The%20European%20nuclear%20industry%20and%20research%20approach%20for%20innovation%20in%20nuclear%20energy

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The European nuclear industry and research
approach for innovation in nuclear energy

• Dominique Hittner
• Framatome-ANP
• EPS, Paris, 3/10/2003

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Contents

• The EPS and MIT approach
• The approach of the European nuclear industry and
  RD
• The proposed programme
• Why a focus on gas cooled reactors?
• RD needs
• Conclusion

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The approach for defining a long term strategy
for the development of nuclear energy (1)

• The EPS approach
• The nuclear fission energy is an industrial
  reality
• It is difficult to imagine ways to avoid a major
  contribution of fission energy satisfying in a
  "clean" way the increasing world-wide demand for
  electricity in this century (fusion is too long
  term)
• Need for a strong international RD to develop
  innovative solutions to meet the challenges faced
  by nuclear energy
• But due to the economic, political and
  technological uncertainties and difficulties of
  long term RD programmes, the RD should not be
  focused on a single solution

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The approach for defining a long term strategy
for the development of nuclear energy (2)

• The issues with the ADS
• Technical issues
• The safety is not inherent 90 of the
  probability of PWR core melting risk not related
  to reactivity accidents but to the mismatch
  between the heat released and extracted.
• In actinide burner mode the core not in its state
  of maximum reactivity
• It is not the only solution for burning actinides
  (FR, HTR)
• Economic issues
• It is difficult to imagine that an accelerator
  a (sub-critical) reactor is no more expensive
  than a reactor alone
• It is difficult to imagine that the ADS could be
  a competitive energy producer, but it could be
  useful for actinide burning
• Political uncertainties of large long term
  projects

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The approach for defining a long term strategy
for the development of nuclear energy (3)

• The issues with the thorium cycle
• The ADS is not the only system which can work
  with the Th cycle
• In the long term Th cycle is more favourable as
  far as waste issues are concerned, but in the
  short term there are difficulties with
  fabrication and proliferation
• The U fuel cycle industrial tools are recent and
  there is no economic incentive to change them

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The approach for defining a long term strategy
for the development of nuclear energy (4)

• The MIT approach
• The main challenge for nuclear energy is its
  competitiveness
• The modern industrial reactors are very safe.
  Their safety relies on a systematic feedback from
  the construction and operation experience
• The introduction of innovation in industrial use
  of nuclear energy is difficult and risky, because
  the feedback from experience is lost
• Closed / open cycle
• The conditions for competitiveness of the closed
  cycle Vs open cycle depend on many parameters
• The risks of reprocessing are mastered
• U supply is not an issue before several decades
• There are risks of proliferation with the present
  reprocessing technologies but they can be
  overcome by processes under development which
  keep Pu and MA together
• The key issue for the open cycle is the fast
  saturation of geological disposal facilities

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The approach of the European nuclear industry and
RD (1)

• MICHELANGELO Network is a thematic network of the
  5th Framework Programme of the EC aimed at
  defining a European RD strategy supporting the
  industrial development innovative industrial
  solutions for keeping the nuclear fission energy
  open in the 21st Century.
• Partnership

Ansaldo BNFL CEA Cogema EDF Empresarios
Agrupados ENEA Forschungszentrum
Jülich Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe
Fortum Framatome ANP IKE (University of
Stuttgart) Joint research Centre of the EC
(JRC) NNC NRG Paul Sherrer Institute Tractebel Vüj
e
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The approach of the European nuclear industry and
RD (2)

• The challenges to be met by nuclear energy are
• The economic competitiveness
• The acceptability issues
• Wastes
• Safety
• Proliferation risks
• Sparing of fissile resources
• In order to contribute significantly to the
  mastering of the world-wide environmental impact
  of energy production, nuclear energy will have to
  satisfy different missions
• Production of electricity
• Co-generation of electricity and heat
  (desalination, industrial processes)
• Hydrogen production
• Transmutation of high level long-lived wastes
• Need of plants with small, medium and large
  production capacity

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The approach of the European nuclear industry and
RD (3)

• There is probably no single ideal nuclear system
  but different ones adapted to different missions
• We cannot fix only a single long term ambitious
  target for RD, we need continuity in the
  development of nuclear technology
• There are economic and political uncertainties
  about the real needs after several decades and
  technological uncertainties about the success of
  the development
• There are intermediate needs of industry
• The nuclear technological development must
  proceed in a step by step approach with
  industrial validation of each step (the feed-
  back from industrial experience is an unavoidable
  stage of nuclear technology progress)
• The public opinion will not be convinced if we
  only promise long term solutions to the
  acceptability issues (in particular waste issue)
  without doing anything in between

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The approach of the European nuclear industry and
RD (4)

• The technological development must
• Be continuous
• Explore a large scope of different paths with
  different time horizons for industrial
  deployment
• But there are obstacles for opening widely the
  scope of nuclear RD
• The present period is not a period of expansion
  for nuclear industry
• The feedback for investments are only long term
  and the financial risks are significant
• The public funding is becoming rare for nuclear
  energy
• Need of international co-operation (GENERATION
  IV, INPRO, European nuclear programme on
  innovative approaches in FP5 and FP6)

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Recommendations of MICHELANGELO Network (1)

• MICHELANGELO Network was caught in a
  contradictory situation between the needs a large
  opening of nuclear RD and the scarcity of
  funding
• Need to have a very selective approach, based not
  only on the analysis of the potential of
  innovative systems for industrial deployment and
  of their compliance with sustainability
  requirements but on additional requirements
• The need to get the critical size for each
  project
• The usefulness for industrial application
• To give top priority to medium term / long term
  application
• The strong points of European technology
• The continuity of the European RD effort
• The complementarity of the FP projects with the
  national ones
• No duplication, critical size, European
  co-ordination

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Recommendations of MICHELANGELO Network (2)

• Not to look only to RD on future reactors, but
  also on the related fuel cycles
• To look for synergies between the area of
  innovative systems and the area of PT
• Specific recommendations
• Top priority to GCR technology
• To consolidate the basis of GCR technology the
  development of a complete set of the base HTR
  technologies for an industrial deployment in the
  next decade
• To explore the operating limits of the HTR
  technologies in terms of temperature, burnup and
  fast fluence and develop solutions to get higher
  performances in these fields
• For the most advanced solutions (VHTR and GFR)
  RD should only be focused on the identification
  and the reduction of the key technology gaps
• V/HTR IP GFR STRP
• Strong co-ordination between the 2 projects,
  cross-cut WPs (materials, components and fuel)

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Recommendations of MICHELANGELO Network (3)

• Specific recommendations (end)
• To have a more limited but still significant
  effort of SCWR, focused on key feasibility issues
  (reactor physics, safety, corrosion)
• To federate the existing activities on MSR in
  Europe and in Russia (through ISTC) by a thematic
  network, without additional RD funding
• To use the capital of know-how accumulated in
  Europe on liquid metal reactors (Na and Pb) to be
  present in international projects
• To address with a balanced effort in the sub area
  "PT and other concepts" of the priority thematic
  area "waste management"
• The development of solutions for actinide
  minimisation in present reactors by using
  innovative fuel elements and fuel cycles
• The study of waste issues related to medium term
  systems and of their potential for burning
  actinides (e.g. deep burn transmuter)
• The development of long term advanced solutions
  (GFR, ADS)
• Separated IPs of the same magnitude

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Why gas cooled systems? (1)

• The industry is interested in enlarging its offer
  towards the market for small and medium size
  power generation units ? modular HTRs
• The potential for further development Cf
  GENERATION IV roadmap HTR ? VHTR ? GFR
• Entering the "hydrogen civilisation" is a driver
  especially in USA the NGNP project

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Why HTRs? (1)

• They seem competitive with medium size production
  capacity
• Simplification of the modular concept
• High performance of modern gas turbines (at 850C
  an efficiency of nearly 50 can be reached)
• Attractiveness of their safety features
• Robustness of the fuel
• Large thermal inertia
• Large negative temperature coefficient
• Inherent safety
• Chemically inert coolant
• Flexibility in burning different types of fissile
  materials

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Why HTRs? (2)
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Why HTRs? (3)
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Weapon plutonium destruction capability of HTRs
Vs LWRs
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The deep burn transmuter concept
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Base research needs for innovative systems

• Materials
• Development of high performance materials (high
  temperature, high stresses, high irradiation
  levels, harsh chemical environment)
• Corrosion
• Understanding of the physical phenomena at the
  atomic level on which are based the material
  properties? numerical simulation of the material
  behaviour
• Thermo-fluid dynamics
• Nuclear data
• "High" energy for ADS
• Low energy for all systems

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Conclusion

• Do not focus RD only on one type of technology,
  one type of concept
• Nuclear technology is still a new developing
  technology, still full of resources to dig out
  through RD
• it will be able to meet the economic and societal
  challenges it faces