Workshop on Advanced Reactors With Innovative Fuels
ARWIF 2008
Hosted by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)
20-22 February 2008
Fukui, Japan
The purpose of this workshop was to
exchange
information on R&D activities and to identify areas and research
tasks
where international co-operation might be strengthened. It is the fourth
in
the advanced reactors with innovative fuels (ARWIF) series. With the renewed interest in advanced nuclear systems and advanced fuel
cycles, this workshop has proven to be very relevant and important for
establishing international consensus on research programmes.
A new generation of reactor designs are being developed that are
intended to meet the requirements of the 21st century. In the short
term, the most important requirement is to overcome the relative
non-competitiveness of current reactor designs in deregulated
markets. For this purpose, evolutionary light water reactor (LWR)
designs have been maturing and are being promoted actively. These are
specifically designed to be less expensive to build and operate than
the previous generation of LWRs, genuinely competitive with alternative
forms of generation and at the same time establish higher levels of
safety. A new generation of modular, small-to-medium (100-300 MWe/module), integral design water-cooled reactors are currently under
development. These are designed to be competitive with nuclear and
non-nuclear power plants, to have significantly enhanced safety, to be
proliferation-resistant and to reduce the amount of radioactive waste
produced. A different approach to improve competitiveness is the
re-emergence of high-temperature reactors (HTR) using gas turbine
technology to give higher thermal efficiencies, low construction and
operating costs, inherent safety characteristics and low proliferation
risk.
The following topics were of particular interest to participants:
- advanced fuels;
- advanced light water
reactors;
- high temperature reactors;
- fast spectrum reactors;
- sub-critical systems;
- plutonium burning;
- minor actinide systems;
- long-lived fission product
recycle;
- radical innovative
systems;
- advanced fuel cycle
options.
Workshop participants took part in discussions of reactor physics, nuclear fuel performance and material technology, reactor core behaviour and the fuel cycle of advanced reactors with different types of fuels or fuel lattices. Of particular interest to workshop participants were innovative concepts and issues related to the reactor and fuel, in particular fast reactor issues.
Particular goals of the workshop were to identify research and
development needs and the roles which can be played by existing
experimental facilities as well as possible need for new experimental
facilities. The conclusions of the technical sessions were
synthesised and discussed in a roundtable on international
co-operation to facilitate the introduction of new reactor
systems. The workshop proceedings are currently in preparation.
Related
links
ARWIF 2008 programme
Previous workshops in the ARWIF series ARWIF 1998 recommendations (pdf, 91kb)
ARWIF 1998 proceedings
ARWIF-2001 agenda and presentation abstracts
ARWIF-2001 summary of the panel discussion and list of participants (pdf, 111kb)
ARWIF-2001 proceedings
ARWIF-2005 presentations
NEA nuclear science programme
Last update: 4 March 2008
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