Fast Reactors and Accelerator Driven Systems Knowledge Base

This Working Material publication provides the Meeting Report of the two IAEA sponsored back-to-back Technical Meetings (TMs) on the Coordinated Project (CRP) Analyses of and Lessons Learned from the Operational Experience with Fast Reactor Equipment and Systems, and to co-ordinate the Agency’s fast reactor knowledge preservation international project in Russia.

The TMs were held on the recommendation of the Agency’s Technical working Group on Fast Reactors (TWG-FR), and were hosted by the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE) Obninsk, Russian Federation, from 14 to 18 February 2005. The objectives of the TMs were twofold:

• to prepare the CRP on Analyses of and Lessons Learned from the Operational Experience with Fast Reactor Equipment and Systems, and
• to offer a global forum for information exchange on the status of fast reactor data retrieval and knowledge preservation activities in Russia.

• With regard to the first objective, the meeting agreed to consider the following two items “fuels and materials behavior” and “steam generators”, as topical areas to be studied within the framework of a first stage of the CRP. As far as the second objective is concerned, the meeting participants pointed out that the large amount of knowledge accumulated by the Russian specialists in the fast reactor area was a very valuable resource, not only for Russia, but for the whole world community, and emphasized the extreme importance of preserving this wealth of knowledge. The meeting also clearly identified the need to implement task-oriented activities on data retrieval, as well as on preservation and systematization of this knowledge. In this context, the meeting considers it to be opportune to draw Rosatom’s attention to the necessity of the development of a Russian national fast reactor knowledge preservation program.

  Finally, the meeting participants pointed out that the experience gained in France, Germany, Japan, and the UK with the respective fast reactor knowledge preservation efforts could be helpful to the Russian organizations and specialists for the related work to be performed in Russia.