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5-4
5.1. REACTOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS
N. L. Shapiro
Combustion Engineering Power Systems
The discussions in the preceding chapters, and also the discussion that follows in
Chapter 6, all assume that LWRs and advanced converters based on the HTGR, HWR, and SSCR con-
cepts will be available for commercial operation on denatured uranium-thorium (DUTH) fuels
on a relatively near-term time scale.
substantial reactor-related research and development will be required. The purpose of this
section is to delineate to the degree possible at this preliminary stage of development the
magnitude and scope of the reactor R,D&D requirements necessary for implementation of the
reactors on DUTH fuels and, further, to determine whether there are significant R,D&D cost
differences between the reactor systems. The requirements listed are those believed to be
necessary to resolve the technical issues that currently preclude the deployment of the
various reactor concepts on DUTH fuels, and no attempt is made to prejudge or to indicate
a preferred system.
If this commercialization schedule is to be achieved,
It is to be emphasized that the proper development of reactor R,D&D costs and schedules
would require a comprehensive identification of design and licensing problems, the development
of detailed programs to address these problems, and the subsequent development of costs and
schedules based upon these programs. Unfortunately, the assessment of a1 ternate converter
concepts has not as yet progressed to the point that problem areas can be fully identified,
and so detailed development of R,D&D programs is generally impractical at this stage. Con-
sequently, we have had to rely on somewhat subjective evaluations of the technological status
of each concept, and upon rather approximate and somewhat intuitive estimates of the costs
required to resolve the still undefined problem areas. A more detailed development of the
requirements for many of the candidate systems will be performed as part of the characteriza-
tion and assessment programs currently under way in. the Nonproliferation A1 ternative Systems
Assessment Program (NASAP) .
In general, reactor R,D&D requirements can be divided into two major categories:
(1) the R,D&D pertaining to the development of the reactor concept on its reference fuel
cycle; and (2) the R,D&D necessary for the deployment of the reactor operating on an altern-
ate fuel cycle such as a DUTH fuel cycle.
that, with the exception of the HTGR (whose reference fuel cycle already includes thorium),
the reference cycles of the advanced converters would initially be the uranium cycle (i.e.,
235U/238U) and that no reactor would employ DUTH fuel until after its satisfactory per-
formance had been assured in a large-plant demonstration.
In the discussion presented here it is assumed
Although it is possible to
consider the development of advanced converters using DUTH fuel as their reference fuel
cycle, such simultaneous development could be a potential impediment to comercialization
since surveys of the utility and manufacturing sectors’ indicate a near universal reluctance to
ehark on either a new reactor technology or a new fuel cycle technology, largely because