South Korea wins some GNEP research

21 November 2007

Studies into the cores of very high-temperature reactors and 'advanced burner reactors' will be carried out by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (Kaeri) under a deal with General Atomics (GA).

GA is leading one of the four consortia selected by the US Department of Energy (DoE) to develop technology required to implement the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) plan. Under the scheme countries with advanced nuclear fuel cycle centres would provide power reactors and assured nuclear fuel supplies to client nations that agree to use nuclear power peacefully. The fuel-cycle nations would also take back and manage highly-radioactive used nuclear fuel for the long term.

GA's deal with Kaeri is worth $105,000, which comes from the $1.6 million the DoE awarded to GA's consortium in October. In addition to GA and Kaeri, the other members of the group are: C2HM Hill, United Technologies Corporation - Hamilton Sundstrand Rocketdyne Division; Potomac Communications Group, Listo and a group of Russian firms led by OKBM.

The work builds on earlier cooperation between Kaeri and GA, based around its very high-temperature helium-cooled GT-MHR reactor design. In 2005 the two began a joint research and development program for the large-scale production of hydrogen. The gas would be produced through the sulfur-iodine (S-I) process which requires a supply of heat at around 900 degrees C. The GT-MHR can provide this. The design is at an advanced stage and a unit has long been under construction in Russia. A variation of it has been submitted for the DoE's Next-Generation Nuclear Plant project.

Besides gas-cooled reactors like GT-MHR a main GNEP concept is the advanced burner reactor, a fast reactor which is expected to be cooled by liquid sodium but is only at the conceptual stage of development. It would be able to generate power from burning actinides recovered from used nuclear fuel from mainstream light-water reactors. In this way, the used fuel from GNEP client states would be reused and reduced in volume.

Further information

General Atomics

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institutre (Kaeri)

WNN: Supercomputers to simulate future reactor
WNN: US DoE awards $16 million in GNEP funding
WNN: Next Generation Nuclear Plant Revived

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