GEN III+ and IV NUCLEAR REACTORS - VALUE THE DIFFERENCE
Applicable for Australia - Gen-III+ and SMR Reactors
Presentation by Dr Robert Barr and Professional Engineer Robert Parker making the case for nuclear energy being
Australia's dominant form of electricity generation. It provides our lowest system levelised cost of energy with ultra low
emissions on a very small environmental footprint. View Video on the right top
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Gen-III+ Proven Nuclear Reactors suitable for deployment in Australia.
Generation IV International Forum (GIF) advanced reactor technologies
The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) was initiated by the US Department of Energy in 2000 and formally chartered in mid-2001. It is an international collective representing governments of 13 countries where nuclear energy is significant now and also seen as vital for the future. Most are committed to joint development of the next generation of nuclear technology. Charter members of GIF include; Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, the UK, the USA Switzerland, China, Russia, Australia and, through the Euratom research and training programme, and the European Union. The purpose of GIF is to share R&D rather than build reactors. Conceptually, Gen IV reactors have all of the features of Gen III+ units, as well as the ability, when operating at high temperature, to support economical hydrogen production, thermal energy off-taking, and water desalination. In addition, these designs include advanced actinide management.
Closely related to GIF, but more focused on Generation III immediately, is the Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP)
set up by the regulators. It was launched in 2006 by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the French Nuclear Safety
Authority (ASN) to develop innovative approaches to leverage the resources and knowledge of national regulatory authorities
reviewing new reactor designs. It involves the IAEA and 15 countries, and its secretariat is with the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency.
Ultimately it aims to develop multinational regulatory standards for design of Generation IV reactors. The US NRC has proposed
a three-stage process culminating in international design certification for new reactor types, notably Generation IV types.
The GIF has selected six reactor technologies for further research and development:
The gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR).
The lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR).
The molten salt reactor (MSR).
The sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR).
The supercritical-water-cooled reactor (SCWR).
The very high-temperature reactor (VHTR).
The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) serves as technical secretariat to GIF
Advanced Gen-IV High Temperature Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Reactor
The Chinese HTR-PM features two small reactors (each of 250 MWt) that drive a single 210 MWe steam turbine.
It uses helium as coolant and graphite as the moderator. Each reactor is loaded with more than 400,000 spherical fuel elements
(‘pebbles’), each 60 mm in diameter and containing 7 g of fuel enriched to 8.5%. Each pebble has an outer layer of graphite and
contains some 12,000 four-layer ceramic-coated fuel particles dispersed in a graphite matrix. The fuel has high inherent safety
characteristics, and has been shown to remain intact and to continue to contain radioactivity at temperatures up to 1620°C - far
higher than the temperatures that would be encountered even in extreme accident situations, according to the China Nuclear Energy
Association.
First concrete for the demonstration project was poured on December 2012, with the operating permit granted in August 2021
and the plant connected to the grid in December 2021. The plant has more than 2200 sets of first-of-a-kind equipment, including
more than 660 sets of innovative equipment. The supporting TRi-structural ISOtropic particle fuel (TRISO) element production
line has the largest production capacity in the world.
The Russian Gen-IV Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor (LFR).
Recent priority in financing has been for lead-cooled fast neutron reactors with dense nitride fuel, and associated nitride
fuel fabricating/re-fabricating and spent fuel reprocessing facilities. Russia's long-term strategy up to 2050 involves moving
to inherently safe nuclear plants using fast reactors with a closed fuel cycle and MOX or nitride fuel.
The lead-cooled BREST-OD-300 fast reactor is part of Rosatom's Proryv, or Breakthrough, project to enable a closed nuclear
fuel cycle. The 300 MWe unit will be the main facility of the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex at the Siberian Chemical
Combine site. Russia is a world leader in fast neutron reactor technology and is consolidating this through its
Proryv Breakthrough project. Construction was started in June 2021 with the commercial operation to start in 2026.
The BREST-300 lead-cooled fast reactor (bystry reaktor so svintsovym teplonositelem) is another innovation from N.A. Dollezhal
Scientific Research and Design Institute of Energy Technologies (NIKIET), one of the largest nuclear technology and
engineering research and development centers in Russia. This is a new-generation fast reactor which dispenses with the
fertile blanket around the core and supersedes the BN designs to give enhanced proliferation resistance.
Lead cooling enables greater utilization of minor actinides than in BN reactors.
If BREST is successful as a 300 MWe unit, a 1200 MWe (2800 MWt) version (BREST-1200) will follow. The PDPC comprises three
phases: the mixed uranium-plutonium nitride fuel fabrication/refabrication module (operation 2023); a nuclear power
plant with BREST-OD-300 reactor (operation 2026); and a used nuclear fuel reprocessing module (construction start 2024).
Recycling Used Nuclear Fuel
Recycling used nuclear fuel - The Orano la Hague site has been recycling 96% of nuclear materials in used nuclear fuel into new fuel for decades. The remaining 4% nuclear waste is vitrified in canisters, which then require storage for about 300 years, significantly less than the storage time at least one hundred thousand years required for unprocessed used nuclear fuel.
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