Technical Meeting on the Management of Spent Fuel (Pebbles and Compacts) from High Temperature Reactors

Introduction

The interest in small modular reactors (SMRs) is steadily increasing, and significant industrial efforts are ongoing to facilitate their development and early deployment. According to the IAEA’s Advanced Reactors Information System (ARIS) database, there are currently about 70 SMR designs at different active stages of development and deployment worldwide. Among these designs, High Temperature Reactors (HTRs) are receiving attention because they can provide high temperature energy for the generation of electricity and for industrial heat applications.

HTRs use inherently safe fuel and feature pebble-bed or prismatic core designs using Tri structural isotropic (TRISO) coated particle fuel, which is made of fuel particles covered by three layers of carbon and ceramic based materials designed to prevent the release of radioactive fission products. There is very limited experience worldwide to develop and implement HTR fuel cycle options, especially backend solutions for managing spent HTR fuels, considering that about 92 % of the spent fuel is graphite.

Feedback from IAEA activities in this area showed the need and interest from Member States for fostering the exchange of operational experiences in managing these spent fuels, for discussing potential fuel cycle options, and for the identification of potential gaps and needs. Therefore, the IAEA proposes to organize a Technical Meeting on the Management of Spent Fuel (Pebbles and Compacts) from High Temperature Reactors at IAEA Head Quarters, Vienna, Austria from 7-11 July 2025.

Objectives

The purpose of the event is to collect global information on experiences in managing spent fuels from high temperature reactors (HTRs) in order to anticipate the challenges of managing spent fuels from future HTR-small modular reactors, and to conduct a gap analysis of R&D and innovation needs in order to identify collaborative research and development opportunities that might be supported by the IAEA.

Target Audience

The meeting is aimed at practitioners (e.g., operators, regulators, researchers, etc.) in Member States who are responsible for, or actively involved in, the management of spent HTR fuels.