HTGR Knowledge Base

Conference Article: Gas-cooled breeder reactor safety

Abstract

The European Association for the Gas-cooled Breeder Reactor [G B R A], set-up in 1969 prepared between 1972 and 1974 a 1200 MWe Gas-cooled Breeder Reactor [G B R] commercial reference design G B R 4. It was then found necessary that a sound and neutral appraisal of the G B R licenseability be carried out. The Commission of the European Communities [C E C] accepted to sponsor this exercise. At the beginning of 1974, the C E C convened a group of experts to examine on a Community level, the safety documents prepared by the G B R A. A working party was set-up for that purpose. The experts examined a ''Preliminary Safety Working Document'' on which written questions and comments were presented. A ''Supplement'' containing the answers to all the questions plus a detailed fault tree and reliability analysis was then prepared. After a final study of this document and a last series of discussions with G B R A representatives, the experts concluded that on the basis of the evidence presented to the Working Party, no fundamental reasons were identified which would prevent a Gas-cooled Breeder Reactor of the kind proposed by the G B R A achieving a satisfactory safety status. Further work carried out on ultimate accident have confirmed this conclusion. One can therefore claim that the overall safety risk associated with G B R s compares favourably with that of any other reactor system.

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Reference:

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria). International Working Group on Gas-Cooled Reactors. Specialists meeting on gas-cooled reactor safety and licensing aspects, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1-3 September 1980. Summary report. Jan 1981

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria). International Working Group on High-Temperature Reactors.

IWGGCR--1, pp:39-51