The Russian Siberian Chemical Complex (SCC) will start installing the BREST-300 lead cooled fast reactor base in September 2022. The base, a steel plate weighing 160 tons and 26 meters in diameter, is scheduled to be transported from St. Petersburg to the installation site in August along the Northern Sea route via the Baltic Sea. The consortium plans to complete the construction of the lead-cooled fast reactor by 2026, at a cost currently estimated at 113.7 billion rubles ($1.94 billion).
The lead cooled fast reactor is part of the Energy Experimental and Demonstration Consortium (ODEK) project. The project is supported by Russia's Breakthrough Program. In addition to the lead cooled Fast Reactor, ODEK includes a fuel manufacturing-reprocessing module (MFR) and a spent fuel reprocessing module. ODEK's goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of a closed fuel cycle for fast reactors with integrated fuel manufacturing and recycling at the same site. The fast reactor will use specially developed mixed uranium-plutonium nitride (MNUP) fuel.