After the UK, France and Japan, Rosatom enters in the closed club of the nuclear fuel reprocessing. In 2014, the Mayak Production Association in Ozersk made public the operation of the pilot reprocessing plant of spent uranium-beryllium fuel from the submarines class Alfa (Project 705 / 705K). Rosatom’s strategy was to test the fuel of the Alfa class to upgrade for industrial application.
Earlier this November 2016, after five years of reconstruction and modernization of the radiochemical plant, a third technological line for reprocessing spent uranium-beryllium fuel is in operation. This new line of reprocessing and waste management will also handle the VVER 400, 1000 reactors.
Rosatom expressed clearly its intent to reprocess any kind of spent nuclear fuel and compete against Areva and the future Chinese site. What we do not know yet is the intent from Rosatom to export such facility in regions that will use massively VVER technology, such as Middle East and Africa.
Countries that are clients of Rosatom and potential user of VVER are as follow: Armenia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Jordan, Nigeria, Slovakia, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia.
As a reminder, Areva and CNNC signed in 2010 an agreement to build a reprocessing plant in China, the project cost was valued at 20 Billion Euros. On the other China is working with Russia on a specific Mox plant for the China Experimental Fast Reactor, which is based on Russian technology.
Note: The Mayak site faced more than 23 accidents since its operation, from poor management of radioactive waste handling procedures, to failure of critical mechanical equipment resulting in spilling of radioactive waste.
