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

1. The European nuclear industry and research approach for innovation in nuclear energy Dominique Hittner Framatome-ANP EPS, Paris, 3/10/2003

2. Contents • The EPS and MIT approach • The approach of the European nuclear industry and R&D • The proposed programme • Why a focus on gas cooled reactors? • R&D needs • Conclusion

3. 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 R&D 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 R&D programmes, the R&D should not be focused on a single solution

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. The approach of the European nuclear industry and R&D (1) • MICHELANGELO Network is a thematic network of the 5th Framework Programme of the EC aimed at defining a European R&D 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 Vüje

8. The approach of the European nuclear industry and R&D (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

9. The approach of the European nuclear industry and R&D (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 R&D, 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

10. The approach of the European nuclear industry and R&D (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 R&D • 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)

11. Recommendations of MICHELANGELO Network (1) • MICHELANGELO Network was caught in a contradictory situation between the needs a large opening of nuclear R&D 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 R&D effort • The complementarity of the FP projects with the national ones • No duplication, critical size, European co-ordination

12. Recommendations of MICHELANGELO Network (2) • Not to look only to R&D on future reactors, but also on the related fuel cycles • To look for synergies between the area of innovative systems and the area of P&T • 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) R&D 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…)

13. 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 R&D 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 "P&T 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

14. 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

15. Why HTRs? (1) • They seem competitive with medium size production capacity • Simplification of the modular concept • High performance of modern gas turbines (at 850°C 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

16. Why HTRs? (2)

17. Why HTRs? (3)

18. Weapon plutonium destruction capability of HTRs Vs LWRs

19. The deep burn transmuter concept

20. 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

21. Conclusion • Do not focus R&D 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 R&D • it will be able to meet the economic and societal challenges it faces