No IGR

In August, project on downblending highly enriched IGR fuel, pulsed graphite-moderated reactor, was completed at Uranium Operations. UMP team has done a great job: from creating a unique technology for extracting nuclear material to producing low-enriched Uranium oxides. But first things first.

IGR was created based on the decree of Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on May 13, 1958. The document referred to the need to build an experimental facility with a high-temperature homogeneous graphite reactor on the territory of Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.

The reactor complex was built next to experimental field where atomic bombs were tested in those years. The first research at the reactor began in 1961. The experiments concerned creation of a nuclear rocket engine, as well as promising reactor installations.

The work of IGR is based on graphite blocks impregnated with nuclear material. According to its characteristics, this is a unique project. It has no analogues, so there are no examples of processing this type of fuel in the world practice.

In 2015, as part of cooperation between U.S. Department of Energy and Kazakhstan, Plant specialists were tasked with developing a technology for processing non-irradiated material from research reactor IGR. The material consisted of graphite blocks and rods with up to 90% U235 isotope content. It was necessary to «make» a low-enriched powder of nitrous oxide-Uranium oxide with U235 isotope content of no more than 20%.

In 2016-2017, the research center of the Plant developed a technology that allows to achieve maximum extraction of Uranium from graphite blocks with minimum amount of waste. At the same time, they created technological regulations for downblending the resulting fuel. In 2017-2018, detail project was prepared and approved with the state authorities based on which construction and installation works and equipment installation were carried out later. The result of these activities was a site for processing highly enriched Uranium at UMP in July last year, modernized for fresh IGR fuel. In the same month, a three-way contract was signed between the Plant, Republican State Enterprise Scientific Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NNC) and American Federation Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC for downblending of fresh highly enriched IGR fuel. And in September 2019, the first delivery of the fuel itself, which was stored in Kurchatov Research Center took place.

– Highly qualified specialists – engineers, designers, technologists and specialists in the field of nuclear safety-were involved in implementation of the highly enriched Uranium reprocessing campaign to solve complex engineering and organizational tasks. This team has passed all working stages of licensing, organizing and creating a technological site for transfer of highly enriched nuclear material to low-enriched,» says Alexey Boltanov, Deputy Director, Uranium Operations.

Thanks to non-standard technological solutions combined with high labor organization, the Plant managed to solve complex problem of converting highly enriched Uranium to low-enriched Uranium. In this way, UMP has made a significant contribution to the work of international community to contain nuclear threat and non-proliferation of materials that are the potential basis for weapons of massive destruction.

Alexey Proskuryakov