Abstract

Securing energy supply is one of the grand challenges we are facing today and it is difficult to envision a plausible solution without nuclear power. New nuclear power plant designs are expected to offer improved characteristics with respect to safety, efficiency, economics and waste management. Examples of representative nuclear plants and systems addressing these requirements will be presented.

In the main part of his lecture, Prof. Petrovic will introduce a new reactor concept, the Integral Inherently Safe Light Water Reactor (I2S-LWR). This design concept employs a reactor configuration with an integral primary circuit aiming to implement to a larger power reactor attractive inherent safety features usually associated with integral small modular reactors. This, however, necessitates innovations in its safety approach, development of a novel fuel design, as well as introducing novel technologies for primary circuit components. I2S -LWR is being developed under a U.S. DOE Integrated Research Project (IRP) research grant, recently awarded to a multidisciplinary team of 11 national and international organizations led by Georgia Tech, and including the University of Cambridge.