According to different government sources, it is expected that Generation IV nuclear power reactors may be available for commercial application before 2050.
Future nuclear power reactors must be designed so that during normal operation or anticipated transients safety margins are adequate, accidents are prevented, and off-normal situations do not deteriorate into severe accidents. At the same time, competitiveness requires a very high level of reliability and performance. There has been a definite trend over the years to improve the safety and reliability of nuclear power reactors, particularly after the Three Miles Island, the Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accidents, reduce the frequency and degree of off-site radioactive releases, and diminish the possibility of significant reactor damage. Generation IV nuclear power reactors must ensure high levels of safety and reliability through further improvements in their designs that are safer and that can reduce the potential for severe accidents and their consequences to the environment and human health to the minimum. The achievement of these ambitious goals also requires high human performance and training as a major contributor to the plant availability, reliability, inspectability, and maintainability.
The following are the designs of Generation IV systems already under development on the basis of the set of criteria that have been established:
Gas cooled fast reactor (GFR);
Lead cooled fast reactor (LFR);
Molten salt reactor (MSR);
Sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR);
Super critical water cooled reactor (SCWR);
Very high temperature gas reactor (VHTR).
The above six Generation IV system designs are very different and also present different challenges that need to be solved in the ongoing research and development programmes carried out now in several countries in order to have all, or at least some of them, available in the market as soon as possible. Some of these designs may still need significant additional research and development work before they can be considered ready for the production of electricity.
In 2005, the first 210 MWe HTR-PM plant, based on the HTR-10 experience, was approved for construction at Shidaowan, near Rongcheng in Weihai city, Shandong province in China. In 2006, Huaneng Shandong Shidaowan Nuclear Power Company (HSSNPC) was formed as a result of joint investments by China Huaneng Group, China Nuclear Engineering & Construction Group, and Tsinghua Holdings Group as the technology provider. HSSNPC received environmental clearance in March 2008 for construction start of a demonstration HTR-PM station in September 2009 and commissioning by 2013. The domestic Chinese supply chain for the HTR-PM is nearly set (the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction contract was finalized in October 2008 with the involvement of Shanghai Electric Co. and Harbin Power Equipment Co.), and construction works for the Shidaowan plant started in December 2012 with commissioning scheduled before 2017. Additional 18 HTR-PM units are envisioned to be built at the same site. China is also looking to possibly export the HTR-PM to smaller, developing countries, once the domestic demonstration project is successful.
http://www.uxc.com/smr/uxc_SMRDetail.aspx?key=HTR-PM
Hi! I recently published a paper about it on "Energy Policy". If you are interested this is the link
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251879892_Generation_IV_nuclear_reactors_Current_status_and_future_prospects
Article Generation IV nuclear reactors: Current status and future prospects
Dear Giorgio. Many thanks for the link. I will read your paper as soon as I can.
Just to complement the information provided above, please be aware that in the Technology Roadmap issued by the GIF (downloadable from the GIF website) you can find, at page 79, a comprehensive timeline for the development of the 6 candidate technologies, drafted according to the forecasts in 2002.
Presently the GIF is working on a revised version of this roadmap, in which also the timelines are going to be changed taking into account on one hand the general delay somehow due to the Fukushima events, and on the other hand the significant R&D work performed in these past years, as well as according to the official positions of the main actors. Several discussions arose on this, and also in trying to agree whether some existing projects had to be considered as already complying with Gen-IV or not (e.g.: the russian "BN-800" SFR, which is a system conceived and designed from the '80s), impacting on the readiness of the related technology.
About this, I can only anticipate you that the LFR technology (I mention this because is the one I'm mostly involved in) is now considered a much more mature candidate, going to begin the demonstration phase well in advance with respect to the initial guesses, mainly thanks to the Russian effort on this (SVBR and BREST projects).
The reactors based on thorium fuel cycle like molten salt reactors, advanced heavy water reactors(India) could be available by 2050.
The latest information about the use of thorium as fuel
• Norway’s Thor Energy is exploring the operation of U-233 - thorium oxide (Th-MOX) fuel in an advanced reduced-moderation BWR (RBWR). This reactor platform, designed by Hitachi Ltd and JAEA, should be well suited for achieving high U-233 conversion factors from thorium due to its epithermal neutron spectrum and flexible uranium-plutonium fuels in which high conversion or actinide destruction can be achieved. It is based on the ABWR architecture but has a shorter, flatter pancake-shaped core and a tight lattice to ensure sufficient fast neutron leakage and a negative void reactivity coefficient.
• Some of the innovation of the CANDU-9, along with experience in building recent Korean and Chinese units, was then put back into the Enhanced CANDU-6 (EC6). This is to be built as twin units - with power increase to 740-750 MWe gross (690 MWe net, 2084 MWt) and flexible fuel options, plus 4.5 year construction and 60-year plant life (with mid-life pressure tube replacement). EC6 is presented as a third-generation design based on Qinshan 3 in China, and is under consideration for new build in Ontario and overseas. Phase 2 of CNSC’s vendor pre-project design review was completed in April 2012, with phase 3 on target for 2013.
• India is developing the Advanced Heavy Water reactor (AHWR) as the third stage in its plan to utilise thorium to fuel its overall nuclear power program. The AHWR is a 300 MWe gross (284 MWe net, 920 MWt) reactor moderated by heavy water at low pressure. Each fuel assembly has 30 Th-U-233 oxide pins and 24 Pu-Th oxide pins around a central rod with burnable absorber. Burn-up of 24 GWd/t is envisaged. It is designed to be self-sustaining in relation to U-233 bred from Th-232 and have a low Pu inventory and consumption, with slightly negative void coefficient of reactivity. It is designed for 100-year plant life and is expected to utilise 65% of the energy of the fuel, with two thirds of that energy coming from thorium via U-233.
In 2009 an export version of this design was announced: the AHWR-LEU. This will use low-enriched uranium plus thorium as a fuel, dispensing with the plutonium input. About 39% of the power will come from thorium (via in situ conversion to U-233), and burn-up will be 64 GWd/t. Uranium enrichment level will be 19.75%, giving 4.21% average fissile content of the U-Th fuel. While designed for closed fuel cycle, this is not required. Plutonium production will be less than in light water reactors, and the fissile proportion will be less and the Pu-238 portion three times as high, giving inherent proliferation resistance
• Fast Neutron Reactors (not moderated, cooled by liquid metal)
At the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research a 40 MWt fast breeder test reactor has been operating since 1985. In addition, the tiny Kamini there is employed to explore the use of thorium as nuclear fuel, by breeding fissile U-233. In 2004 construction of a 500 MWe prototype fast breeder reactor started at Kalpakkam. The unit is expected to be operating in 2012, fuelled with uranium-plutonium oxide (the reactor-grade Pu being from its existing PHWRs) and with a thorium blanket to breed fissile U-233. This will take India's ambitious thorium program to stage 2, and set the scene for eventual full utilisation of the country's abundant thorium to fuel reactors.
According to the World Nuclear News, Beloyarsk 4, the first-of-a-kind BN-800 MWe fast reactor is getting its first fuel loaded in preparation for commercial operation in the following months. The Beloyarsk site is envisaged for the of two BN-1200 fast reactors.
Russia's nuclear energy plans, includes a move to inherently safe nuclear plants building fast reactors with a closed fuel cycle and mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. Besides the BN series of reactors, the country is developing the lead-cooled BREST (U+Pu nitride fueled) fast reactor and the lead-bismuth cooled SVBR, which may be operating by 2050.
Referencia:
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-Fuel-loading-begins-at-fast-reactor-0302147.html
Dear @Jorge, thank you for the question; a big question is can atomic energy be safe? My answer is NO.
Many energy resources are not safe. One more than others. However, nuclear accident occur mainly by human error either during the selection of the site (Fukushima nuclear accident) or during operation (Chernobyl and Three Mile Island). For more information on how safe is the use of nuclear energy see my paper entitled WORLD MAJOR NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS AND THEIR NEGATIVE IMPACT IN THE ENVIRONMENT, HUMAN HEALTH PUBLIC OPINION and my book entitled NUCLEAR POWER: CURRENT AND FUTURE ROLE IN THE WORLD ELECTRICITY GENERATION.
The ITER project could be one of the solutions to be considered, but not before 2050.
SFR technology has a chance to become a commercial one till 2050.
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