Fast Reactors and Accelerator Driven Systems Knowledge Base

Fast Reactor Data Retrieval and Knowledge Preservation

Background

This initiative is in response to Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors (TWG-FR) Member States’ expressed needs to maintain and increase the present knowledge and expertise in nuclear science and technology. In a nutshell, the IAEA initiative seeks to establish a comprehensive, international inventory of fast reactor data and knowledge, which would be sufficient to form the basis for fast reactor development in 30 to 40 years from now. This knowledge base is intended to provide access to the national guardians of assured quality information in the basic research, design, safety, fabrication, construction, operation, and in the decommissioning of fast reactors.

For three decades several countries had important fast breeder reactor development programs. Fast test reactors (Rapsodie (France), KNK-II (Germany), FBTR (India), JOYO (Japan), DFR (UK), BR-10, BOR-60 (Russia), EBR-II, Fermi, FFTF (USA)) were operating in several countries, with commercial size prototypes (Phénix, Superphénix (France), SNR-300 (Germany), MONJU (Japan), PFR (UK), BN-350 (Kazakhstan), BN-600 (Russia)) just under construction or coming on line. However, from the 1980s onward, and mostly for economical and political reasons, fast reactor development in general began to decline. By 1994, in the USA, the Clinch River Breeder Reactor (CRBR) had been cancelled, and the two fast reactor test facilities, FFTF and EBR-II had been shutdown - with EBR-II permanently, and FFTF, until recently, in standby condition, but now also facing permanent closure. Thus, in the U.S., effort essentially disappeared for fast breeder reactor development. Similarly, programs in other nations were terminated or substantially reduced. In France, Superphénix was shut down at the end of 1998; SNR-300 in Germany was completed but not taken into operation, and KNK-II was permanently shut down in 1991 (after 17 years of operation) and is scheduled to be dismantled by 2004. In the UK, PFR was shut down in 1994, and in Kazakhstan, BN-350 was shut down in 1998.

At the same time that the interest in the fast reactor waned, also the retirement of many of the developers of this technology reached its peak, between 1990 and 2000, and hiring diminished in parallel. In parallel, the facilities (e.g., hot cells, fuel fabrication and inspection lines, seismic test rigs, and so forth) are drifting into a degraded state or are being shut down. All this leads to conclude that the continuity in the capacity to deploy fast reactor technology is in jeopardy. Hence, there is a need to preserve fast reactor technology until the economic need for fast breeder reactors, which may not occur for three or more decades, becomes apparent.

IAEA activities

In a more general context, the IAEA Director General convened a meeting of senior officials form around the world to address the more general issue of nuclear knowledge management (Vienna, June 17-19, 2002). At this meeting, there was strong agreement that the knowledge gained over the past 50+ years of reactor technology development must be preserved and transferred to future generations. There was also widespread agreement that, for sustainability reasons, long-term development of nuclear power as a part of the world’s future energy mix, will require the fast reactor technology, and that, given the decline in fast reactor development projects, data retrieval and knowledge preservation efforts in this area are of particular importance.

As regards fast reactor knowledge preservation, IAEA’s NENP/NPTDS has conducted an international consultancy at Argonne National Laboratory - West (April 2 – 4, 2002). The main objective of the consultancy (see: meeting report TWG-FR/107) was to define the scope of the fast reactor knowledge preservation efforts (what should be preserved), and to produce a road map for the implementation of these efforts (work plan, funding sources, national and international coordination).

This consultancy was the first step towards the implementation of this initiative. Steps already taken by various countries were reviewed, the scope of fast reactor knowledge preservation activities was clearly defined, a road map for the implementation of the initiative was outlined, and the Agency’s role identified. (There is also an international initiative, supported by OECD/NEA, to preserve very specific data from critical assemblies, mainly focusing on thermal reactors (e.g., the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments Project (ICSBEP), and the project on Preservation of Experimental Integral Reactor Physics Data (IRPhE)). The IAEA initiative is already collaborating with OECD/NEA in this area, and an OECD/NEA representative participated in the ANL – West consultancy). The extensive efforts ongoing in some countries, particularly in France, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom, can be viewed as retrieving and preserving some pieces of an inventory of data and knowledge from which other pieces of information and knowledge have been, and are continuing to be lost. The consultancy concluded that the IAEA initiative should seek to develop a knowledge base into which existing knowledge preservation “systems” will fit and within which new efforts to preserve data and knowledge will complement the prior work. It should also aim at assuring that the data and knowledge are quality information by encouraging and facilitating that the ever-diminishing group of international experts be employed in reviewing and interpreting the retrieved data and information. While the responsibility for data retrieval and interpretation, as well as quality assurance will rest with the individual Member States joining the initiative, the IAEA would be responsible for coordinating the national efforts, ensure the collaboration with other International Organizations (mainly OECD/NEA), and eventually establishing and maintaining the access means to the mentioned “fast reactor knowledge base”. “Access” essentially means a portal to the information. However, in case of proprietary data, the free release of some of the information between Member States may still require negotiation on a case-by-case basis.

More specifically, the Agency would support and coordinate data retrieval and interpretation efforts by the fast reactor experts (in many cases already retired or about to retire) in the various Member States. The most urgent tasks for these experts will be to identify the data and information that are in danger to be lost (destroyed), assess its importance and relevance, retrieve it, and ensure its preservation. Provided funding is available, the Agency will secure the experts’ collaboration under the provision of “Special Service Agreements”. The Agency would convene, in regular intervals, coordination meetings. The follow-up meeting to the ANL – West consultancy was held 14-16 May 2003, in conjunction with the 36th Annual Meeting of the TWG-FR, hosted by KAERI in Taejon, Republic of Korea (see: meeting report TWG-FR/119). Ultimately, the Agency will provide the portal to access the knowledge base.

Summarizing, the IAEA’s initiative would provide an overall framework for the various programs being implemented in the Member States to stop data and information being destroyed, retrieve the data, assess its importance, determine what data and information should be retained, how information from different programs could be linked, how the quality of information should be assessed, and what standards should exist in software and hardware for preservation over the next 30 to 40 years. Provided funding is ensured, it would support and coordinate data retrieval activities, and establish the portal for accessing the knowledge base. By addressing issues of “institutional memory" (through, e.g., retrieval and preservation of the decision making processes, including the “false trails” followed and eventually rejected) and of passing information from one generation to the next, it aims at more than collecting information on static Web-based databases.

The implementation of the above mentioned initiative cannot be covered by regular budget funds. Both in the short term (for the 2003 follow-up meeting in the Republic of Korea), and in the long term (for implementing the data retrieval and preservation activities), the Agency would require extra budgetary funds and/or the collaboration of cost free experts. To date, one Member State has already pledged extra-budgetary contributions for the Agency’s activities on fast reactor data retrieval and knowledge preservation.