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FAST: Generation-IV nuclear reactors with a fast neutron spectrum
We launched the project in 2002 and our current goals are:
- to study neutronics and nucleonics, thermal hydraulics and fuel behaviour of advanced fast-spectrum nuclear reactors using modern computational tools: TRACE/PARCS/FRED, Eranos/EQL3D, Serpent 2, OpenFOAM;
- to evaluate safety of fast reactors developed in Europe, in particular, European Sodium Fast Reactor (ESFR) and Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration (ASTRID);
- to analyse innovative design solutions for Generation-IV Molten Salt Reactor;
- to represent Switzerland internationally at GIF, IAEA, OECD, EURATOM;
- to educate young researchers and students, in particular, via the ETHZ/EPFL Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering and EPFL PhD programs.
March 11, 2021
After finishing of the Molten Chloride Fast Reactors (MCFR) chapter for Elsevier Encyclopedia of Nuclear Energy last year, Jiri Krepel was invited to contribute another chapter to the same encyclopedia dedicated to the sustainability and reactor physics issues of nuclear fuel cycle closing in advanced reactors. The ANS group has more than 15 years of experience in closed fuel cycle simulation and analysis and belong so to one of the world leading competence centers in this area. The general insight and knowledge, together with the results from E. Losa PhD thesis, who spend in 2014 his 9 month internship finance by IAEA at PSI, were summarized in a series of three encyclopedia chapters:
I. Self-sustaining breeding in advanced reactors: Characterization of natural resources
II. Self-sustaining breeding in advanced reactors: Characterization of selected reactors
III. Self-sustaining breeding in advanced reactors: Comparison of fuel cycle performance
These chapters provide solid background in the reactor physics issues related to sustainability of the nuclear fuel cycle. The self-sustaining breeding either in open breed-and-burn cycle or in closed cycle with fuel recycling is presented as the only long-term alternative for next centuries to the 235U burning reactors employed nowadays. The three chapters are available online:
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819725-7.00122-7
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819725-7.00123-9
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819725-7.00124-0
October 29, 2020
Jonathan Dietz successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of his MS study was "Chemical-Thermodynamic Simulation of the MSR-Related Systems during Normal and Accident Conditions". The goal of this work was to combine the neutronics knowledge of equilibrium fuel cycle with the thermodynamics simulations and refine the severe accident simulation with cGEMS code. The thesis was integrated in the EU H2020 SAMOSAFER project. The manuscript is available on-line at https://zenodo.org/record/4193209#.YG6-W8ritaQ
October 28, 2020
In July 2021 the 1st edition of Elsevier Encyclopedia of Nuclear Energy should be published with Ehud Greenspan as the editor in chief. Jiri Krepel from ANS group, together with Kevin Kramer from TerraPower LLC, was invited to contribute a chapter entitled Molten Chloride Fast Reactors (MCFR) to a volume dedicated to Advanced nuclear reactor concepts under R&D edited by Alexander Stanculescu. This invitation is another recognition of the PSI pioneering role in the breed-and-burn MCFR fuel cycle research. Furthermore, from historical perspective the pioneering role in MCFR research can be traced up to the Federal Institute for Reactor Research, the predecessor of PSI. It was also a great chance to utilize the knowledge, which results from the nuclear technology monitoring mandate of the PSI. Even though the encyclopedia (ISBN: 9780128197257) will be published firstly in July 2021, the chapter is already available online: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819725-7.00037-4
May 5, 2020
The 2020 September issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy publishes a paper "Resonance parameter adjustment in the resolved region based upon an Asymptotic Generalized Linear Least-Squares methodology in conjunction with the Monte Carlo method" by S. Pelloni and D. Rochman. In frame of a stochastic technique for adjusting basic ENDF parameters the paper proposes assimilation of the effective multiplication factor for low-enriched, U-solution, thermal systems by adjusting resonance widths for U-235 and U-238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2020.107509
April 16, 2020
The 2020 September issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy publishes a paper "The EQL0D fuel cycle procedure and its application to the transition to equilibrium of selected molten salt reactor designs" by B. Hombourger, J. Krepel and A. Pautz. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2020.107504
November 12, 2019
Valeria Raffuzzi successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of her MS study was "Modelling of batch-wise operation of European Sodium Fast Reactor and Breed&Burn Molten Salt Reactor". The goal of this work was to contribute to model the equilibrium fuel cycle of the two Generation-IV systems mentioned in the title with focus on the development of efficient fast-running tools. The thesis was integrated in the EU ESFR-SMART and SAMOFAR projects. The manuscript is available on-line at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3561314
July 15, 2019
On July 4-5, 2019 there was final meeting of the H2020 project SAMOFAR at the city center of Delft, The Netherlands. The project highlights and summary were presented during the open meeting and presentation are available on the project web page: http://samofar.eu/final-samofar-meeting/ During the final meeting a poster exhibition and competition was organized. The awarded student was Boris Hombourger who was partially involved in the project and which defended his thesis last year at EPFL. The H2020 project SAMOFAR will be followed by H2020 project SAMOSAFER which will start in October 2019.
March 19, 2019
Following the PhD oral exam at EPF Lausanne, Evgeny Nikitin successfully passed also the public defense, the last step of his PhD study. In his PhD thesis entitled "Extension of the nodal code DYN3D to SFR applications" he developed a new thermal-expansion module for the DYN3D nodal diffusion code, established a general methodology for generation of cross sections and verification of the DYN3D solution using the Serpent Monte Carlo code, and validated his developments using selected IAEA benchmark tests on the Phenix end-of-life tests (both steady-state and transient): http://dx.doi.org/10.5075/epfl-thesis-7264.
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