FAST REACTORS | THE STORY OF BREST
In April 2024, in an interview with Strana Rosatom marking his 85th birthday, he said he had been leading the project for more than 30 years. “In 1991, articles were published in the journal Atomnaya Energiya, and later in Nuclear Engineering and Design, which should be considered the starting point for the development of a new technological platform – the practical closure of the nuclear fuel cycle based on fast neutron reactors,” he said. He added that the period from 2001 to 2011, when the project was abandoned, was not difficult, but counterproductive. “Work resumed only in 2013, thanks to Sergey Kiriyenko, who was then the head of Rosatom,” he added.
Nevertheless, from 2011 to 2021, designers and
Above: Testing of the analytical simulator for Brest took place in June 2025 at the site of the All-Russian Research Institute for the Operation of Nuclear Power Plants (VNIIAES).
A difficult history The Brest project was initiated in the 1990s – a very difficult time for the domestic nuclear industry following the collapse of the USSR. Budgets were stretched and state support for nuclear energy was fragmented. However, Brest was championed by Evgeny Adamov, Director of the NA Dollezhal Scientific Research & Design Institute of Power Engineering (Nikiet) who became Minister of Atomic Energy in 1998. He pushed for funding for Brest at the cost of cutting back on other programmes, including sodium-cooled fast reactors. The project required extensive research and the decision to build a 300 MW pilot unit was ambitious. The project almost entirely required new and untested solutions. While Adamov remained minister (he resigned in
2001) and was subsequently an advisor to the Prime Minister (2002-2004) support for the project continued. However, in 2005, he was arrested in Bern (Switzerland) on charges of embezzlement at the request of the US. Requests for his extradition came from the US and then from Russia, to which he was returned in 2006, where he was jailed, but later freed on the condition that he not leave Moscow.
During this period, being purely conceptual, Brest
Below: The shell of the central cavity being installed September 2025.
was dismissed by the advocates of the well-established sodium-cooled or lead-bismuth reactors. However, Adamov retained his position at Nikiet and subsequently become Scientific Director of the breakthrough project. In 2023, he was awarded the Russian Federation State Prize in Science and Technology.
representatives of competing projects delayed progress on the Brest reactor within both Rosatom and Rostechnadzor. Fundamental disagreements led to a lot of revisions, commissions, expert assessments before project documentation was approved by Glavgosexpertiza in 2018. Although Rostechnadzor had issued a site licence in 2016, the project’s funding was frozen in 2017 due to the challenging financial situation in the industry. However, although project was still formally frozen and no construction licence had been issued, in 2018 the first builders arrived at the Seversk site to prepare it and begin constructing the first buildings for the complex. In July 2019, experts from the Russian Academy of Sciences confirmed the safety of the project and the following December, SkhK and Titan-2 signed an agreement for construction and installation work on the project.
Regulatory issues Alexey Ferapontov told NEI that after the site licence was issued in 2016, Rosatom conducted extensive R&D activities while Rostechnadzor undertook a lot of regulatory activities during its review of lead-cooled reactors. “You must understand that it was an absolutely new project although the concept was old… so there were a lot of questions about the technology and materials because we needed absolutely new materials in view of the aggressive corrosion caused by lead,” Ferapontov said. He explained that in the mid-1970s the Soviet Union had developed lead-bismuth-cooled reactors which were used to power seven submarines. But while Russia inherited a lot of knowledge, there is a significant difference between lead-bismuth and pure lead. While the lead-bismuth alloy used in the submarines had a melting point of around 180o more than 300o
C, that of pure lead is reactor will be around 500o
C. The working temperature of the Brest C. Rosatom was asked to
look into this and it was only in 2021 that a construction licence was issued. “But it was not a full licence. A huge programme of R&D
was then developed by Rosatom under our supervision and now we are looking to realise some of the results of this programme. Construction is going step by step. Recently the main parts of the reactor vessel were delivered to the site and the main concreting work is already completed. Now we are going to start construction of the main part of the lead-cooled fast reactor.” Ferapontov said that in order for all the regulatory document to be signed some additional regulations
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