Germany - Type of contract: Service Title of the contract: 4724F50001 - Calculator

Description

Type of contract:
Service

Title of the contract:
4724F50001 - Computational determination of activation activities of a water-moderated small modular nuclear reactor

Short description:
In accordance with its legal mandate, BASE provides technical and scientific support to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) in the field of safety of nuclear facilities. Due to the legally stipulated end of the civilian use of nuclear power (13th amendment to the Atomic Energy Act) for power generation, the focus of this task has increasingly shifted to the safety of foreign plants. In order to continue to perform this task at a high level in the future, the research project is intended to help identify and answer questions on waste generation paths from light-water-cooled SMRs (LW-SMRs). The project is also intended to contribute to any future development of international standards in the interests of maximum safety.
In some countries, SMRs are seen as part of the national strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. This also applies to European countries such as France, Finland, Sweden and Poland. The focus here is on very different reactor designs, some of which also differ from the previously widespread light water reactors (LWR) in terms of fuel. However, even with the restriction to light-water-cooled SMRs (LW-SMRs), significant changes are to be expected in operation and in the supply of suitable fuel elements and in the disposal of waste resulting from operation and dismantling.
Fundamental questions arise regarding the waste generation paths from SMRs, the quantities of waste produced, the characteristic nuclide composition, the expected waste categories and suitable dismantling and conditioning processes. New challenges arise from activation processes of the materials of near-core structures, which should be considered from the outset when planning maintenance, dismantling and disposal activities. This can be referred to as integrated waste management.
In the dismantling of existing nuclear power plants, the internals of the reactor pressure vessel, the reactor pressure vessel and the biological shield dominate the activity inventory of the plant after the nuclear fuel has been removed, which leads to a reduction in the activity inventory by at least two orders of magnitude.
For LW-SMR, it is not yet known which structures and to what extent these near-core structures contribute to the remaining activity inventory. However, it is assumed that the activation is increased compared to conventional light water reactors due to the disadvantageous surface-to-volume ratio of a small reactor core and the escaping neutron fluxes.

Opportunity closing date

04 December 2024

Value of contract

to be confirmed