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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.
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.
February 19, 2019
The EU Horizon-2020 program granted 3.5 million Euros to the research and innovation project SAMOSAFER, where PSI is one of the 14 project partners. The total budget of the project, inclusive own and in-kind contributions, is 4.5 million Euros. The aim of SAMOSAFER project is to develop and demonstrate new safety barriers and a more controlled behavior in severe accidents of the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR). Three groups at PSI will be involved in the project: the Advanced Nuclear Systems and Multiscale Materials Modelling groups of the LSM and the Severe Accidents group of LRT, focusing on redistribution of the source term in the fuel treatment unit of MSR and assessment and reduction of radionuclide mobility during accidental conditions. The PI from the LSM side is Dr. Jiri Krepel.
February 18, 2019
The 2019 July issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy publishes a paper "Enhancements along with application of the Asymptotic Progressing nuclear data Incremental Adjustment (APIA) methodology by individual assimilations of fast reactor data" by S. Pelloni and D. Rochman. The paper proposes a criterion for considering or rejecting additional, individual experiments to enlarge an existing database of measurements made at fast reactors and used for nuclear data adjustments. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2019.01.057
January 25, 2019
The 2019 June issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy publishes a paper "Closed U-Pu and Th-U cycle in sixteen selected reactors: Comparison of major equilibrium features" by J. Krepel and E. Losa. The general conclusion of this study is that the U-Pu cycle profits more from spectrum hardening and has better neutron economy, where more neutrons are produced but also parasitically captured. On the other hand, the Th-U cycle is less sensitive to the spectrum hardening and has better neutron efficiency, where lower neutron production is compensated by lower parasitic captures. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2019.01.013
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