Beloyarsk NPP secures license to install nuclear unit with BN-1200M reactor

YEKATERINBURG. April 29 (Interfax) - Russian industrial safety watchdog Rostekhnadzor has granted a licence to the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant in Sverdlovsk Region to install a nuclear unit with a fourth generation BN-1200M reactor, the plant reported on its Telegram channel.

Preparations for the construction of the new generating unit will already begin this year.

"The installation of a prototype serial generating unit with a BN-1200M fast reactor at the Beloyarsk NPP will make it possible to take another important step on the path to two-component nuclear energy and fully realize the environmental and economic advantages of the closed nuclear fuel cycle," Beloyarsk NPP director Ivan Sidorov said in the statement.

He also said that installing a BN-1200M unit specifically at the Beloyarsk NPP is a logical decision because the plant's personnel has "accumulated huge experience operating unique BN-600 and BN-800 sodium-cooled fast reactors."

The Beloyarsk NPP went into service in April 1964. The plant's first two units, with light water graphite AMB-100 and AMB-200 reactors, have been permanently shut down as they reached the end of their service life. The third and fourth units are fast neutron BN-600 and BN-800 reactors, which were connected to the grid in 1980 and 2015, respectively.