The plant was considered part of the weapons-grade Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement signed between the United States and Russia.

[6] The plant is a pool-type LMFBR, in which the reactor, coolant pumps, intermediate heat exchangers and associated piping are all located in a common liquid sodium pool.

The design of this plant was started in 1983 and was completely revised in 1987 after the Chernobyl disaster and to a somewhat lesser degree in 1993, according to the new safety guidelines.

While BN-600 uses medium-enriched uranium dioxide, this plant burns mixed uranium-plutonium fuel,[7] helping to reduce the weapons-grade plutonium stockpile and provide information about the functioning of the closed uranium-plutonium fuel cycle, which does not require plutonium separation or other chemical processing.

It resumed in 2006 and BN-800 achieved minimum controlled power in 2014, but issues led to further fuel development work.

[11] The United States and Russia reached an agreement in 2001 to render a total of 34 tons of weapons grade plutonium into reactor grade plutonium to reach the "spent fuel standard," which is mixed with other more radioactive products within spent fuel.

[12] US president Barack Obama canceled construction of the US MOX fuel fabrication facility in 2016, citing cost overruns.