Russian Nuclear Agency Hires Contractor To Complete MBIR Fast-Neutron Reactor Construction

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Russian Nuclear Agency Hires Contractor to Complete MBIR Fast-Neutron Reactor Construction

Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom reached an agreement on Monday to restart the construction of the MBIR multipurpose fast-neutron reactor for research purposes in the Ulyanovsk Region

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd November, 2020) Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom reached an agreement on Monday to restart the construction of the MBIR multipurpose fast-neutron reactor for research purposes in the Ulyanovsk Region.

The contract was signed with construction firm Institut Orgenergostroi, which represented a consortium of contractors that will be involved in the project. Under it, MBIR is set to be built for the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors at its facility in Dimitrovgrad.

The protracted project aims to replace the institute's unique Bor-60, one of a handful of fast-neutron research facilities and the world's most versatile of its kind.

Construction originally began in 2015 with plans to get the reactors online by 2020, but the project was pushed back with the new state contract targeting completion in the second half of the current decade. No reason for the delay was given, but specialized construction firm Uralenergostroi, which was Rosatom's original contractor, was not mentioned in the documents.

The delay has forced the nuclear research institute to prolong the 1969-built Bor-60's service by an additional five years.

The MBIR project envisions a 150-megawatt capacity to enhance nuclear research with modern technology for its projected lifespan of 50 years.

Since the United States decommissioned its two fast-neutron nuclear reactors in the 1990s, Russia became the leading center for physicists around the world for this type of research. The US began constructing a new facility, called the VTR, in 2017 to complete it in the mid-2020s.

The fast-neutron reactor, as opposed to the conventional thermal-neutron reactor, provides the opportunity to conduct a wide range of experiments in a relatively shortened amount of time.