Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom bas begun pilot operation of a unit for the fabrication and refabrication nuclear fuel for the Generation IV Brest-OD-300 pilot demonstration power plant in Seversk, southwest Siberia.

Rosatom said the fully automated facility has already manufactured the first mockup fuel bundles.

The Brest-OD-300 plant uses mixed dense nitride uranium-plutonium (MNUP) fuel, which has been successfully tested in the Bor-60 fast research reactor and the commercial BN-600 fast reactor at the Beloyarsk nuclear power station near Yekaterinburg in the Urals.