
Georgy Tikhomirov: closed nuclear fuel cycle opens up access to 99% percent of uranium’s energy
In 2021, in the Tomsk Region, located in Eastern Siberia, State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom began construction of the BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled reactor. Why can this project demonstrate the benefits of a closed nuclear fuel cycle? When will this technology be commercialised? And what is the future of thorium reactors? Georgy Tikhomirov, Deputy Director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics and Technology of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, one of the authors of the report “10 Breakthrough Ideas in Energy for the Next 10 Years”, answered these questions in an interview for the Global Energy Association.