Employees of the Leypunsky Institute for Physics and Power Engineering are testing MOX fuel (nuclear fuel containing several types of oxides of fissile materials) for a promising reactor with spectral regulation (VVER-S). This was reported by the Rosatom press service.
The nuclear scientists used a fast physical stand (BFS-1, designed for studying full-scale models of projected fast reactors with a capacity of up to 1000 MW with various types of fuel) for the experiments. They carried out a physical start-up of a critical assembly (a complex for studying systems containing fissile materials) for research on MOX fuel.
Alexander Zhukov, head of the BFS complex, said that the critical assembly model did not contain nuclear materials.
After obtaining permission from the nuclear safety commissions, the models were portion-by-portion replaced with real fuel elements with energy plutonium.
VVER-S is a water-cooled reactor for power units with an electrical capacity of 600 MW.
The main difference from VVER is the change in the water-uranium ratio during the reactor's operation at power when mechanical water displacers are removed from its core.
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