Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor System

Overview and motivation for lead-cooled fast reactor systems... 

Preliminary studies on lead-bismuth and lead cooled reactors and ADS (accelerator driven systems) have been initiated in France, Japan, the United States of America, Italy, and other countries. Considerable experience has been gained in the Russian Fedaration in the course of development and operation of reactors cooled with lead-bismuth eutectic, in particular, propulsion reactors. Studies on lead cooled fast reactors are also under way in this country. 

Lead-cooled fast reactor. (From US EXDE Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee and the Generation IV International Forum, A technology roadmap for generation IV nuclear energy systems, GIF-002-00, 2002.)... 

An agreement to submit design descriptions for this report was not reached with the designers of BREST-300 lead cooled fast reactor from RDIPE (NIKIET) of the Russian Federation and the designers of CANDU X NC reactor from AECL of Canada (the latter is a Generation IV system with supercritical light water coolant). A description of the BREST-300 can be found in reference [21]. 

Lead and LBE are relatively inert liquids with very good thermodynamic properties. The LFR would have multiple applications including production of electricity, hydrogen, and process heat. System concepts represented in plans of the GIF System Research Plan are based on the European Lead-cooled Fast Reactor, Russia s BREST-OD-300 (fast reactor with lead coolant BbicxpbiH PeaKTop co CBHmtoBbiM TeiiJiOHOCHTeJieM in Russian abbreviations) and the Small Secure Transportable Autonomous Reactor concept designed in the US. 

Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor (ELFR) and added a mid-size LFR (ie, the BREST-OD-300) as a new thrust and reference reactor system, while the SSTAR legacy system was retained as the reference small LFR. The typical design parameters of these GIF— LFR reference systems were previously summarized in Table 6.2 and are described further in the following subsections. 

Generation IV International Forum LFR provisional System Steering Committee, April 2014. Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems System Research Plan for the Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor. Draft. 

With a purpose of probing a commercially feasible fast reactor system, a feasibility study on commercialized fast reactor cycle systems (FS) was initiated in 1999 (Aizawa, 2001). In the FS, survey studies were made to identify the most promising concept among various systems such as sodium-cooled fast reactors, gas-cooled fast reactors, heavy metal-cooled fast reactors (lead-cooled fast reactors and lead-bismuth cooled fast reactors), and water-cooled fast reactors with various fuels types such as oxide, nitride, and metal fuels. The FS concluded to select an advanced loop-type SFR with mixed oxide fuel named Japan sodium-cooled fast reactor (JSFR Kotake et al., 2005). 

The Generation IV lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) include three options. These options are a small transportable system of 10—100 MWe size with a core inlet... 

F. Balbaud-Celerier, L. Martinelli, Corrosion issues in lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) and accelerator driven systems (ADS), in D. Feron (Ed.), Nuclear Corrosion Science and Engineering, Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, UK, 2012 (Chapter 22). 

In 2002, the Generation IV International Forum selected six systems as Generation IV technologies very-high-temperature reactors (VHTRs), supercritical water-cooled reactors (SCWRs), gas-cooled fast reactors (GFRs), lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs), sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs), and molten salt-cooled reactors (MSRs). As shown in Table 12.1, the spectra of the operating conditions for the six selected types of reactors are versatile [1]. 

The lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) system is also under development in Generation rV framework. It has to be pointed out that there is no industrial experience of lead aUoy-cooled technology except that fi om the Soviet Union submarine program. But many concepts exist worldwide for example, the MYRRHA (Multipurpose hYbrid Research Reactor for High-tech Applications) reactor is developed by the Belgian Nuclear Research Center SCK-CEN in collaboration with international partners. MYRRHA is conceived as an accelerator-driven system able to operate in subcritical and critical modes. It contains a proton accelerator of600 MeV, a spallation target, and... 

Shirin, V. M., et al. Use of Lead in Unloading Systems of Sodium-Cooled Facilities, in IAEA Symposium on Progress in Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor Engineering, Monaco, Mar. 1970. 

At the present state of the art, a corner of an article about evaluation of population hazards is hardly an appropriate place in which to attempt an exposition of reactor safety. Nevertheless, we may contrive a brief description of these types of reactor accidents which, it is thought, could lead to fission product release. The intention is to illustrate ways in which fuel could be damaged and then release fission products ultimately to the atmosphere. Though gas-cooled reactors, water-cooled reactors, and sodium-cooled fast reactors will be discussed, no comparisons, invidious or otherwise, are intended between the safety of these systems. 

XXVII-2] Buongiomo, J., Todreas, N.E., Kazimi, M.S., et al. Conceptual design of a Lead-Bismuth Cooled Fast Reactor with In-Vessel Direct-Contact Steam Generation , MIT-ANP-TR-078, Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA, 2001. 

Of the six liquid metal cooled SMRs, three are sodium cooled fast reactors (KALIMER, BMN-170 and MDP), and 3 are lead-bismuth cooled fast reactors (RBEC-M, PEACER-300/550, and Medium Scale Lead-bismuth Cooled Reactor). All designs implement indirect thermodynamic cycles. All sodium cooled SMRs incorporate intermediate heat transport systems (secondary sodium circuits to transport heat to a steam turbine circuit and to prevent the possibility of a contact of water with the primary sodium). All lead-bismuth cooled SMRs have no intermediate heat transport system. All designs use steam turbine power circuit. 

The RBEC-M is a lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor with a high level of primary coolant natural circulation and a gas lift system in the primary circuit to provide the supply of an inert gas (e.g. argon) in the coolant under the core, see Annex XXIII. This concept is developed with an insight of future multi-component nuclear energy systems, where it might be used for breeding or the adjustment of fissile material flows. Conceptual studies for the RBEC-M are performed in the Russian Research Centre Kurchatov Institute (Moscow, Russia). 

The RBEC-M is a lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor with a high level of primary coolant natural circulation and a gas lift system in the primary circuit to ensure a supply of inert gas (argon) in the coolant under the core. 

In Russia, two initiatives are currently being pursued. One of these is known as the SVBR (Svintsovo-Vismutovyi Bystryi Reaktor or Lead—Bismuth Fast Reactor ) (Zrodnikov et al., 2009). The SVBR-100 is generally considered a foUow-on technology to the prior submarine propulsion technology and is a small reactor cooled by LBE. The second major initiative, known as the BREST Bystry Reaktor so Svintsovym Teplonositelem or Fast Reactor with Lead Coolant ) (Dragunov et al., 2012), is a medium-sized reactor cooled by pure lead and detailed further in this chapter as one of the reference LFR reactor systems in the Generalion IV program (GIF-LFR-pSSC, 2014). 

Pure lead and the eutectic alloy of LBE (consisting of 44.5% lead and 55.5% bismuth) are the principal potential coolants for LFR systems. Table 6.1 shows some key properties of LBE and lead with sodium also included for reference and comparison. Further details on the properties of lead coolants can be found in OECD-NEA (2015). The shared property that both LBE and lead are essentially inert in terms of interaction with air or water is the noteworthy advantage that LFRs have in comparison with the other principal liquid metal-cooled reactor, the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). This basic property has significant implications for design simplification, safety performance, and the associated economic performance of such systems in comparison with SFRs and other Generation IV systems. 

Liquid metal-cooled systems include those for the SFR and the lead (or lead-bismuth)-cooled fast reactor (LFR). The SFR (see a possible design in Fig. 1.3) uses liquid... 

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