Beloyarsk nuclear plant fueling could begin December 30-31
MOSCOW. Dec 26 (Interfax) - Fueling of the new Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant may begin on December 30 or December 31, Rosenergoatom chief Yevgeny Romanov told journalists.
The station is 99.8% complete. Rosenergoatom has received a license from technical standards watchdog Rostekhnadzor authorizing the delivery of fuel to the plant and the filling of the primary circuit with liquid sodium. However, the document does not permit the fuel assemblies to be inserted into the reactor.
Rosenergoatom expects to receive the go-ahead from Rostekhnadzor to load the fuel soon. "The probability is high that we will load the reactor with the first fuel assembly December 30-31," Romanov said.
The reactor is scheduled for startup in mid-April and it will begin producing electricity at the end of summer. Output from the power block will reach design capacity by the end of 2014
The Beloyarsk NPP, a Rosenergoatom affiliate, is the only fast-neutron BN-600 reactor in Russia. The first two power blocks at the station, which operate AMB-100 and AMB-200 thermal neutron reactors, have been shut down and are being decommissioned.