WWER-1000 reactors. binsk complex BN-800 Fuel pellets for the WWER-1000 fuel elements (50-60% complete) (WWER-1000) are supplied from Ust-Kamenogorsk. Zirconium Plant in WWER-1000 planned for future production and the manufacture of articles made Krasnoyarsk of zirconium-based alloys take place in Glazov (Udmurtia, Russian Federation). Note: FA= fuel assembly HM = heavy metal Two methods are used to convert uranium hexafluoride into uranium dioxide. The plant at nium and plutonium recovered from spent fuel, Fabrication of Elektrostal employs the flame spraying process, it also has a negative side: the generation of mixed oxide (MOX) which is one of the gaseous or "dry" methods.
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