Frédéric Joliot and Otto Hahn

   

                                                                                                               Aix en Provence, France
                                                                                                        August 24 – September 2, 2016

 

Tomorrow's Liquid Metal Fast Reactors: Towards Improved Safety and Performance

   

Jointly organized by
the Nuclear Energie Division of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA/DEN), France,
and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT/INR), Germany

 

The 22^nd session of the Frédéric Joliot/Otto Hahn (FJOH) Summer School on “Nuclear Reactors Physics, Fuels, and Systems” will be held in Aix-en-Provence, France, from August 24 to September 2, 2016. This session is entitled Tomorrow’s Liquid Metal Fast Reactors: Towards Improved Safety and Performance. It is an advanced course aimed at junior as well as experienced scientists and engineers engaged in the broad field of nuclear sciences, engineering and technologies.

The FJOH-2016 objective is to help the school participants broaden their knowledge of LMFR core and fuel physics, in relation to plant design, optimization and safety studies. The various lectures will therefore show how to “connect the science to the design” in a modern simulation-based interdisciplinary approach of such complex technological systems. Illustrations will be provided from innovative sodium-cooled and lead-cooled demonstrators, such as ASTRID, ALFRED, and MYRRHA, which have already undergone preliminary engineering design and safety studies.

The FJOH-2016 programme covers the following three topics: (i) Core Physics and Thermal-hydraulics; (ii) Fuel, Clad, Structural and Coolant Materials; (iii) Safety Assessment and Licensing. Basic physics phenomena, state-of-the-art methods and modelling techniques will be described. Examples will be provided in order to show how the multiple performance and safety requirements are met, as part of the necessary trade-offs and optimization process.

FJOH-2016 includes plenary lectures, group discussions, seminars, and technical visits. Speakers are invited from internationally leading universities, research and development laboratories, and industry. The lectures are at a post-doctoral level. The participants are assumed to have some basic knowledge on nuclear engineering.

The FJOH-2016 participants will have the opportunity to share their views on specific cross-cutting subjects and open-ended questions, as part of group reflection and critical thinking activities. Time has been set aside in the school schedule for these activities.

This course represents the continuation of the Frédéric Joliot Summer Schools on «Modern Reactor Physics and the Modelling of Complex Systems», which was created by CEA in 1995 to promote knowledge in the field of reactor physics, in a broad sense, and the international exchange of teachers, scientists, engineers and researchers. Beginning in 2004, the scope of the School was extended to include scientific issues related to nuclear fuels. The venues of the FJOH School sessions alternate between Karlsruhe and Aix-en-Provence.

The School’s aim is to address the challenges of reactor design and optimal fuel cycles, and to broaden the understanding of theory and experiments.

The programme of each School session is defined by the International FJOH Scientific Board.

The Nuclear Energy Division of CEA and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology jointly organize and sponsor the FJOH Summer School.

 

1. Introduction                                                                                                                                       4 h

1.1.   The Transition from Light Water Reactors to Fast Reactors: Conditions and Foresight (2 h)        J.-F. Sauvage (EDF)

1.2.   Status, Gaps and Challenges for Candidate Fast Reactor Concepts (2 h)                                  S. Monti (IAEA)

 

2. Core Physics and Thermal-Hydraulics                                                                                                                                      12 h

2.1.   Fundamentals of Fast Reactor Core and Fuel Cycle Physics (3 h)                                      W. Van Rooijen (Fukui Univ.)

2.2    State-of-the-art Reactor Physics Methods for LMFR Core Design with Illustrations taken

from the ASTRID/SFR and ELFR/LFR Projects (6 h)                             G. Grasso (ENEA), D. Verrier (AREVA), B. Fontaine (CEA)

2.3   Advanced Thermal-hydraulics for Liquid-Metal Reactors: Beyond State-of-the-art Methods,

Techniques and Experiments (3 h)                                                                                                       F. Roelofs (NRG)

 

3. Fuel, Clad, Structural and Coolant Materials                                                                                  12 h

3.1   LMFR Fuels: Fundamentals, Performance, and Design Requirements for Traditional (Oxide)

and Advanced Fuels (4 h)                                                                                                        T. Wiss (ITU), N. Chauvin (CEA)

3.2   LMFR Clads and Structural Materials: Fundamentals, Performance and Design Requirements

for Traditional and Advanced Materials (6 h)                                                            A. Courcelle (CEA), A. Kimura (Kyoto Univ.)

3.3   Compatibility of Fast Reactor Structural Materials with Liquid Metal Coolants (2 h)                      J. Konys (KIT)

 

4.  Safety Assessment and Licensing                                                                                                 8 h

4.1   Safety Requirements and Methodology: What is New? What are the Trends? (2 h)                      G. Bruna (IRSN)

      4.2   Assessing LFR and SFR Safety: Criteria, Event Scenarios for DBAs and Beyond DBAs,
Knowledge Gaps (6 h)                                                                                   K. Mikityuk (PSI), J.-P. Van Dorsselaere (IRSN) 

 

Group Reflection on Selected Scientific Topics                                                                            6 h

      Seminar                                                                                                                                         2 h

                 Indian Fast Reactor Programme                                                                               P. Puthiyavinayagam (IGCAR)

 

     Technical visit of CEA Cadarache R&D facilities