Technical Meeting on the Safety Approach for Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactors and the Analysis and Modelling of Severe Accidents

Introduction

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has published a comprehensive set of Safety Standards which provide the fundamental principles, requirements and guides to underpin the safety of nuclear installations worldwide. More recently, the IAEA has assessed the applicability of the Safety Standards to advanced evolutionary and innovative reactors. This review concluded that, although many of the IAEA Safety Standards are largely applicable to those technologies, it is essential to gather detailed technical information about the safety characteristics of different non-water cooled reactors, such as sodium cooled and lead cooled reactors, which are jointly referred to as Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactors (LMFR). This information can support the development of an international repository of knowledge to enhance global understanding of the safety related issues and the safety demonstration of these technologies and to contribute to the future development of the IAEA Safety Standards.

The Department of Nuclear Safety and Security and the Department of Nuclear Energy of the IAEA have been working jointly in the area of severe accidents for LMFRs ensuring that matters that affect the design and safety of the reactors are considered comprehensively and holistically, including severe accident analysis methods and modelling tools.

Objectives

The objective of the event is to provide a platform for Member States to exchange information on the design of liquid metal cooled fast reactors, with regard to the general approach to design safety and the consideration of severe accidents in the design and safety assessment of sodium cooled and lead cooled innovative reactors, with an emphasis on analysis and modelling of severe accidents.

The event will discuss experiences and technological challenges related to the safety approaches used in the design and safety assessment of LMFRs, including consideration of the relevant severe accident phenomena, models and tools used for the design and safety analyses of LMFRs, as well as regulatory and licensing aspects.

The IAEA intends to develop a new technical publication (TECDOC) to compile the outcomes of the meeting and address considerations on the safety of LMFRs. In addition, the meeting will contribute to the ongoing development of a TECDOC on the safety approach for the design of advanced reactors.

Target Audience

The event is targeted at professionals from reactor design organizations, licensee organizations, research organizations, national regulators and technical support organizations with specialized knowledge of, or experience in, design and safety assessment of LMFR, analysis and modelling of severe accidents for LMFR, or any other activity related to LMFR design or regulation.

The event is, in principle, open to all officially designated persons. The IAEA, however, reserves the right to restrict participation due to limitations imposed by the available meeting facilities. It is, therefore, recommended that interested persons take the necessary steps for the official designation as early as possible.

Topics

The scope of this Technical Meeting will encompass design and safety assessment of LMFRs with an emphasis on hypothetical severe accidents, including modelling and analysis of the severe accident progression, numerical code development and validation, and regulatory approaches and licensing.

The event is intended to cover the following topics:

• Scenarios leading to core degradation in LMFRs (such as loss of flow, local instantaneous blockage, reactivity insertion, loss of heat sink, cumulated with the failure of shutdown systems);
• Design and safety assessment of LMFR for prevention and mitigation of severe accidents;
• LMFR severe accident phenomena and analysis models;
• Experiences in the regulation and licensing of LMFRs;
• International programs on LMFR design and safety.

Papers and Presentations

The TM will include two different sub-tracks:

Sub-track 1: “Safety approach for LMFR”: Oral presentations which will be provided at the TM will constitute an input for the development of a TECDOC on the topic (no technical paper will be requested for oral presentations under this sub-track);

Sub-track 2: “Analysis and Modelling of Severe Accidents for LMFR”: Oral speakers are also requested to submit a technical paper. The technical papers will be peer reviewed by an Advisory Committee prior to the TM and will be further published as an IAEA TECDOC.

General Key Deadlines and Dates

16 December 2023: Deadline for submission of the Participation Form (Form A) and if applicable the Form for Submission of a Paper (Form B) and the Grant Application Form (Form C) to the competent national authority (e.g., Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Mission to the IAEA or National Atomic Energy Authority) or their organization for onward transmission to the IAEA.

13-17 March 2023: Technical Meeting.

Sub-track 1: "Safety approach for LMFR"

16 December 2022: Submission of abstracts (the abstract should be in A4 page format, should extend to no more than 2 pages (including figures and tables) and should not exceed 500 words).

20 January 2023: Notification of acceptance of abstracts for oral presentations.

Sub-track 2 : “Analysis and Modelling of Severe Accidents for LMFR”

16 December 2022: Submission of abstracts (the abstract should be in A4 page format, should extend to no more than 2 pages (including figures and tables) and should not exceed 500 words).

20 January 2023: Notification of acceptance of abstracts for technical papers.

3 February 2023: Electronic submission of draft technical papers will only be accepted through IAEA-INDICO using the Full Paper Template. Papers that do not follow this format will not be considered for the publication of a TECDOC on the Analysis and Modelling of Severe Accidents for Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactors. Papers must be between 6-10 pages in total. Please provide papers in the .docx (MS Word) format.

10 March 2023: Notification of review of draft technical papers.