| Issue |
EPJ Web Conf.
Volume 247, 2021
PHYSOR2020 – International Conference on Physics of Reactors: Transition to a Scalable Nuclear Future
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 01010 | |
| Number of page(s) | 10 | |
| Section | Reactor Concepts and Special Mission Reactors | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202124701010 | |
| Published online | 22 February 2021 | |
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202124701010
CORE DESIGN ACTIVITIES OF THE VERSATILE TEST REACTOR – CONCEPTUAL PHASE
Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Ave, Lemont, IL 60439
Published online: 22 February 2021
The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) is a new fast spectrum test reactor being developed in the United States under the direction of the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy. The VTR mission is to enable accelerated testing of advanced reactor fuels and materials required for advanced reactor technologies. This includes neutron irradiation capabilities which would support alternate coolants including molten salt, lead/lead-bismuth eutectic mixture, gas, and sodium. The VTR aims at addressing most of the needs of the various stakeholders, which is primarily composed of advanced reactor technologists, developers and vendors, as well as a number of others interested parties.
Design activities are underway targeting a first criticality date by 2026, with General Electric recently joining the project to contribute to the VTR plant design. Current efforts are focused on all aspects of the VTR design, with the core design being at the center of the initial steps. The VTR is currently proposed as a 300 MWth sodium-cooled fast reactor able to reach peak fast flux levels in excess of 4.0x1015 n/cm2-s (and total flux level of about 6.0x1015 n/cm2-s). In this configuration, it is using ternary metallic fuel with reactor-grade plutonium and 5% low-enriched uranium.
Key words: versatile test reactor / reactor design / advanced reactors / sodium-cooled fast reactor
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2021
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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