RRFM 2009 Transactions - European Nuclear Society

December 2006 and May 2008. The strategy sets the objective to build and start in 2020 a
prototype of 4 th generation reactor intended to proceed with demonstrations of sustainable
fuel cycle (fuel fabrication and reprocessing).
In Europe, stakeholders acknowledge the need to not subordinate the development of
sustainable energy to a single reactor technology and therefore to participate in the
development of at least another type of fast reactor.
With this aim in view, European stakeholders prioritised the six systems considered in the
Generation IV International Forum and identified three fast spectrum systems that were the
most likely to meet Europe’s energy needs in the long term in terms of security of supply,
safety, sustainability and economic competitiveness:
• The Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) as a first track aligned with prior experience of Europe,
and
• An alternative fast neutron reactor technology to be determined between the Lead cooled
Fast Reactor (LFR) and the Gas cooled Fast Reactor (GFR).
Technology breakthroughs and innovations must be achieved for all reactor types.
Innovative design and technology features are needed to achieve safety and security
standards anticipated at the time of their deployment, to minimize waste and enhance nonproliferation
through advanced fuel cycles, as well as to improve economic competitiveness
especially with a high availability factor. In particular, structural materials and innovative fuels
must be developed to sustain high fast neutron fluxes and high temperatures, as well as to
comply with innovative reactor coolants.
This research needs to be supported by the development of advanced fuel cycle
technologies to possibly recycle minor actinides in fast reactors and afford progress on long
term burden of radioactive waste to be ultimately disposed. Main milestones include
selecting around 2012 technologies with greatest industrial perspectives and construction
over the period 2012-2017 of an advanced MOX fuel manufacturing workshop to fuel the
prototype of SFR, as well as a minor actinide bearing fuel production facility for advanced
recycling demonstrations in this prototype and other fast reactors abroad. This will be
followed by further developments of mature industrial designs for the most promising
recycling processes.
The development of above fast spectrum experimental and prototype facilities will not only
require materials testing reactors and hot cells, but also testing and qualification facilities for
systems technologies and components (specific liquid metal loops, gas loops and hot cells),
as well as code qualification and validation which are mandatory for safety analyses.
3. Innovative tracks for fast neutron systems and fuels: reference concepts
3.1 A common set of requirements (SFR, LFR, GFR)
Considering the general criteria assigned to innovative fast neutron systems in
Generation IV, the requirements set to nuclear fuels are basically identical for SFR, GFR and
LFR [2]:
• Competitiveness: core compactness (core power density), high fuel burn-up (>
100 GWj/tHM), optimization of fuel recycling techniques and specific fabrication process
for fuels bearing minor actinides, efficiency of the techniques for fuel handling and inservice
inspection;
• Safety: intrinsic core neutronic performance (internal and global breeding gains, reactivity
coefficients), fuel element robustness (mechanical integrity at high temperature, fuel-clad
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