The BN-350 was a sodium-cooled

Liquid metal cooled reactor

A liquid metal cooled nuclear reactor, liquid metal fast reactor or LMFR is an advanced type of nuclear reactor where the primary coolant is a liquid metal. Liquid metal cooled reactors were first adapted for nuclear submarine use but have also been extensively studied for power generation...

 fast reactor nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...

 located at Aktau

Aktau

Aktau , formerly known as Shevchenko , is a city in Kazakhstan's Mangyshlak Peninsula and country's only seaport on the Caspian Sea. It is the capital of Mangystau Province in western Kazakhstan...

 (formerly known as Shevchenko

Shevchenko

Shevchenko , a family name of Ukrainian origin. It is derived from the Ukrainian word shvets’, "shoemaker" and/or "tailor", and the suffix -enko, denoting descent...

 from 1964-1992), Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

, situated on the shore of the Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

. Construction of the BN-350 Fast breeder reactor began in 1964, and the plant first produced electricity in 1973. In addition to providing power for the city (150 MW_e), BN-350 was also used for producing plutonium

Plutonium

Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...

 and for desalination

Desalination

Desalination, desalinization, or desalinisation refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from saline water...

to supply fresh water (120,000 m³ fresh water/day) to the city.

The project lifetime of the reactor officially finished in 1993, and in June 1994, the reactor was forced to shut down because of a lack of funds to buy fuel. By 1995, the plant's operating license had expired. The facility continued to operate far below capacity until reactor operations ceased in 1999, when plutonium-bearing spent fuel stopped being produced.

External links and sources

• ANL report on Early Soviet Fast Reactors
• ANL update from 1995
• IAEA: Status of the BN-350 Fast Reactor for the period of May 1996 - May 1997
• Criticality Safety Issues in the Disposition of BN-350 Spent Fuel presented on June 4-8, 2000
• NTI: Securing Nuclear Warheads and Materials by Matthew Bunn, last updated by Josh Friedman on August 5, 2004