A free webinar organised by the GEN IV International Forum will be held on 29 November 2017 at 8:30 am EST (UTC-5). It will cover and focus on PHENIX and SUPERPHENIX feedback and experience.
The energy situation in France is specific: there is no fossil energy available ( oil, coal, gas, etc..), a large fleet of PWR in operation provides about 80% of electricity , and a successful reprocessing activity provides each year about 10 tons of plutonium. In this situation, sodium fast breeder reactors would be very useful for the country, and have been developed with the Rapsodie, Phenix and Superphenix reactors. The feedback and experiences gained on these reactors has been analszed and collected in two books “Phenix: the feedback experience” / EDP sciences 2012, and “Superphenix: Technical and Scientific achievements” / Springer 2016. This thematic analysis was performed on materials, fuel, neutronic, thermal hydraulic, components, water sodium reaction, sodium leaks, safety, and more generally on all the specific technical matters related to this type of reactor.
The presentation will give, for each theme cited above, the main results obtained and the
main conclusions or recommendations for the future of sodium fast breeder reactors.