Nuclear Power Technology Development Section

INTERNATIONAL PROJECT ON INNOVATIVE NUCLEAR REACTORS AND FUEL CYCLES (INPRO)

The objective of INPRO is to support the safe, sustainable, economic and proliferation-resistant use of nuclear technology to meet the global energy needs of the 21st century.

Objectives:

To help to ensure that nuclear energy is available to contribute, in a sustainable manner, to the energy needs in the 21st century.
To bring together technology holders and users so that they can consider jointly the international and national actions required for achieving desired innovations in nuclear reactors and fuel cycles.

Mission:

To provide a forum where experts and policy makers from developed and developing countries can discuss technical, economical, environmental, proliferation resistance and societal aspects of nuclear energy planning as well as the development and deployment of Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems (INS) in the 21st century.
To develop the methodology for assessing INS and establish a set of recommendations for such assessments.
To analyze on a global, regional and national scale the role and structure of INS capable of meeting energy demands in a sustainable manner;
To facilitate the co-ordination of international cooperation for INS development and deployment; and
To pay particular attention to the needs of developing countries interested in INS.

Milestones:

Initiated and supported by IAEA General Conference Resolution in September 2000
Preparatory Meeting in November 2000: INPRO Terms of Reference adopted
Launched by Steering Committee in May 2001
Broad Support through the Resolutions of General Conferences in 2001-2007
In July 2003 the IAEA Board of Governors agreed to include INPRO in the regular budget of the Agency
In July 2006 INPRO SCM- 9 has approved Terms of Reference for Phase 2.
In June 2007 INPRO 11 SCM has endorsed 14 Collaborative Projects
INPRO Manual is published as IAEA TECDOC-1575

Project history and plan:

Phase-IA was completed in June 2003

The main output of Phase-IA is IAEA TECDOC 1362 Guidance for the Evaluation of Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles” issued in June 2003. The report provides a Methodology for Assessment of INS as based on the defined set of Basic Principles, User Requirements and Criteria in the areas of Economics, Sustainability and Environment, Safety, Waste Management, Proliferation Resistance and recommendations on Cross Cutting Issues

Phase-IB (Part 1) was completed in December 2004

The main output of Phase-IB (Part 1) is IAEA TECDOC 1434 “Methodology for the assessment of INS: report of Phase 1B (first part) of the International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO)”. The reports incorporates the outputs of 14 case studies performed by experts from 7 INPRO Member States for the validation of the INPRO methodology through its trial application to the assessment of selected INSs

Phase-IB (Part 2) was completed in July 2006.

Phase-IB (Part 2) had produced a draft INPRO Methodology Manual for the assessment of INS. The draft Manual consists of 8 volumes of working documents, which address areas of Economics, Safety for nuclear power plants, Safety for fuel cycle facility, Environment, Waste Management, Proliferation Resistance and Infrastructure with Overview, and they were distributed to INPRO members. The Manual is published as TECDOC- 1575 in 2007 together with an additional volume of Physical Protection.
Following 12 assessment studies were proposed and conducted by INPRO members during Phase-IB (Part 2) to assess their own INS with INPRO methodology. A study, “Assessment of the DUPIC fuel cycle with respect to proliferation resistance” by Republic of Korea, was successfully finished and other 11 studies were succeeded in Task 1 of the Phase-II.

Joint assessment based on a closed fuel cycle with fast reactors (performed by Canada, China, France, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and Ukraine);
Assessment of INS based on high temperature reactors (India);
Study on the transition from Light Water Reactors to Generation IV fast neutron systems (France);
Assessment of additional nuclear generation capacity in the country for the period 2010-2025 (Argentina);
Assessment of INS options for a country with small energy demands (Armenia);
Assessment of the DUPIC fuel cycle with respect to proliferation resistance (Republic of Korea);
Assessment of two Small-Sized Reactors (IRIS and FBNR) (Brazil);
NPP economics; project financing case study (Morocco);
Assessment of advanced HTGCR (China);
National Nuclear Energy Assessment Study up to 2030 (Ukraine);
Assessment of INS to meet energy demand during the period of raw material insufficiency (Czech Republic jointly with Bulgaria, Poland, Russia, Slovak Republic)
Assessment study on comparison of SFRs and LFRs (EC)

Phase-II was started in July 2006.

The Terms of Reference for Phase-II is available from INPRO Web Page.

The 9^th and 10^th meeting of the INPRO Steering Committee endorsed Phase-II Action Plan, in which three directions are defined.

The first direction contains methodology oriented activities, where the methodology will be continuously improved with feedback from 12 assessment studies being performed by INPRO Members as well as publication of INPRO Manual as a TECDOC-1575 The first direction also includes creation of a vision report on opportunities and challenges of large-scale nuclear energy development.
The second direction contains institutional/infrastructure oriented activities, which will address the future infrastructure needs requiring innovation and infrastructure requirements for plants to be deployed in the future.
The third direction contains collaborative project related activities, which are newly introduced in Phase-II. The collaborative projects will be performed by groups of interested INPRO Members on a variety of topics related to INS development and deployment. INPRO/IAEA will provide secretariat function for INPRO Members to plan and implement the projects. Initiating Member States should submit CPP form for further CPP consideration in compliance to the IAEA statute and INPRO objectives. The detail framework for the collaborative projects is fully specified in a Framework document, which was endorsed by INPRO Steering committee, and INPRO have received 20 CP proposals from INPRO Members as of February 2007. Any interested Member States are welcome to join any INPRO CPP. All interested Member States are invited to perform assessments of INS of their choice using the INPRO methodology and/or to propose or participate in collaborative projects for development and deployment of INS.
The fourth direction is focused on identification of common user considerations and criteria from developing countries with respect to the reactor systems necessary in the 21st century, focusing on small and medium sized reactors, and potentially establishing joint actions by technology holders and users for development and deployment of such reactor systems.
INPRO avoids duplication of other IAEA activities and takes advantage of synergies with other international initiatives on nuclear technology development (GIF, GNEP e.t.c.).

More detailed information about INPRO activity is available in INPRO Broshure-2007 and in INPRO meeting list for 2007-2008.