First steam generator delivered for Russia’s MBIR research reactor

Rosatom said on 22 October that ZiO-Podolsk had delivered the first of two steam generators for the MBIR fast-neutron research reactor to the NIIAR research centre in Dimitrovgrad. The shipment advances procurement of energy-conversion equipment for the facility under construction. It is an equipment-delivery milestone: the announcement does not say the reactor has started operating or generating electricity.

The generator consists of three parallel modules, each weighing nine tonnes and measuring more than nine metres long. They will heat and evaporate feedwater and superheat the resulting steam before it enters the turbine. The weight therefore describes each module, while three is the component count for the first generator. Neither figure represents the reactor’s thermal capacity or annual output.

The design draws on the steam generator used at NIIAR’s BOR-60 research installation, which has operated since 1969. According to the technical account carried by Rosatom, sodium coolant flows inside the heat-exchange tubes, while feedwater enters and superheated steam leaves the space around them. The organisation identifies operating experience with the earlier equipment as one reason for choosing a similar configuration for MBIR.

Other deliveries to the site this year include two heat exchangers, a tank for the reactor block’s auxiliary intermediate circuit, and heat exchangers and vessels for removing sodium from spent fuel assemblies. Four condensate pumps and three low-pressure heaters for the steam-turbine installation have also arrived. These are separate deliveries made during the year, rather than additional components of the latest shipment.

The schedule calls for the second steam generator, steam turbine and vessel equipment for the turbine block to arrive by the end of the year. That remains a delivery expectation, rather than confirmation that the outstanding equipment has arrived. The release does not give an individual arrival day for these items or a date for the start of commercial operation.

MBIR is being built at NIIAR to expand experimental infrastructure for nuclear materials and fast-reactor technologies. Rosatom intends its research capabilities to support closed fuel-cycle work and the development of fourth-generation reactor designs. The project forms part of the New Nuclear and Energy Technologies national programme; the reported equipment delivery is a construction milestone rather than a measurement of those research outcomes.

NIIAR’s wider work includes reactor and post-irradiation experiments, materials testing and the production of radioisotopes for industrial and medical uses. The centre sits within Rosatom’s science division, whose remit includes research infrastructure and experimental manufacturing. This institutional role explains why MBIR is described as an addition to an experimental base, rather than simply another commercial power-station project.