Fast Reactor Database 2006 Update
Brief History of IAEA's Project on "Technology Advances in Fast Reactors and Accelerator Driven Systems"
It is reasonable to assume that nuclear power will be accepted as a contributor to the world's energy supply mix only if it meets a necessary condition: it has to be sustainable (i.e. somewhat simply put, last for more than just a few decades), which implies that it must have convincing responses to both the natural resources and waste management issues. It is further reasonable to assume that the sustainability goals vis-à-vis natural resources and long-lived radioactive waste management will be met by systems involving several innovative reactor types and fuel cycles operating in symbiosis. Apart from cost effectiveness, simplification, and safety considerations, a basic requirement to these reactor types and fuel cycles will be flexibility to accommodate changing objectives and boundary conditions. This flexibility can only be assured with the deployment of the fast neutron spectrum reactor technology, and fuel reprocessing. This is the scope of IAEA's project on "Technology Advances in Fast Reactors and Acelerator Driven Systems".
This project has evolved from an initiative in 1967 by then IAEA Director General Sigvard Eklund. Since the early 1950s, vigorous fast reactor R&D and technology development programs were pursued worldwide, leading to the construction and operation of experimental and prototype fast reactors: the US were the first, with Clementine becoming critical in 1946, and the first nuclear electricity kilowatt-hours produced in December 1951 by a fast reactor, the EBR-I in Idaho. The US program continued with basic R&D and construction of fast reactors of increasing power (EBR-II, FERMI, and FFTF). The USSR (BR-10, BOR-60), the UK (DFR), and France (RAPSODIE that became critical in January 1967) also initiated fast reactor development programs and built their own experimental fast reactors. A few years later, Germany and Japan started their national fast reactor development programs and constructed experimental fast reactors (JOYO and KNK, respectively). Eklund's initiative in response to this growing interest expressed by Member States was to establish the "permanent International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWG-FR) under IAEA auspices" to provide a framework for international information exchange in this area. Six countries were among the founding members: France, Germany, Japan, UK, USA, and USSR.
In the next years, the pace of fast reactor development picked up, and the programs were at their peaks by 1980. The experimental reactors were operating in many countries, providing the R&D tools (mainly as irradiation facilities) for the various commercial size prototype fast reactor development programs, e.g. Phénix, Superphénix in France, SNR-300 in Germany, MONJU in Japan, PFR in the UK, CRBR in the USA, and BN-350, BN-600 in the USSR.
In its first 20 years of existence, the IWG-FR was functioning as the sole international platform for information exchange and collaborative research and technology development projects on a wide range of issues that were closely linked to the Member States' large and vigorous fast reactor development programs and the respective design, construction, and commissioning activities, as well as to the operation of fast reactors. In those years, the IAEA convened on a regular basis scientific and technical meetings on the three main topics of interest, i.e. Reactor Physics, Liquid Metal Technology, and Fast Reactor Safety (in average five scientific meetings per year). Just to name a few highlights of the considerable collaboration carried out in that period within the framework of the IWG-FR: the critical review of, and consensus finding in the issue of ?Pu (ratio between the capture and fission probabilities of a neutron interacting with a plutonium nucleus) (in collaboration with IAEA's Data Division); the publication of status reports; the collection of fast reactor plant parameters and establishment of the corresponding data bases, etc.
While interest in this technology was increasing in developing countries, the next 10 years saw a gradual decline in fast reactor activities in the West. By 1994, in the USA, the CRBR had been cancelled and FFTF and EBR-II had been shut down. In France, Superphénix was shut down at the end of 1998; SNR-300 in Germany was completed but not taken into operation, and KNK-II was permanently shut down in 1991. In the UK, PFR was shut down in 1994; and in Kazakhstan BN-350 in 1998. Looking back, it has to be admitted that there simply was no economic need for fast breeder reactors and thus, at least in the West, the technology fell victim to the anti-nuclear attacks with waste, safety, and proliferation being at the top of the opponents' list. Had there been a compelling economic need for fast breeder reactors and the accompanying fuel reprocessing, the issues put forward by the opponents would have diminished in importance as the existing, adequate solutions addressing them were implemented. In this period, the IWG-FR's activities focused on the analysis and evaluation of advanced fast reactor concepts, on collaborative R&D activities addressing generic topics relevant to advanced fast reactor concepts, and on the systematic review of operational experience, as part of knowledge "accumulation and transmission".
An important extension of the IWG-FR's work scope occurred in 1994 upon an initiative of then Director General Hans Blix. Following the realization of the fast neutron system's potential with regard to the back-end of the fuel cycle, the IAEA convened under the chairmanship of then Deputy Director General B.A. Semenov a high level panel of distinguished scientists to discuss scientific, technological and economics aspects of sub-critical fast systems driven by external neutron sources, the worldwide R&D status and needs, and the possible role that the IAEA could play to foster international collaboration in this area. The outcome of the process initiated by this Advisory Committee Meeting was to include fast neutron sub-critical systems driven by external sources [e.g. Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS)] for energy production and transmutation into the work scope of the IWG-FR, which, in 2001, was renamed Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors (TWG-FR).
The fast reactor, which can generate electricity and breed additional fissile material for future fuel stocks, is a resource that will be needed when economic uranium supplies for the advanced light water reactors or other thermal-spectrum options diminish. Further, the fast-fission fuel cycle in which material is recycled offers the flexibility needed to contribute decisively towards solving the problem of growing "spent" fuel inventories by greatly reducing the volume of high-level waste that must be disposed of in long-term repositories. This is a long-term waste management option that demands particular attention. In recognition of the fast reactor's importance for the sustainability of the nuclear option, currently there is worldwide renewed interest in fast reactor technology development, as indicated, e.g. by the outcome of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) innovative technology review, which concluded with 3 out of 6 innovative systems to be fast neutron reactors (gas cooled fast reactor, sodium cooled fast reactor, and heavy liquid metal cooled fast reactor, plus a fast core for a 4th concept, the super-critical water reactor). Accordingly, the IAEA is responding to expressed Member States needs in the area of fast neutron systems through TWG-FR initiated international information exchange and collaborative R&D activities.
Currently, the TWG-FR comprises 14 IAEA Member States: Belarus, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Russia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States of America, as well as the OECD/NEA, and the European Commission (EC), and Belgium and Sweden as observers. Still the only global forum for information exchange and collaborative research and technology development projects in the area of fast neutron systems, the TWG-FR advises the Deputy Director General-Nuclear Energy on status of and recent results achieved in the national technology development programs relevant to the TWG-FR's scope, and recommends activities to the IAEA that are beneficial for these national programs. It furthermore assists in the implementation of corresponding IAEA activities, and ensures that, through continuous consultations with officially nominated representatives of Member States, all technical activities performed within the framework of the Nuclear Power Technology Development sub-programme (project on Technology Advances in Fast Reactors and Accelerator Driven Systems) are in line with expressed needs from Member States.
The TWG-FR has mostly focused on experimental and theoretical aspects of fast reactor technology and safety. A benchmark test with experimental data was conducted to verify and improve the codes used for the seismic analysis of reactor cores. A coordinated research project was conducted to apply acoustic signal processing for the detection of boiling or sodium/water reactions in liquid metal cooled fast reactors. Benchmark analyses addressed accident behavior and design improvements of the Russian BN-800 reactor within the frame of a collaborative project between the IAEA and the European Commission. In cooperation with the Department of Nuclear Safety, assistance was provided to ensure safe operation during the remaining lifetime and the development of an effective decommissioning programme for the BN-350 reactor in Kazakhstan. A coordinated research project is being conducted with the objective to reduce the calculational uncertainties of the LMFR reactivity effects. A new coordinated research project on "Analyses of and Lessons Learned from Operational Experience with Fast Reactor Equipment and Systems" will be initiated later in 2006. To foster the exchange of technical information and to contribute to the preservation of the base of liquid metal cooled fast reactor technology, an updated database (FRDB), available on the Internet, has been developed.
As for the ADS area, the project's activities included the preparation of status reports on advanced reactor technology development, the conduct of technical information exchange meetings and coordinated research projects on the use of thorium fuel in accelerator driven systems, and on reactors to constrain plutonium production and to reduce long-term waste toxicities. In particular, the IAEA provided for a review and comparison of different options to achieve these aims, including review of new technical measures to achieve proliferation resistance. In another TWG-FR activity, participants from 20 institutions in 15 Member States and one international organization joined forces in the coordinated research project on Studies of Advanced Reactor Technology Options for Effective Incineration of Radioactive Waste. Recently, a new coordinated research project on "Analytical and Experimental Benchmark Analyses of Accelerator Driven System" was launched. The specific objective of this coordinated research project is to improve the present understanding of the coupling of an external neutron source (e.g. a spallation source in the case of the ADS) with a multiplicative sub-critical core. Participants from 27 institutions in 18 Member States are performing computational and experimental benchmark analyses using integrated calculation schemes.
To harmonize efforts, the elaboration of a database of existing and planned experimental facilities, as well as R&D programmes for accelerator driven systems and related research and development was initiated in 1997.
For more information see.
