Workshop on the Safety of Fuel Manufacturing for Advanced Reactors

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supports its Member States in improving safety of design and operation of nuclear fuel cycle facilities (NFCFs). The IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSR-4, Safety of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities establishes the requirements that must be met to ensure the protection of people and the environment, throughout the lifetime of a NFCF. Further, the IAEA Safety Guides on NFCFs provide recommendations and guidance on meeting these safety requirements, including those for manufacturing and reprocessing nuclear fuel.

There are presently a number of innovative and advanced nuclear power reactor concepts, including small modular reactors (SMRs), on which research and development work is being undertaken, and they are characterized by different design approaches, technologies and safety features, e.g.: liquid metal-cooled fast neutron reactors such as sodium-cooled fast reactors and lead-cooled fast reactors, very high temperature gas-cooled reactors, gas-cooled fast reactors, and molten salt reactors. These designs rely among other aspects, on new nuclear fuel types with features and manufacturing processes that differ from the current fuel designs. Manufacturing or reprocessing of nuclear fuels for advanced reactors might require design of new facilities or modification of the existing ones and entails new challenges for the safety of these facilities which need to be addressed in the design and operation of these facilities.

In response to this, the IAEA is organizing this Workshop on the Safety of Fuel Manufacturing for Advanced Reactors at the IAEA Headquarters, Vienna, 24 – 27 June 2024.