OREANDA-NEWS. April 12, 2012. On the 11th of April, 2012 a delegation of the U.S. Department of Energy visited Beloyarsk NPP.

The 13-member delegation included Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Peter Bruce Lions, NNSA’s Assistant Deputy Administrator for fissile materials disposition Peter Hall Hanlon, as well as a team of managers and specialists of the U.S. Department of Energy, Idaho National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The delegation toured to the operating power unit with BN-600 reactor and construction site of BN-800 unit. During a meeting with Beloyarsk NPP management and the Directorate of Beloyarsk II under Construction the guests were briefed on technical and economic achievements of operation of BN-600 and progress in construction of BN-800 unit.

The representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy were interested in organization of the safe operation of fast neutron reactors. They asked many questions concerning material studies of structural materials, tests of various types of fuel in fast neutron reactors, as well as prospects of the international cooperation in this sphere.

The delegation members showed a great interest in further development paths of fast neutron reactors in Russia and activities to build the closed nuclear fuel cycle. Peter Lions, the head of the U.S. delegation, noted that Russia had an extremely important experience in operation of fast reactors. One of main goals of our visit was also the strive to study a possibility of cooperation between our countries in the field of the civil nuclear power, he added.