workshops

FAST REACTOR WORKING GROUP Workshop

July 9-10, 2019

The first industry/Department of Energy Fast Reactor Workshop was held July 9-10 at Argonne National Laboratory.

The 40 Workshop attendees included 19 from US industry representing 10 different companies; representatives from DOE, NRC, and NIA also participated. US industry is developing fast reactor concepts using a variety of coolant technologies and reactor sizes. The workshop featured:

• An industry panel to highlight beneficial features and current opportunities for proposed advanced reactor concepts.
• An industry panel to explore fuel cycle strategies.
• Two technical panels (mixed industry/lab) addressing emerging R&D needs for modeling/simulation tools and advanced materials.

Summary presentations on advanced reactor activities were provided by DOE and NRC. The Workshop also included a tour of the METL liquid metal component testing facility and a demonstration of external access to DOE fast reactor databases. This workshop provided a unique opportunity for interaction between the US industry developers and DOE fast reactor experts. The technical and strategy discussions highlighted both deployment benefits and challenges for fast reactors, and helped to clarify R&D needs for US industry fast reactor concepts.