UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 30, 2020. The first production batch of MOX fuel got loaded into Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant’s BN 800 Reactor (Power Generating Unit 4). The plant is part of Rosatom Corporation’s electric power division, Rosatom/TVEL’s Communications Department reports.

The facility resumed operating as usual after its very first overhaul.

The batch of MOX fuel loaded into BN 800 Reactor consists of 18 fuel assemblies. These were made from depleted uranium and plutonium at Rosatom’s Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory. Unlike the nuclear industry’s typical stuff that is enriched uranium, MOX fuel relies on plutonium oxide coming from power reactors and depleted uranium oxide coming from depleted uranium hexafluoride (the by-product of the ore processing industry).

‘Rosatom’s strategy to develop a two-component nuclear industry with thermal and fast fission reactors and to ensure NFC closure will help with several key goals. Firstly, the nuclear industry’s raw stuffs base will expand exponentially. Secondly, spent nuclear fuel could get reused rather than just stored. Thirdly, the accumulated depleted uranium hexafluoride and plutonium reserves could be used up in the fuel cycle,’ says Vice President for Technology and NFC closure at TVEL Vitaliy Khadeyev.