Nuclear Safety 2011 Experimental Facilities for Sodium Fast Reactor Safety Studies This report provides an overview of experimental facilities that can be used to carry out nuclear safety Experimental Facilities research for sodium fast reactors and identifies priorities for organising international co-operative programmes at selected facilities. The information has been collected and analysed by a Task Group on Reactor Safety Studies for Sodium Fast Experimental Facilities Advanced Reactor Experimental Facilities (TAREF) as part of an ongoing initiative of the NEA Committee for Sodium Fast Reactor on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) which aims to define and to implement a strategy for the efficient utilisation of facilities and resources for Generation IV reactor systems. Safety Studies Task Group on Advanced Reactor Experimental Facilities (TAREF) OECD Nuclear Energy Agency ISBN 978-92-64-99155-2 Le Seine Saint-Germain – 12, boulevard des Îles 92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux, France Tel.: +33 (0)1 45 24 10 15 – Fax: +33 (0)1 45 24 11 10 -:HSTCQE=^^VZZW: E-mail: [email protected] – Internet: www.oecd-nea.org NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY Nuclear Safety ISBN 978-92-64-99155-2 NEA/CSNI/R(2010)12 Experimental Facilities for Sodium Fast Reactor Safety Studies Task Group on Advanced Reactors Experimental Facilities (TAREF) © OECD 2011 NEA No. 6908 NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 34 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission takes part in the work of the OECD. OECD Publishing disseminates widely the results of the Organisation’s statistics gathering and research on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as the conventions, guidelines and standards agreed by its members. This work is published on the responsibility of the OECD Secretary-General. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries. NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) was established on 1 February 1958. Current NEA membership consists of 29 OECD member countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission also takes part in the work of the Agency. The mission of the NEA is: – to assist its member countries in maintaining and further developing, through international co-operation, the scientific, technological and legal bases required for a safe, environmentally friendly and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, as well as – to provide authoritative assessments and to forge common understandings on key issues, as input to government decisions on nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD policy analyses in areas such as energy and sustainable development. Specific areas of competence of the NEA include the safety and regulation of nuclear activities, radioactive waste management, radiological protection, nuclear science, economic and technical analyses of the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear law and liability, and public information. The NEA Data Bank provides nuclear data and computer program services for participating countries. In these and related tasks, the NEA works in close collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, with which it has a Co-operation Agreement, as well as with other international organisations in the nuclear field. Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found online at: www.oecd.org/publishing/corrigenda. © OECD 2011 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of the OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d'exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) [email protected]. Cover photos: Experimental fast reactor Joyo (JAEA, Japan); Fast breeder test reactor [FBTR] (IGCAR, India). FOREWORD In 2007, the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) completed a study on Nuclear Safety Research in OECD Countries: Support Facilities for Existing and Advanced Reactors (SFEAR) which focused on facilities suitable for current and advanced water reactor systems. In a subsequent collective opinion on the subject, the CSNI recommended to conduct a similar exercise for Generation IV reactor designs, aiming to develop a strategy for “better preparing the CSNI to play a role in the planned extension of safety research beyond the needs set by current operating reactors”. In that context, the CSNI established the Task Group on Advanced Reactor Experimental Facilities (TAREF) in 2008 with the objective of providing an overview of facilities suitable for performing safety research relevant to gas-cooled reactors and sodium fast reactors. This report addresses sodium fast reactors. The findings of the TAREF are expected to trigger internationally funded CSNI projects on relevant safety issues at the key facilities identified. Such CSNI-sponsored projects constitute a means for efficiently obtaining the necessary data through internationally co-ordinated research. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive summary .................................................................................................................. 7 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 13 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................... 13 1.2 Purpose .......................................................................................................................... 14 1.3 Scope ............................................................................................................................. 15 1.4 Approach ....................................................................................................................... 16 1.5 Co-ordination ................................................................................................................. 17 1.6 Organisation of the report .............................................................................................. 17 2. Outline of SFR systems ....................................................................................................... 19 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 19 2.2 Basic description of Generation IV SFR systems – General arrangement .................... 19 2.3 SFR fuel element characteristics ................................................................................... 25 2.4 Areas for innovations in SFRs ....................................................................................... 29 2.5 Safety studies ................................................................................................................. 31 3. Technical areas, safety issues and facilities ....................................................................... 35 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 35 3.2 Description of technical areas and related safety issues ................................................ 37 3.3 Facilities versus issues ................................................................................................... 63 4. Summary and recommendations ....................................................................................... 77 4.1 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 77 4.2 Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................................... 79 Appendices Appendix 1. Description of experimental