Horizon-2020 ESFR-SMART project on Sodium Fast Reactor Safety: status after 18 months

To improve the public acceptance of the future nuclear power in Europe we have to demonstrate that the new reactors have significantly higher safety level compared to traditional reactors. The ESFR-SMART project (European Sodium Fast Reactor Safety Measures Assessment and Research Tools) aims at enhancing further the safety of Generation-IV SFRs and in particular of the commercial-size European Sodium Fast Reactor (ESFR) in accordance with the European Sustainable Nuclear Industrial Initiative (ESNII) roadmap and in close cooperation with the Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration (ASTRID) program.

The project aims at 5 specific objectives:

1. Produce new experimental data in order to support calibration and validation of the computational tools for each defence-in-depth level.
2. Test and qualify new instrumentations in order to support their utilization in the reactor protection system.
3. Perform further calibration and validation of the computational tools for each defence-in-depth level in order to support safety assessments of Generation-IV SFRs, using the data produced in the project as well as selected legacy data.
4. Select, implement and assess new safety measures for the commercial-size ESFR, using the GIF methodologies, the FP7 CP-ESFR project legacy, the calibrated and validated codes and being in accordance with the update of the European and international safety frameworks taking into account the Fukushima accident.
5. Strengthen and link together new networks, in particular, the network of the European sodium facilities and the network of the European students working on the SFR technology.

By addressing the industry, policy makers and general public, the project is expected to make a meaningful impact on economics, environment, EU policy and society.

Selected results and milestones achieved during the first eighteen months of the project will be briefly presented, including

• proposal of new safety measures for ESFR;
• evaluation of ESFR core performance;
• benchmarking of codes;
• experimental programs; and
• education and training.