Study and Evaluation of Innovative Fuel Handling Systems for Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors: Fuel Handling Route Optimization

Table 1

Advantages and drawbacks of the reference solution plus the innovative solution investigated.

Advantages	Drawbacks
SRS option
(i) System’s simplicity; (ii) Light impact on the reactor geometry; (iii) Easy extrapolability to future reactor commercial	(i) Fuel handling transfer time; (ii) Fuel handling cask dimensions (from a thermal and mechanical point of view); (iii) Large masses being transferred
Mixed way—ramp and transfer lock and gas corridor
(i) Limited reactor containment openings; (ii) Low weight in transfer; (iii) Fuel handling duration	(i) Thermal features of the corridor; (ii) Components operating under sodium aerosols ambiance; (iii) Sodium drips management
Three rotating plugs, ramp and gas corridor
(i) Improved fuel handling duration; (ii) Reduced weight transferred; (iii) No takeover position	(i) Combination of three rotating plugs and connection management; (ii) Heavy cask in rotation on rotating plugs; (iii) Increased vessel diameter; (iv) Thermal dimensioning of the gas corridor and quantity to inert
Cask and direct fuel handling
(i) No mechanism inside the primary vessel; (ii) Limited reactor containment openings	(i) Complex direct extraction system; (ii) Increase of the vessel diameter; (iii) Improvement in the fuel handling time is obtained thanks to a complicated system of two cask parallel transfers; (iv) Large reactor containment opening