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Advanced Fission Technologies and Systems
Published in William J. Nuttall, Nuclear Renaissance, 2022
When considering US attitudes to fast reactor technology it is interesting to note the emergence of plans by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to construct a fast-spectrum Versatile Test Reactor (VTR). Such a facility would restore United States’ ability to undertake fast neutron-related materials testing and research. The US Congress awarded funding sufficient to progress the project from 2018. In 2020, the US DOE announced a major forward step in the progress of the project in the multi-step journey from requirements and concept through to selected and refined engineering design [212]. The development of the VTR would be a major boost to fast reactor engineering in the OECD countries.
Monte Carlo Analysis of Coolant Stream Impurity Gamma Emissions in Gas-Cooled Fast Reactors
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2023
Londrea J. Garrett, Milos Burger, Adam Burak, Xiaodong Sun, Piyush Sabharwall, Igor Jovanovic
Since the closure of the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) and Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II), plans have been developed to construct new research reactors that would allow high-flux fast neutron research in the United States.1 The proposed Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), under development by the U.S. Department of Energy, in collaboration with General Electric, several national laboratories, and university partners, represents one such facility. The VTR is a sodium-cooled fast reactor containing several closed-loop, in-reactor subassemblies or cartridge loops to allow for irradiation tests of advanced fuels and materials.2 Arguably, the most unique of these loops is the gas cartridge loop of the Electron Multiplier Module (EM2), which will use helium as the primary coolant and allow for experiments that mimic high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) conditions.2,3 The development of Generation IV HTGRs remains a point of significant interest for the nuclear community due to the expected improvements in operational safety and longer lifetimes when compared to light water reactors (LWRs) currently in operation.1,4
Preconceptual Design of Multifunctional Gas-Cooled Cartridge Loop for the Versatile Test Reactor: Instrumentation and Measurement—Part II
Published in Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2022
Piyush Sabharwall, Kevan Weaver, N. K. Anand, Chris Ellis, Xiaodong Sun, Hangbok Choi, Di Chen, Rich Christensen, Brian M. Fronk, Joshua Gess, Yassin Hassan, Igor Jovanovic, Annalisa Manera, Victor Petrov, Rodolfo Vaghetto, Silvino Balderrama-Prieto, Adam J. Burak, Milos Burger, Alberto Cardenas-Melgar, Daniel Orea, Reynaldo Chavez, Byunghee Choi, Londrea Garrett, Genevieve L. Gaudin, Noah Sutton, Ken William Ssennyimba, Josh Young
The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) is a 300-MW(thermal), sodium-cooled, metallic-fueled, pool-type fast test reactor currently being developed in the United States under the direction of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy. The VTR objective is to enable accelerated testing of advanced reactor fuels and materials required for fast neutron spectrum advanced reactor technologies. Part I in this paper series summarizes the design efforts of a gas-cooled cartridge loop (GCL), which uses the General Atomics (GA) Energy Multiplier Module concept as a reference gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR) design.1 In this paper, we focus more directly on the instrumentation and on innovative techniques to measure the thermophysical properties of the materials within the GCL. The integrated effort is led by Idaho National Laboratory (INL). General Atomics is the industrial partner in charge of providing GCL functional requirements and critical irradiation data needs for advancing GFR technologies and developing a preliminary conceptual design for a GCL. University partners include Texas A&M University (TAMU), University of Michigan, Oregon State University (OSU), University of Idaho (UI), and University of Houston (UH), and they support the design of the GCL by investigating the thermal-hydraulic transport of fission gases in the GFR fission product venting system, gamma heating within the cartridge, thermal-hydraulic behavior of the GCL, materials emissivity, and helium impurity for fuel failure detection, respectively. The integration among various organizations is shown in Part I (Ref. 1).
Supporting Design Analysis of the VTR Using MCNP and TRACE
Published in Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2022
Jack Galloway, Joshua Richard, Cetin Unal
The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) design, provides an essential function to the U.S. nuclear industry in providing a very high, fast neutron flux for material and reactor designers to design and test new nuclear materials on U.S. soil. Historically, in the United States the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) and the Fast Flux Test Facility, along with preceding reactor designs, provided fast flux irradiation facilities to develop new fuel, cladding, and structural materials. The shutdown of all previous fast spectrum reactor irradiation facilities in the United States has caused a significant shortage of potential irradiation sites to test, approve, and refine new nuclear materials, especially those proposed for use in fast neutron spectrums. Since the reactor shutdowns, much of the U.S. industry’s fast spectrum irradiation testing has thus occurred in foreign reactors, such as the BN-600 reactor in Russia. This, however, has put the United States in a precarious position with regard to nuclear technology development, with the bulk of irradiation capabilities needed to satisfy regulatory requirements largely located outside the control of U.S. interests and subject to significant volatility. The VTR will provide the United States with a valuable fast spectrum irradiation capability with highly flexible test chambers for testing fueled and nonfueled experiments, including extended-length test assemblies designed to accommodate the testing of various coolant, structural, clad, and fuel designs in a single location.