Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations

Review Article

Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor: A Historical Overview and Future Outlook

Table 2

Design data for several Generation IV GFRs, per July 2006. For all Direct Cycle reactors, helium is the preferred coolant. For the GFR600 Indirect Cycle variant, supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) is the secondary coolant. Note that the 600 MWth are currently no longer investigated. For the 2400 MWth Indirect Cycle concept, various secondary cycles and working fluids are under consideration. The JAEA GFR has blankets to breed just enough new fissile material to allow operation in a closed fuel cycle.
Concept ETDR GFR600 GFR600 GFR2400 GFR2400 JAEA GFR
Power [MWth] 50 600 600 2400 2400 2400
PCS — direct indirect (in)direct direct direct
Coolant He He He/S-CO2 He He He
Power density [MW/m3] 100 103 103 100 100 90
Specific power [W/gHM] — 45 45 — 42 36
𝑇 c o r e , i n [ ∘ C ] 250 480 ≈ 400 480 480 460
𝑇 c o r e , o u t [ ∘ C ] 525 850 ≈ 625 850 850 850
Core H/D 0.86/0.86 1.95/1.95 1.95/1.95 1.55/4.44 1.34/4.77 0.9/5.9
Pressure [MPa] 7.0 7.0 7.0 7.0 7.0 7.0
Fuel type Pins (a) plates plates plates pins blocks
Fuel mat. UPuO2 UPuC UPuC UPuC UPuC UPuN
Struct. mat. AIM1 (b) SiC SiC SiC SiC SiC
Refl. mat. AIM1 Zr3Si2 Zr3Si2 Zr3Si2 Zr3Si2 SiC
Vol.% c/s/f (c) — 55/20/25 55/20/25 40/37.6/22.4 55/23/22 25/55/20
Breeding Gain — − 5 % − 5 % − 5 % 0 0.03/0.11 (d)
( a ) Plate fuel in later stage. ( b ) Austenitic Improved Material 1, a variation of 15/15Ti stainless steel (SS-316), developed especially for fast reactors (Phénix and SuperPhénix). ( c ) Coolant, structural materials, fuel. ( d ) Without/with blanket.