How nuclear fuel is produced (9 photos). Nuclear power plant: how it works

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After the aging period, the trolleys with uranium rods are moved under water to covered part reservoir Here, workers use long aluminum tongs to remove uranium rods from the water and feed them to a machine that removes their aluminum shells.

To produce atomic energy, they use a special apparatus, which is often called a uranium boiler. It is a fairly large structure in which uranium rods alternate with layers of moderator. Fast neutrons, released during the fission of uranium-235 nuclei, enter the moderator layer and, pushing between its atoms, lose most its speed.

The ratio &N1/N, which expresses the effective cross section of the fission process, depends on the neutron energy. This process (called neutron moderation) is carried out by placing uranium rods of certain substances (heavy water, graphite, etc.) in the reactor volume; during elastic collisions with the nuclei of these substances, the neutron gradually loses kinetic energy to values corresponding to the reactor temperature.

Two steel profiled beams are located near the central compartment. Across these beams is a series of parallel beams that span the top opening of the tank and support the uranium rods. The steel bars are coated with copper, nickel and chrome to prevent corrosion. The arrangement of uranium rods in a square lattice can be changed by changing the distance between the corresponding bars. Uranium metal in the form of short rods can be placed at the desired height in aluminum pipes, into the lower end of which plugs are welded.

During the fission of uranium-235 nuclei, fast neutrons, escaping from the uranium rods, enter graphite. Here they collide with the carbon nuclei that make up graphite, quickly lose speed and again fall into other uranium rods, already slowed down.

The use of nitric acid is preferable for dissolving any fuel elements, since the resulting solutions can be sent for processing using a standard extraction system. Uranium rods, after removing the aluminum shells, dissolve quickly and completely without the release of hydrogen. The process proceeds satisfactorily when highest levels radiation.

Finally, power reactors are designed to produce and utilize nuclear energy. In Fig. 21 given typical diagram power nuclear reactor. Uranium rods make up the reactor core. In the same zone there are rods that slow down neutrons.

Refractory metals play a major role in nuclear technology. Scientists are focusing on research on a number of carbides, especially silicon carbide, chromium carbide, and hafnium carbide. Aluminum is an important construction material high degree purity, which is used to coat uranium reactor rods to protect them from corrosion.

Reactors in which the fuel and moderator are separated from each other are called heterogeneous. An example is the uranium-graphite reactor. When used as a source of nuclear energy, the reactor (for example, the uranium rods themselves) is penetrated by tubes through which a substance circulates that removes heat. This substance - a coolant - should, if possible, absorb little neutrons.

However, during the operation of a nuclear reactor, as a result of the fission of uranium-235 nuclei, radioactive decay products, or, as they are called, fission fragments, begin to accumulate in the uranium rods. Some of these nuclei greedily absorb neutrons. Therefore, as fission fragments accumulate in uranium rods, more and more neutrons released as a result of the chain reaction begin to be wasted, they are captured by the nuclei of fission fragments. Therefore, after some time, the uranium rods are removed from the reactor, and new, fresh uranium rods are inserted in their place. In order for the reactor to operate continuously, uranium rods are replaced in sections. Therefore, in a nuclear reactor, along with old ones that are already reaching the end of their service life, there are always young rods that only recently entered the reactor.

Plants for the chemical separation of plutonium serve several nuclear reactors. The equipment in these factories is housed in rooms with thick concrete walls located almost entirely underground. Uranium rods processed in nuclear reactors and kept for some time in special storage facilities come here. However, even after the aging period, uranium rods contain large amounts of radioactive fission products and are extremely dangerous for people. Therefore, all operations for their transportation and processing are controlled remotely using special devices.

Gas, presumably He, C02, S02 or another with low ac at thermal energies, is used as a coolant for a heterogeneous installation. This gas flows in cylindrical gaps around the uranium rods, one of which (serves as the control) is shown partially elongated. The thickness of the protection around the boiler is only about one third of the protection surrounding the reactor itself. To extract fission products, it is necessary to remove the uranium rods and treat them chemically, and not in the simplified way shown in the sketch.

Nuclear power generation is a modern and rapidly developing method of producing electricity. Do you know how nuclear power plants work? What is the operating principle of a nuclear power plant? What types of nuclear reactors exist today? We will try to consider in detail the operation scheme of a nuclear power plant, delve into the structure of a nuclear reactor and find out how safe the nuclear method of generating electricity is.

Any station is a closed area far from a residential area. There are several buildings on its territory. The most important structure is the reactor building, next to it is the turbine room from which the reactor is controlled, and the safety building.

The scheme is impossible without a nuclear reactor. An atomic (nuclear) reactor is a nuclear power plant device that is designed to organize a chain reaction of neutron fission with the obligatory release of energy during this process. But what is the operating principle of a nuclear power plant?

The entire reactor installation is housed in the reactor building, a large concrete tower that hides the reactor and will contain all the products of the nuclear reaction in the event of an accident. This large tower is called containment, hermetic shell or containment zone.

The hermetic zone in new reactors has 2 thick concrete walls - shells.
The outer shell, 80 cm thick, protects the containment zone from external influences.

The inner shell, 1 meter 20 cm thick, has special steel cables that increase the strength of concrete almost three times and will prevent the structure from crumbling. WITH inside it is lined with a thin sheet of special steel, which is designed to serve as additional protection for the containment and, in the event of an accident, not to release the contents of the reactor outside the containment zone.

This design of the nuclear power plant allows it to withstand an airplane crash weighing up to 200 tons, a magnitude 8 earthquake, a tornado and a tsunami.

The first sealed shell was built at the American Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant in 1968.

The total height of the containment zone is 50-60 meters.

What does a nuclear reactor consist of?

To understand the operating principle of a nuclear reactor, and therefore the operating principle of a nuclear power plant, you need to understand the components of the reactor.

Active zone. This is the area where the nuclear fuel (fuel generator) and moderator are placed. Fuel atoms (most often uranium is the fuel) undergo a chain fission reaction. The moderator is designed to control the fission process and allows for the required reaction in terms of speed and strength.
Neutron reflector. A reflector surrounds the core. It consists of the same material as the moderator. In essence, this is a box, the main purpose of which is to prevent neutrons from leaving the core and entering the environment.
Coolant. The coolant must absorb the heat released during the fission of fuel atoms and transfer it to other substances. The coolant largely determines how a nuclear power plant is designed. The most popular coolant today is water.
Reactor control system. Sensors and mechanisms that power a nuclear power plant reactor.

Fuel for nuclear power plants

What does a nuclear power plant operate on? Fuel for nuclear power plants are chemical elements with radioactive properties. At all nuclear power plants, this element is uranium.

The design of the stations implies that nuclear power plants operate on complex composite fuel, and not on pure chemical element. And in order to extract uranium fuel from natural uranium, which is loaded into a nuclear reactor, it is necessary to carry out many manipulations.

Enriched uranium

Uranium consists of two isotopes, that is, it contains nuclei with different weights. They were named by the number of protons and neutrons isotope -235 and isotope-238. Researchers of the 20th century began to extract uranium 235 from ore, because... it was easier to decompose and transform. It turned out that such uranium in nature is only 0.7% (the remaining percentage goes to the 238th isotope).

What to do in this case? They decided to enrich uranium. Uranium enrichment is a process in which a lot of the necessary 235x isotopes remain in it and few unnecessary 238x isotopes. The task of uranium enrichers is to turn 0.7% into almost 100% uranium-235.

Uranium can be enriched using two technologies: gas diffusion or gas centrifuge. To use them, uranium extracted from ore is converted into a gaseous state. It is enriched in the form of gas.

Uranium powder

Enriched uranium gas is converted into a solid state - uranium dioxide. This pure solid uranium 235 appears as large white crystals, which are later crushed into uranium powder.

Uranium tablets

Uranium tablets are solid metal discs, a couple of centimeters long. To form such tablets from uranium powder, it is mixed with a substance - a plasticizer; it improves the quality of pressing the tablets.

The pressed pucks are baked at a temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius for more than a day to give the tablets special strength and resistance to high temperatures. How a nuclear power plant operates directly depends on how well the uranium fuel is compressed and baked.

The tablets are baked in molybdenum boxes, because only this metal is capable of not melting at “hellish” temperatures of over one and a half thousand degrees. After this, uranium fuel for nuclear power plants is considered ready.

What are TVEL and FA?

The reactor core looks like a huge disk or pipe with holes in the walls (depending on the type of reactor), 5 times larger than the human body. These holes contain uranium fuel, the atoms of which carry out the desired reaction.

It’s impossible to just throw fuel into the reactor, well, unless you want to cause an explosion of the entire station and an accident with consequences for a couple of nearby states. Therefore, uranium fuel is placed in fuel rods and then collected in fuel assemblies. What do these abbreviations mean?

TVEL – fuel element (not to be confused with the same name Russian company, which produces them). It is essentially a thin and long zirconium tube made from zirconium alloys into which uranium tablets are placed. It is in fuel rods that uranium atoms begin to interact with each other, releasing heat during the reaction.

Zirconium was chosen as a material for the production of fuel rods due to its refractoriness and anti-corrosion properties.

The type of fuel rods depends on the type and structure of the reactor. As a rule, the structure and purpose of fuel rods does not change; the length and width of the tube can be different.

The machine loads more than 200 uranium pellets into one zirconium tube. In total, about 10 million uranium pellets are working simultaneously in the reactor.
FA – fuel assembly. NPP workers call fuel assemblies bundles.

Essentially, these are several fuel rods fastened together. FA is finished nuclear fuel, what a nuclear power plant operates on. It is the fuel assemblies that are loaded into the nuclear reactor. About 150 – 400 fuel assemblies are placed in one reactor.
Depending on the reactor in which the fuel assemblies will operate, they can be different shapes. Sometimes the bundles are folded into a cubic, sometimes into a cylindrical, sometimes into a hexagonal shape.

One fuel assembly over 4 years of operation produces the same amount of energy as when burning 670 wagons of coal, 730 tanks with natural gas or 900 tanks loaded with oil.
Today, fuel assemblies are produced mainly at factories in Russia, France, the USA and Japan.

To deliver fuel for nuclear power plants to other countries, fuel assemblies are sealed in long and wide metal pipes, the air is pumped out of the pipes and delivered by special machines on board cargo planes.

Nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants weighs prohibitively much, because... uranium is one of the most heavy metals on the planet. His specific gravity 2.5 times more than steel.

Nuclear power plant: operating principle

What is the operating principle of a nuclear power plant? The operating principle of nuclear power plants is based on a chain reaction of fission of atoms of a radioactive substance - uranium. This reaction occurs in the core of a nuclear reactor.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW:

Without going into the intricacies of nuclear physics, the operating principle of a nuclear power plant looks like this:
After the start-up of a nuclear reactor, absorber rods are removed from the fuel rods, which prevent the uranium from reacting.

Once the rods are removed, the uranium neutrons begin to interact with each other.

When neutrons collide, a mini-explosion occurs at the atomic level, energy is released and new neutrons are born, a chain reaction begins to occur. This process generates heat.

Heat is transferred to the coolant. Depending on the type of coolant, it turns into steam or gas, which rotates the turbine.

The turbine drives an electric generator. It is he who actually generates the electric current.

If you do not monitor the process, uranium neutrons can collide with each other until they explode the reactor and smash the entire nuclear power plant to smithereens. The process is controlled by computer sensors. They detect an increase in temperature or change in pressure in the reactor and can automatically stop reactions.

How does the operating principle of nuclear power plants differ from thermal power plants (thermal power plants)?

There are differences in work only in the first stages. In a nuclear power plant, the coolant receives heat from the fission of atoms of uranium fuel; in a thermal power plant, the coolant receives heat from the combustion of organic fuel (coal, gas or oil). After either uranium atoms or gas and coal have released heat, the operation schemes of nuclear power plants and thermal power plants are the same.

Types of nuclear reactors

How a nuclear power plant works depends on how it works atomic reactor. Today there are two main types of reactors, which are classified according to the spectrum of neurons:
A slow neutron reactor, also called a thermal reactor.

For its operation, uranium 235 is used, which goes through the stages of enrichment, creation of uranium pellets, etc. Today, the vast majority of reactors use slow neutrons.
Fast neutron reactor.

These reactors are the future, because... They work on uranium-238, which is a dime a dozen in nature and there is no need to enrich this element. The only downside of such reactors is the very high costs of design, construction and startup. Today, fast neutron reactors operate only in Russia.

The coolant in fast neutron reactors is mercury, gas, sodium or lead.

Slow neutron reactors, which all nuclear power plants in the world use today, also come in several types.

The IAEA organization (International Atomic Energy Agency) has created its own classification, which is most often used in the global nuclear energy industry. Since the operating principle of a nuclear power plant largely depends on the choice of coolant and moderator, the IAEA based its classification on these differences.

From a chemical point of view, deuterium oxide is an ideal moderator and coolant, because its atoms interact most effectively with neutrons of uranium compared to other substances. Simply put, heavy water performs its task with minimal losses and maximum results. However, its production costs money, while ordinary “light” and familiar water is much easier to use.

A few facts about nuclear reactors...

It’s interesting that one nuclear power plant reactor takes at least 3 years to build!
To build a reactor you need equipment that runs on electric current at 210 kilo Amperes, which is a million times greater than the current that can kill a person.

One shell (structural element) of a nuclear reactor weighs 150 tons. There are 6 such elements in one reactor.

Pressurized water reactor

We have already found out how a nuclear power plant works in general; to put everything into perspective, let’s look at how the most popular pressurized water nuclear reactor works.
All over the world today, generation 3+ pressurized water reactors are used. They are considered the most reliable and safe.

All pressurized water reactors in the world, over all the years of their operation, have already accumulated more than 1000 years of trouble-free operation and have never given serious deviations.

The structure of nuclear power plants using pressurized water reactors implies that distilled water heated to 320 degrees circulates between the fuel rods. To prevent it from going into a vapor state, it is kept under pressure of 160 atmospheres. The nuclear power plant diagram calls it primary circuit water.

The heated water enters the steam generator and gives up its heat to the secondary circuit water, after which it “returns” to the reactor again. Outwardly, it looks like the water tubes of the first circuit are in contact with other tubes - the water of the second circuit, they transfer heat to each other, but the waters do not come into contact. The tubes are in contact.

Thus, the possibility of radiation entering the secondary circuit water, which will further participate in the process of generating electricity, is excluded.

NPP operational safety

Having learned the principle of operation of nuclear power plants, we must understand how safety works. The construction of nuclear power plants today requires increased attention to safety rules.
NPP safety costs account for approximately 40% of the total cost of the plant itself.

The nuclear power plant design includes 4 physical barriers that prevent the release of radioactive substances. What are these barriers supposed to do? Be able to stop at the right time nuclear reaction, ensure constant heat removal from the core and the reactor itself, and prevent the release of radionucleides beyond the containment (hermetic zone).

The first barrier is the strength of uranium pellets. It is important that they are not destroyed by exposure high temperatures in a nuclear reactor. Much of how a nuclear power plant operates depends on how the uranium pellets are “baked” during the initial manufacturing stage. If the uranium fuel pellets are not baked correctly, the reactions of the uranium atoms in the reactor will be unpredictable.
The second barrier is the tightness of fuel rods. Zirconium tubes must be tightly sealed; if the seal is broken, then best case scenario the reactor will be damaged and work will be stopped, in the worst case, everything will blow up.
The third barrier is a durable steel reactor vessel a, (that same large tower - hermetic zone) which “holds” all radioactive processes. If the housing is damaged, radiation will escape into the atmosphere.
The fourth barrier is emergency protection rods. Rods with moderators are suspended above the core by magnets, which can absorb all neutrons in 2 seconds and stop the chain reaction.

If, despite the design of a nuclear power plant with many degrees of protection, it is not possible to cool the reactor core at the right time, and the fuel temperature rises to 2600 degrees, then the last hope of the safety system comes into play - the so-called melt trap.

The fact is that at this temperature the bottom of the reactor vessel will melt, and all the remains of nuclear fuel and molten structures will flow into a special “glass” suspended above the reactor core.

The melt trap is refrigerated and fireproof. It is filled with so-called “sacrificial material”, which gradually stops the fission chain reaction.

Thus, the nuclear power plant design implies several degrees of protection, which almost completely eliminate any possibility of an accident.

Which, in turn, can cause the fission of subsequent nuclei. This fission occurs when a neutron hits the nucleus of an atom of the original substance. The fission fragments formed during nuclear fission are large. The inhibition of fission fragments in a substance is accompanied by the release large quantity heat. Fission fragments are nuclei formed directly as a result of fission. Fission fragments and their radioactive decay products are usually called fission products. Nuclei fissile by neutrons of any energy are called nuclear fuel (as a rule, these are substances with an odd atomic number). There are nuclei that are fissioned only by neutrons with energies above a certain threshold value (usually elements with an even atomic number). Such nuclei are called raw material, because when a neutron is captured by a threshold nucleus, nuclear fuel nuclei are formed. The combination of nuclear fuel and raw material is called nuclear fuel. Below is the distribution of the fission energy of the 235 U nucleus between the various fission products (in MeV):

Natural uranium consists of three isotopes: 238 U (99.282%), 235 U (0.712%) and 234 U (0.006%). It is not always suitable as nuclear fuel, especially if the construction materials intensively absorb . In this case, nuclear fuel is prepared from enriched uranium. In power plants, uranium with an enrichment of less than 10% is used, and in nuclear and neutron reactors, uranium enrichment exceeds 20%. Enriched uranium is produced at special enrichment plants.

Classification

Nuclear fuel is divided into two types:

Natural, containing fissile nuclei 235 U, as well as raw materials 238 U, capable of forming 239 Pu upon neutron capture;
Secondary fuel that does not occur in nature, including 239 Pu, obtained from fuel of the first type, as well as 233 U isotopes formed when neutrons are captured by 232 Th nuclei.

By chemical composition, nuclear fuel can be:

, including ;
(For example, );
(For example, )
Mixed (PuO 2 + UO 2)

Application

Nuclear fuel is used in, where it is usually located in hermetically sealed fuel elements () in the form of tablets several centimeters in size.

Nuclear fuel is subject to high requirements for chemical compatibility with fuel rod claddings; it must have sufficient melting and evaporation temperatures, good temperature, a slight increase in volume during irradiation, and manufacturability.

Receipt

Uranium fuel

Nuclear fuel is obtained by processing ores. The process occurs in several stages:

For poor fields: In modern industry, due to the lack of rich uranium ores (the exceptions are Canadian deposits of unconformity, where the concentration of uranium reaches 30% and Australian deposits with a uranium content of up to 3%), the method of underground leaching of ores is used. This eliminates costly ore mining. Preliminary preparation goes directly underground. Through injection pipes underground above the deposit is pumped, sometimes with the addition of ferric salts (to oxidize uranium U(IV) to U(VI)), although the ores often contain iron and pyrolusite, which facilitate oxidation. Through pumping pipes Using special pumps, a solution of sulfuric acid with uranium rises to the surface. Next, it directly goes to sorption, hydrometallurgical extraction and simultaneous concentration of uranium.
For ore deposits: use and .
Hydrometallurgical processing is the crushing, leaching, or extraction of uranium to produce purified uranium oxide U 3 O 8 or sodium diuranate Na 2 U 2 O 7 or ammonium diuranate.
Conversion of uranium from oxide to tetrafluoride, or from oxides directly to produce hexafluoride, which is used to enrich uranium in the 235 isotope.
Enrichment by gas thermal diffusion methods or centrifugation (See)
UF 6 enriched at 235

Due to the fact that nuclear fuel is more efficient than all other types of fuel that we have today, great preference is given to everything that can work with the help of nuclear plants (nuclear power plants, submarines, ships, etc.). We will talk further about how nuclear fuel for reactors is produced.

Uranium is mined in two main ways:
1) Direct mining in quarries or mines, if the depth of the uranium allows it. With this method, I hope everything is clear.
2) Underground leaching. This is when wells are drilled at the place where uranium is found, a weak solution of sulfuric acid is pumped into them, and the solution interacts with the uranium, combining with it. Then the resulting mixture is pumped upward, to the surface, and from it chemical methods uranium is released.

Let's imagine that we have already extracted uranium at the mine and prepared it for further transformations. The photo below shows the so-called “yellowcake”, U3O8. In a barrel for further transportation.

Everything would be fine, and in theory this uranium could be immediately used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants, but alas. Nature, as always, gave us work to do. The fact is that natural uranium consists of a mixture of three isotopes. These are U238 (99.2745%), U235 (0.72%) and U234 (0.0055%). We are only interested in U235 here - since it perfectly shares thermal neutrons in the reactor, it is it that allows us to enjoy all the benefits of the fission chain reaction. Unfortunately, its natural concentration is not enough for stable and long work modern nuclear power plant reactor. Although, as far as I know, the RBMK apparatus is designed in such a way that it can launch on fuel made from natural uranium, but the stability, longevity and safety of operation on such fuel is not guaranteed at all.
We need to enrich uranium. That is, increase the concentration of U235 from natural to that used in the reactor.
For example, the RBMK reactor operates on 2.8% enriched uranium, while the VVER-1000 reactor operates on 1.6 to 5.0% enriched uranium. Marine and naval nuclear power plants consume fuel enriched up to 20%. And some research reactors operate on fuel with 90% enrichment (for example, IRT-T in Tomsk).
In Russia, uranium enrichment is carried out using gas centrifuges. That is, that yellow powder that was in the photo earlier is converted into gas, uranium hexafluoride UF6. This gas is then fed to a cascade of centrifuges. At the exit from each centrifuge, due to the difference in weight of the U235 and U238 nuclei, we obtain uranium hexafluoride with a slightly increased content of U235. The process is repeated many times and in the end we obtain uranium hexafluoride with the enrichment we need. In the photo below you can just see the scale of the cascade of centrifuges - there are a lot of them and they extend into distant distances.

The UF6 gas is then converted back to UO2, in powder form. Chemistry, after all, is a very useful science and allows us to create such miracles.
However, this powder cannot be easily poured into the reactor. Or rather, you can fall asleep, but nothing good will come of it. It (the powder) must be brought to such a form that we can lower it into the reactor for a long time, for years. In this case, the fuel itself should not come into contact with the coolant and go beyond the core. And on top of all this, the fuel must withstand the very, very severe pressures and temperatures that will arise in it when working inside the reactor.
By the way, I forgot to say that the powder is also not just any kind - it must be of a certain size so that during pressing and sintering unnecessary voids and cracks do not form. First, tablets are made from the powder by pressing and baking for a long time (the technology is really not easy, if it is violated, the fuel tablets will not be usable). I will show the variations of the tablets in the photo below.

Holes and notches on the tablets are needed to compensate for thermal expansion and radiation changes. In the reactor, over time, the tablets swell, bend, change sizes, and if nothing is provided for, they can collapse, and this is bad.

The finished tablets are then packaged in metal tubes (made of steel, zirconium and its alloys and other metals). The tubes are closed at both ends and sealed. The finished tube with fuel is called a fuel element - a fuel element.

Different reactors require fuel rods different designs and enrichment. RBMK fuel rods, for example, are 3.5 meters long. Fuel elements, by the way, are not only rod ones. as in the photo. They are plate, ring, sea various types and modifications.
The fuel elements are then combined into fuel assemblies - FAs. The fuel assembly of the RBMK reactor consists of 18 fuel rods and looks something like this:

The fuel assembly of a VVER reactor looks like this:
As you can see, the fuel assembly of the VVER reactor consists of a much larger number of fuel rods than that of the RBMK.
The finished special product (FA) is then delivered to the nuclear power plant in compliance with safety precautions. Why precautions? Nuclear fuel, although not yet radioactive, is very valuable, expensive, and if handled very carelessly can cause many problems. Then the final control of the condition of the fuel assembly is carried out and loading into the reactor. That's it, uranium has come a long way from ore underground to a high-tech device inside a nuclear reactor. Now he has a different fate - to strain inside the reactor for several years and release precious heat, which water (or any other coolant) will take from him.

In 2011, the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant produced and sold 70% of the world's consumption of the lithium-7 isotope (1300 kg), setting a new record in the history of the plant. However, the main product produced by NCCP is nuclear fuel.

This phrase has an impressive and frightening effect on the consciousness of Novosibirsk residents, forcing them to imagine anything about the enterprise: from three-legged workers and a separate underground city and ending with radioactive wind.

So what is actually hidden behind the fences of the most mysterious plant in Novosibirsk, which produces nuclear fuel within the city?

OJSC "Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant" is one of the world's leading producers of nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants and research reactors in Russia and foreign countries. The only one Russian manufacturer metallic lithium and its salts. It is part of the TVEL Fuel Company of the Rosatom State Corporation.

We came to the workshop where fuel assemblies are made - fuel assemblies, which are loaded into nuclear power reactors. This is nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants. To enter the production you need to put on a robe, a cap, fabric shoe covers, and a “Petal” on your face.

All work related to uranium-containing materials is concentrated in the workshop. This technological complex is one of the main ones for NCCP (fuel assemblies for nuclear power plants occupy approximately 50% of the structure products sold OJSC "NZHK").

The control room, from where the process of producing uranium dioxide powder is controlled, from which fuel pellets are then made.

Workers carry out routine maintenance: at certain intervals, even the newest equipment is stopped and checked. There is always a lot of air in the workshop itself - exhaust ventilation is constantly running.

Uranium dioxide powder is stored in such bicones. They mix the powder and plasticizer, which allows the tablet to be better compressed.

An installation that compresses fuel pellets. Just as children make Easter cakes out of sand by pressing on a mold, so here: a uranium tablet is pressed under pressure.

A molybdenum boat with tablets waiting to be sent to the furnace for annealing. Before annealing, the tablets have a greenish tint and a different size.

Contact of powder, tablets and environment reduced to a minimum: all work is carried out in boxes. In order to correct something inside, special gloves are built into the boxes.

The torches on top are burning hydrogen. The tablets are annealed in ovens at a temperature of at least 1750 degrees in a hydrogen reducing environment for more than 20 hours.

Black cabinets are hydrogen high temperature furnaces in which the molybdenum boat goes through different temperature zones. The damper opens, and a molybdenum boat enters the furnace, from where flames burst out.

The finished tablets are polished because they must be of a strictly defined size. And at the exit, inspectors check each tablet to ensure there are no chips, cracks, or defects.

One tablet weighing 4.5 g is equivalent in energy release to 640 kg of firewood, 400 kg coal, 360 cc m of gas, 350 kg of oil.

Uranium dioxide tablets after annealing in a hydrogen furnace.

Here, zirconium tubes are filled with uranium dioxide pellets. At the output we have ready-made fuel rods (about 4 m in length) - fuel elements. Fuel rods are already used to assemble fuel assemblies, in other words, nuclear fuel.

You won’t find such soda fountains on city streets anymore, perhaps only at NZHK. Although in Soviet times they were very common.

In this machine, the glass can be washed and then filled with sparkling, still or chilled water.

According to the department natural resources and environmental protection, expressed in 2010, NCCP does not have a significant impact on environmental pollution.

A pair of such purebred hens constantly lives and lays eggs in a high-quality wooden enclosure, which is located on the territory of the workshop.

Workers weld the frame for the fuel assembly. The frames are different, depending on the modification of the fuel assembly.

The plant employs 2,277 people, average age personnel - 44.3 years old, 58% are men. Average wage exceeds 38,000 rubles.

Large tubes are channels for the reactor protection control system. 312 fuel rods will then be installed into this frame.

Next to the NCCP there is CHPP-4. With reference to environmentalists, representatives of the plant reported: per year, one thermal power plant emits 7.5 times more radioactive substances than the NCCP.

Fitter-assembler Viktor Pustozerov, a veteran of the plant and nuclear energy, has 2 Orders of Labor Glory

Head and shank for fuel assemblies. They are installed at the very end, when all 312 fuel rods are already in the frame.

Final control: finished fuel assemblies are checked with special probes so that the distance between the fuel rods is the same. Controllers are most often women; this is a very painstaking job.

In such containers, fuel assemblies are sent to the consumer - 2 cassettes in each. Inside they have their own cozy felt bed.

Fuel for nuclear power plants produced by JSC NCCP is used at Russian nuclear power plants and is also supplied to Ukraine, Bulgaria, China, India and Iran. The cost of fuel assemblies is a trade secret.

Work at NCCP is not at all more dangerous than work on any industrial enterprise. The health status of workers is constantly monitored. Behind last years Not a single case of occupational diseases was identified among workers.