XA9643084 IAEA-TECDOC-907 Conceptual designs of advanced fast reactors Proceedings of a Technical Committee meeting held in Kalpakkam, India, 3-6 October 1995 INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY The originating Section of this publication in the IAEA was: Nuclear Power Technology Development Section International Atomic Energy Agency Wagramerstrasse 5 P.O. Box 100 A-1400 Vienna, Austria CONCEPTUAL DESIGNS OF ADVANCED FAST REACTORS IAEA, VIENNA, 1996 IAEA-TECDOC-907 ISSN 1011-4289 © IAEA, 1996 Printed by the IAEA in Austria October 1996 The IAEA does not normally maintain stocks of reports in this series. However, microfiche copies of these reports can be obtained from IN IS Clearinghouse International Atomic Energy Agency Wagramerstrasse 5 P.O. Box 100 A-1400 Vienna, Austria Orders should be accompanied by prepayment of Austrian Schillings 100,- in the form of a cheque or in the form of IAEA microfiche service coupons which may be ordered separately from the IN IS Clearinghouse. FOREWORD Liquid metal fast reactors (LMFRs) have been under development for more than 45 years. Twenty LMFRs have been constructed and operated. Five prototype and near- commercial-scale LMFRs (BN-350/Kazakhstan, Phinix/France, PFR/United Kingdom, BN- 600/Russian Federation, Superph6nix/France), with an electrical output of between 250 and 1200 MW(e), have accumulated more than 85 reactor-years of operating experience. Altogether, LMFRs have accumulated more than 280 reactor-years of operating experience. In most cases the overall experience has been satisfactory; however, some incidents or failures occurred in the operation of the first prototype reactors. These were thought to be due to faulty design or fabrication. Large scale LMFR plants were planned at the time when uranium prices were high, rising, and expected to continue to climb. Under those circumstances it was expected that LMFRs, even with high capital costs, would eventually be able to compete with LWRs due to breeding of new fissile materials. The nuclear community now faces conditions which were not foreseen two decades ago. The most important of them are stable, low prices for uranium, a lower electricity demand growth rate, and the improved fuel utilization in modern LWR nuclear plants. Although fast reactors will likely be necessary both to meet long term fissile materials requirements and to reduce the quantities of long lived radoiactive waste, it is now recognized that FR technology must be developed further to make FRs more economically competitive with LWRs. This means that improved LMFR design drawing upon the lessons learned from existing plants, which are costly and take longer to construct than thermal reactors, should result in plants that are simpler and cheaper to construct while maintaining higher safety levels. In addition of being economically competitive with LWRs, fast reactors are beneficial from the environmental viewpoint, since they are capable of converting radioactive waste to more environmentally benign forms and significantly reduce the amount of uranium that must be mined. Considerable efforts have been made in recent years in France, the Russian Federation, Japan, the USA and India to lower the capital costs of advanced LMFRs. It appears that the goals of LMFRs economically competitive with LWRs can be reached. In this context, a Technical Committee meeting (TCM) was held on Conceptual Designs of Advanced Fast Power Reactors to review the lessons learned from the construction and operation of demonstration and near-commercial size plants. This TCM focused on design and development of advanced fast reactors and identified methodologies to evaluate the economic competitiveness and reliability of advanced projects. The Member States which participated in the TCM were at different stages of LMFR development. The Russian Federation, Japan and India had prototype and/or experimental LMFRs and continue with mature R&D programmes. China, the Republic of Korea and Brazil were at the beginning of LMFR development. Therefore the aims of the TCM were to obtain technical descriptions of different design approaches for experimental, prototype, demonstration and commercial LMFRs, and to describe the engineering judgements made in developing the design approaches. The IAEA wishes to thank all the participants for their contributions to this publication. EDITORIAL NOTE In preparing this publication for press, staff of the IAEA have made up the pages from the original manuscripts as submitted by the authors. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the governments of the nominating Member States or of the nominating organizations. Throughout the text names of Member States are retained as they were when the text was compiled. The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA. The authors are responsible for having obtained the necessary permission for the IAEA to reproduce, translate or use material from sources already protected by copyrights. CONTENTS Summary and Conclusions of the Technical Committee meeting 7 LMFR design and operation experience 17 F.M. Mitenkov, A.L. Kiryushin, Ju.L. Kamanin, N.G. Kuzavkov, Ju.A. Lebedev,V.M. Poplavsky, N.N. Oshkanov BN-600 power unit 15-year operating experience 27 O.M. Saraev, N.N. Oshkanov, V.V. Vylomov Recent progress in conceptual design of LMFR in China 33 Xu Mi, Ma Dayuan, Chen Yishao An overview of REARA reference design 51 A. Menezes The development of demonstration fast breeder reactor (DFBR) 59 T. Nakamura, T. Inagaki, Y. Shibata, K. Tarutani, K. Okada Prototype fast breeder reactor main options 71 S.B. Bhoje, P. Chellapandi Conceptual design of PFBR core 83 S.M. Lee, S. Govindarajan, R. Indira, T.M. John, P. Mohanakrishnan, R. Shankar Singh, S.B. Bhoje Conceptual design of reactor assembly of prototype fast breeder reactor 101 A. Selvaraj, V. Balasubramaniyan, S. Raghupathy, D. Elango, B.S. Sodhi, S.C. Chetal, S.B. Bhoje Conceptual design of heat transport systems and components of PFBR-NSSS 117 S.C. Chetal, S.B. Bhoje, R.D. Kale, A.S.L.K. Rao, T.K. Mitra, A. Selvaraj, V.K. Sethi, T.R. Sundaramoorthy, V. Balasubramaniyan, G. Vaidyanathan Conceptual design of core component handling system in PFBR 133 B.S. Sodhi, Sulekh Chander, S.C. Chetal, A. Selvaraj, A.K. Kohli, Rajesh Chandra Conceptual design of safety instrumentation for PFBR 147 G. Muralikrishna, U. Seshadri, K. Raghavan Safety considerations in the design of PFBR 159 G. Vaidyanathan, Om Pal Singh, S. Govindarajan, P. Challapandi, S.C. Chetal, R. Shankar Singh, S.B. Bhoje Design of the advanced reactor BN-600M 167 A. Kiryushin, Yu. Kamanin, N. Kuzavkov, V. Rogov Intelligent type sodium instrumentations for LMFR 177 Daolong Chen Safety features and core performance of KALIMER 193 D. Hahn, B.J. Min, Y.I. Kim, Y.C. Kim, M. Cho Elevation configuration of KALIMER intermediate system 213 Y.S. Sim, M.H. Wi, Y.S. Kim.Y.C. Kim, M. Cho Study and choice of main characteristics of fast reactor - effective minor actinide burner 225 I.Yu. Krivitski, V.I. Matveev, V.M. Poplavski Advanced design of the fast breeder reactor in PNC 237 R. Mukaibo Abbreviations 243 List of participants 245 !®ft BLANK SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEETING 1. INTRODUCTION The liquid metal reactor technology has demonstrated a number of effective designs, project realization and experience in construction and operation. Some incidents and/or failures have been experienced in the operation of the first prototype and demonstration reactors, but it should be noted that the mechanical failures in LMFRs were more a consequence of faulty detailed design decisions and/or fabrication errors than faults in the basic concept. The operating experience indicated that some LMFR design aspects should be improved. The construction of BN-600, SPX and Monju have indicated that LMFRs are costly and take more time for construction than thermal reactors. Therefore, efforts are being made to reduce the capital costs and construction time. The safety record of LMFR is good and many encouraging results have been obtained on controllability, shutdown systems, decay heat removal and other major systems and components. Certain improvements in safety are being considered, such as prevention, detection and mitigation of leaks and fires of sodium, passive shutdown and decay heat removal systems, core catcher and improved containment. Fast reactor programmes have recently been initiated in the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and Brazil. International exchange of information and experience is becoming of increasing importance to these countries. In view of these circumstances the International Working Group on Fast Reactors at its Annual Meeting in May 1994, recommended to convene a technical committee meeting to review and discuss the following general topics: (1) lessons learned from experience with prototype and demonstration plants, applicable to design of advanced LMFRs; (2) developments in advanced LMFRs and their general design features; (3) anticipated performance of advanced LMFRs; and (4) status of R&D programmes, findings and conclusions, future needs and trends. The Technical Committee Meeting (TCM) on Conceptual Designs of Advanced Fast Power Reactors, was hosted by the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR). About thirty specialists from Brazil, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation participated in the TCM and presented a total of 18 papers. A technical tour of the IGCAR facilities, including experimental liquid metal fast breeder test reactor FTBR took place during the TCM. 2. SUMMARY OF TECHNICAL SESSIONS 2.1.