Advances in Structural Materials for Fast-Reactor Cores

Abstract

The strategy for the growth of nuclear power in our country in the first half of the 21st century provides for building and commissioning new-generation fast reactors with different coolants: sodium (BN-800, BN-1200, MBIR) and lead (BREST-OD-300). Structural materials with the required level of radiation and heat resistance as well as corrosion resistance upon exposure to the fission products of nuclear fuel, in the coolant, and the spent-fuel pool must be developed for the reactor cores in order to ensure the performance of the reactors under construction and to reach economically expedient burnup of nuclear fuel. The basic results of the performance validation of structural materials in application to their use in the cores of operating (BOR-60, BN-600) and advanced fast reactors with different types of coolants as well as the prospects for further advancement of the research are presented.