New reactor design could aid energy security

Korea Herald 20100318

Korea's nuclear technology (15)

Korea currently operates 16 pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and four pressurized heavy water reactors
(PHWR) whose combined power generation capacity is 17.7 GWe. Korea plans to further increase its
nuclear power capacity. It is currently building eight new nuclear power plants with another 11 units
planned by 2030.

The continued expansion of the nuclear fleet poses a serious challenge for Korea regarding the handling of
spent fuel. The 20 reactors currently in operation discharge more than 700 tons of spent fuel a year. Used
fuel discharges are temporarily stored at each nuclear power plant and await final waste disposal. The
accumulation of spent fuel has already topped 10,000 tons. The nation's storage capacity for spent fuel is
expected to reach a saturation point in 2016, even taking into account the expansion of spent fuel storage
pools at each plant site.

It is in this context that Korea endeavors to develop sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs). The SFR is called a
"dream nuclear reactor" as it can be designed as a breeder - a reactor that creates more fissile materials
than it consumes - and thus can provide an increasing energy resource that does not require a continual
supply of fissile material.

SFRs are also capable of reducing the amount of spent fuel and decreasing the radiotoxicity of high-level
radioactive waste through transmutation, the process of converting one chemical element or isotope into
another through nuclear reactions.

While conventional reactors - PWRs and PHWRs - use thermal neutrons to sustain the fission chain
reaction, SFRs use higher-energy fast neutrons for the chain reaction. High-energy fast neutrons produce a
greater number of neutrons per fission than thermal neutrons do. Some of these neutrons are used to
produce extra fuel or to transmute nuclear waste with a long half-life to more stable and less toxic
elements.

SFRs can reprocess the uranium and plutonium left in spent fuel. Using the plutonium-239 left in spent fuel,
SFRs can fission non-fissile uranium-238 and produce plutonium-239, which can then be reprocessed for
use as nuclear fuel. They can also use natural or even depleted uranium as fuel with no further enrichment
required.

Furthermore, SFRs play a unique role in management of actinides (uranium and transuranics). Fast neutrons
are more likely to fission transuranics (TRUs), transmuting long-lived transuranic radionuclides into stable
elements or those that are less radiotoxic and a shorter half-life.

Accordingly, SFRs can utilize available uranium resources much more efficiently - more than 100 times
compared with a PWR - because they support a multiple recycle which enables complete consumption of
uranium and transuranic elements. At the same time, SFRs can reduce the radiotoxicity of the spent fuel by
a factor of 100.

This means SFRs can drastically reduce the volume of radioactive waste discharged from PWRs, thereby
curtailing the size of the necessary storage facilities.

Another important point about SFRs is that they enhance proliferation resistance. SFRs are designed to rely
on pyroprocessing technology which recovers valuable resources such as uranium and plutonium from
spent fuel to produce SFR fuel. The main characteristic of pyroprocessing technology is group recovery - it
recovers plutonium in the spent fuel together with minor actinides for fuel fabrication. In this process,
separation of sole plutonium that can be used for production of nuclear weapons is impossible.

The neutron balance feature of a fast reactor allows flexibility in its design in achieving a conversion ratio -
the number of fissionable atoms produced per fissionable atom fissioned in a nuclear reactor. The ratio can
be either lower than one (burner with a net consumption of transuranics) or equal to one (breakeven
reactor with a balance in transuranic production and consumption) or higher than one (breeder with a net
creation of transuranics), depending on specific objectives. This favorable neutron balance feature makes it
possible to draw up flexible waste management strategies. The authorities can introduce fast reactors that
have the appropriate conversion ratio.

SFR technology development in Korea

About 20 SFRs have been in operation in the world since the 1950s, with more than 300 reactor-years of
operating experience accumulated. Even though the SFR system features a fast-spectrum reactor and a
closed fuel recycle system, the primary mission of SFRs, at present, is to manage high-level waste from
nuclear power plants and, in particular, the management of plutonium and other actinides.

However, innovations in cutting the capital costs for building SFRs will extend the mission to include
electricity production, given the proven capability of SFRs to utilize almost all of the energy in natural
uranium and thereby contribute to sustainable power generation and economic development.

The SFR design concept of an integrated recycling of all actinides is a feature of the Generation IV (Gen IV)
reactor systems. Since 2001, the world's leading nuclear technology countries have been cooperating to
develop next-generation reactors to meet the growing global future energy needs. Research has focused
on reactor designs that are better than the currently used second- or third-generation reactors in terms of
sustainability, economics, safety and reliability and proliferation resistance.

The Generation IV International Forum has identified six promising reactor designs of which the SFR system
has the shortest time horizon possible for commercialization. The other five are the very-high-temperature
reactor, supercritical water-cooled reactor, molten-salt reactor, gas-cooled fast reactor and lead-cooled fast
reactor.

Korea's reactor deployment strategy calls for the introduction of SFRs for efficient management of spent
fuel. For a country poorly endowed with natural resources, including uranium, SFRs are regarded as the
best option for Korea in securing future energy sources.

The PWR-SFR transition

The Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a
2009 report that its PWR-SFR transition scenario study shows that SFRs can substantiate domestic waste
management claims in Korea by reducing the amount of spent fuel and the environmental burden by
decreasing the radiotoxicity of high-level waste through transmutation.

A timely deployment of SFRs with different conversion ratios - breakeven reactors and burners - and a
recycling of transuranics by reusing PWR spent fuel in SFRs can alleviate the potential limits to domestic
nuclear energy growth.

This development is associated with the availability of uranium and the need to reduce nuclear waste
mainly consisting of PWR spent fuel. The OECD study estimates the SFR mix ratio in Korea's nuclear fleet
near the year 2100 at approximately 35-40 percent. Under the scenario, PWRs will remain as the main
power reactor type until 2100 and SFRs will support the waste minimization and fuel utilization efforts.

Korea's SFR technology development efforts started in 1997. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
(KAERI) began to undertake research under a national mid- and long-term nuclear R&D program. This led
to the development of an advanced SFR concept called KALIMER-150 in 2001. KALIMER stands for Korea
Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor. Based on the KALIMER-150 design, KAERI completed the conceptual
design of KALIMER-600 in February 2007. The KALIMER-600 conceptual design, which represented an
evolution from KALIMER-150 with significantly improved inherent safety features, was selected as one of
the promising candidates for Gen-IV SFR.

To realize a more efficient and effective management of spent fuel, KAERI has been developing a strategy
to implement an SFR fuel cycle, through which spent PWR fuel can be reused in SFRs through
pyroprocessing technology. To complete the SFR fuel cycle in Korea, KAERI has been concentrating
research efforts on the development of technologies for an SFR system and pyroprocessing.

To provide a consistent direction to long-term R&D activities, the Korea Atomic Energy Commission (KAEC)
approved a long-term SFR development plan on Dec. 22, 2008. This long-term plan will be implemented
through the nuclear R&D programs of the National Research Foundation, with funds from the Ministry of
Education, Science and Technology. A detailed implementation plan is now being developed.

Long-term SFR development plan

The SFR development plan will be carried out in three stages by 2028, with the final goal of constructing
an advanced SFR demonstration plant. The three stages are:

(1) First phase (2007-2011) - development of an advanced SFR design concept;

(2) Second phase (2012-2017) - completing the standard design of an advanced SFR plant;

(3) Third phase (2018-2028) - construction of an advanced SFR demonstration plant.

As shown in Figure 2, the SFR development plant is promoted in close association with the development of
pyroprocessing technology because SFRs run on the fuel produced through pyroprocessing. KAERI
envisions SFRs to be commercialized in Korea around 2040.

Based on the experiences gained through the development of KALIMER-600 conceptual designs, which are
characterized by a pool-type U-TRU-10 percent Zr metal fuel loaded reactor, KAERI developed the
Advanced SFR design concept that can better meet the Generation IV (Gen IV) goals and the technologies
necessary for its early commercialization.

The Advanced SFR concept employs several advanced design concepts to improve the economics, safety
assurance and metal fuel performance of an SFR in the areas of reactor core, fuel and materials, reactor
systems and the balance-of-power.

The reference Advanced SFR concept has a plant capacity of 1,200 MWe and the core is a proliferation
resistant breakeven core without blanket as shown in Figure 3, a schematic of the configuration of the
concept.

Advanced SFR concept

The schematic shows that the nuclear steam supply system (NSSS) consists of a pool type primary heat
transport system (PHTS), two intermediate heat transport system (IHTS) loops, Rankine cycle conversion
systems, double-wall straight tube type steam generators (SGs) and a passive decay heat removal circuit
(PDRC) as an improved passive decay heat removal system, which operates passively by natural circulation.

The mechanical design concept features a shortened IHTS piping layout with large-diameter piping using
Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel, an integration of the refueling machine and an in-service inspection tool with a long
life wave guide sensor for reactor internals, all of which are employed to improve the economics through
reducing the cost for construction and operation and maintenance.

Mechanical design concept

To support the development of advanced design concepts and SFR technologies, R&D activities are being
carried out on various topics including integral effect tests, conceptual design of supercritical CO2 Brayton
cycle system, Na-CO2 interaction test, development of an under-sodium viewing technique, sodium
technologies and metal fuel and computer codes development and validation.

R&D areas for SFR development

A fast reactor system is one of the most promising options for electricity generation as it can achieve
efficient utilization of uranium resources and reduction of radioactive waste, thus contributing to
sustainable development in Korea.
KAERI has been performing R&D on SFRs under the national nuclear R&D program. Based on the
experiences gained from the development of KALIMER conceptual designs of a pool-type U-TRU-10
percent Zr metal fuel loaded reactor, KAERI developed Advanced SFR design concepts that can better meet
the Generation IV technology goals.

This also includes developing advanced SFR technologies necessary for its commercialization and basic key
technologies to support the development of advanced design concepts. KAERI has been making R&D
efforts to develop advanced design concepts including a passive decay heat removal system, as well as
developing design methodologies, computational tools and sodium technology. The long-term advanced
SFR development plan will be carried out toward the construction of an advanced SFR demonstration plant
by 2028.