Generation IV Nuclear Energy System Initiative. Pin Core Subassembly Design for the Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor.

The Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) is one of six systems selected for viability assessment in the Generation IV program. It features a closed nuclear fuel cycle, consisting of a high-temperature helium-cooled fast spectrum reactor, coupled to a direct-cycle helium turbine for electricity production. The GFR combines the advances of fast spectrum systems with those of high-temperature systems. It was clear from the very beginning that GFR design should be driven by the objective to offer a complementary approach to liquid metal cooling. On this basis, CEA and the US DOE decided to collaborate on the pre-conceptual design of a GFR. This reactor design will provide a high level of safety and full recycling of the actinides, and will also be highly proliferation resistant and economically attractive. The status of this collaborative project is that two unit sizes, 600 MWt and 2400 MWt were selected as the focus of the design and safety studies. Researchers studied fuel forms, fuel assembly/element designs, core configurations, primary and balance-of-plant layouts, and safety approaches for both of these unit sizes. Results regarding the feasibility of this GFR design are encouraging. For example, sustainability and non-proliferation goals can be met and the proposed concept has attractive safety features. These features take advantage of the helium in terms of its neutronic quasi-transparency as well as the enhanced Doppler effect in connection with candidate fuel and structural materials. The current design trend is to consider high unit power for the GFR (2400 MWt), an attractive level for the power density (100 MW/m{sup 3}), and the implementation of an innovative plate type fuel or pin type sub-assembly with carbide-based actinide compounds and SiC-based structural materials. Work is still needed to refine the safety approach, to select the main system options, and to more definitively establish economic parameters