The brief

Analyst view

• Rosatom operates Russia's nuclear industry under state control: uranium mining, enrichment, reactor design and decommissioning.
• BREST-OD-300 at Seversk is the world's first lead-cooled power reactor, demonstrating on-site fuel recycling.
• Originally planned 2026 startup; postponed to 2029 pending additional development work.

Technical approach

As reported

Closed cycle

On-site fuel fabrication and reprocessing

Dedicated Proryv facilities fabricate uranium-plutonium nitride fuel and reprocess spent fuel on-site.

Lead cooling

High-boiling, low-activation coolant

Lead absorbs neutrons without high radioactivity, operates at atmospheric pressure, simplifies design.

Fast neutrons

Breeding and waste transmutation

Fast neutrons convert U-238 to Pu-239 and can transmute long-lived transuranic waste, multiplying fuel and reducing storage requirements.