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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Powering the future: How the DOE is fueling nuclear fuel cycle research and development
As global interest in nuclear energy surges, the United States must remain at the forefront of research and development to ensure national energy security, advance nuclear technologies, and promote international cooperation on safety and nonproliferation. A crucial step in achieving this is analyzing how funding and resources are allocated to better understand how to direct future research and development. The Department of Energy has spearheaded this effort by funding hundreds of research projects across the country through the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP). This initiative has empowered dozens of universities to collaborate toward a nuclear-friendly future.
Joel Serge Guidez (CEA), Andrei Rineiski (KIT), Gérard Prêle, Enrico Girardi (EdF), Janos Bodi, Konstantin Mikityuk (PSI)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 26-35
Following the previous European projects EFR and CP ESFR [1], a new Horizon-2020 project, called ESFR-SMART, was launched in September 2017 [2]. This project will consider the safety objectives envisaged for Generation-IV reactors and the update of European and international safety frameworks, taking into account the Fukushima accident. In accordance with these objectives, guidelines will be defined to drive ESFR-SMART developments, mainly simplifying the design and using all the positive features of the Sodium Fast Reactors (SFR), such as low coolant pressure; efficiency of natural convection; possibility of decay heat removal (DHR) by atmospheric air; high thermal inertia and long grace period before a human intervention is needed. In this paper, the safety objectives are presented in terms of defence-in-depth principle, extreme natural hazards to take into account, mitigation measures, etc. In this R&D framework, a set of new ambitious safety measures is introduced for further evaluation within the ESFR-SMART project. This proposed set aims at consistency with the main lines of safety evolutions since the Fukushima accident, but it does not yet constitute the final comprehensive safety analysis. This analysis will be done in the ESFR-SMART project to assess the relevance of the whole design in comparison to the final safety objectives. It should also be noted that some of these proposals are useful but could be replaced by other proposals in case of non-final validation. This first reassembly leads to a simplified reactor, forgiving and including a lot of passivity. This first version will be reinforced by the various tasks works in the forthcoming months.