Draft design for molten-salt research reactor plant in Russia

According to Rosatom, which includes NIKIET among its operations, the research reactor is intended "to develop liquid-salt technologies necessary to create a full-scale liquid-salt reactor burner of minor actinides (long-lived nuclear waste) contained in spent nuclear fuel from thermal reactors".

Igor Tretyakov, chief designer of research and isotope reactors of NIKIET, said that it had "in broad cooperation with other organisations participating in the research and development programme, successfully implemented its first stage in the development of RI IZhSR. Unique high-temperature stands are already being created to test the technical solutions of individual units and verify the programme codes of this innovative reactor facility."

The work, carried out with the Kurchatov Institute, includes a detailed R&D programme with work already under way on structural materials, "the SNF processing module, the technology for preparing fuel and washing salts and other technologies". The next steps will be justifying the investment and the development of its technical design.

The project is part of the wider Russian federal project to develop "new materials and technologies for advanced energy systems".