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Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
Weston M. Stacey
Nuclear Technology | Volume 200 | Number 1 | October 2017 | Pages 15-26
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1345585
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Georgia Tech concept of the Subcritical Advanced Burner Reactor (SABR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) transmutation reactor and supporting analyses to date are summarized. SABR is based on the fast reactor physics and technology prototyped in Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) and proposed for the Integral Fast Reactor and the PRISM Reactor and on the tokamak fusion neutron source physics and technology that will be prototyped in ITER. Preliminary fuel cycle calculations indicate that subcritical operation would enable a proliferation-resistant fuel reprocessing cycle that would safely accommodate fuel with up to 100% TRU content and that introduction of SABRs in a 1-to-3 power ratio with light water reactors would reduce the required SNF high-level waste repository capacity (defined on the basis of decay heat released) by a factor of 10 to 100. Preliminary dynamic safety calculations indicate that SABRs could be shut down to the decay heat level by turning off the plasma heating power without core damage in loss of heat sink, loss of flow, and loss of power accidents, but that additional decay heat removal capability is needed in the case of total loss of primary or secondary system pumping power.