The Traveling Wave Reactor Working Together for a Bright Future. John Gilleland. September 2017

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1 The Traveling Wave Reactor Working Together for a Bright Future John Gilleland September 2017

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3 A closer look at a Beautiful Planet 3

4 But with a Need to Act 4

5 Electric Energy is Essential to Quality of Life About 3,000 kwhrs/yr is necessary to have what we consider a good life. Source: 5

6 2007 Findings Nuclear is an essential element of any low carbon global energy solution. The entire nuclear enterprise should be and can be improved with 21 st century engineering, data and technologies. Bill Gates founds TerraPower to meet the challenge. 6

7 Must favorably impact all aspects of the nuclear endeavor: Safety Weapons risk Terrorist risk Waste disposal Cost Fuel availability It must rely on inventive use of existing technology Search for the Right Reactor Several basic concepts with hundreds of fuel and coolant combinations were evaluated. Remarkably, the Traveling Wave Reactor met all the selection criteria. 7

8 The Traveling Wave Reactor TWRs can operate with reload fuels including depleted uranium, natural uranium, and low-enriched fuel that would not power other fast reactors. The Benefits are Huge 8

9 Some Key TWR Benefits TWR extends significantly fuel resources (up to 30 times vs. LWRs) without need for reprocessing Reduces costs through fuel cycle simplification and improved fuel efficiency Reduces proliferation risk (no reprocessing and reduced enrichment needs) As other sodium fast reactors, high efficiency and high temperature industrial heat It offers extraordinary safety Atmospheric pressure and large thermal Inertia Passive decay heat removal system with no on-site or off-site power Metallic fuel with passive reactivity provides tolerance to severe accidents (without scram) Extremely low accident probability 9

10 TWR Development Program TWR-300 TWR-600 TWR-1200 TWR-300 First step of TWR development, smaller, prototype reactor based on FFTF technology and experience Large safety margins, easier to license but creates an economic penalty Demonstrates advanced fuel for commercial fleets TWR-600 Demonstrates breed and burn characteristics with low enriched feed material Near term commercialization prospects based on TWR-300 demonstrated technology TWR-1200 Demonstrates breed and burn process with natural or depleted uranium Enrichment not required for the feed assemblies Long residence time fuel 10

11 The U.S. Fast Flux Test Facility Provides TWR-300 Base FFTF TWR-300 Reactor Type Loop Pool Reactor Power [MWth] Fuel Type MOX / Metal Leads Metal Fuel Residence [EFPD] 400 / 800 MFF 1020 Pin Diameter [mm] Number of Pins Duct Outer Dim [mm] Fuel Length [m] / 1.5 Assembly Length [m] FFTF-MFF TWR-300 FFTF TWR- 300 FFTF TWR

12 A Decade of Technology Development and Testing HT9 Production Process Ion Irradiation Test BOR-60 Materials Test ATR Advanced Fuel Test Fuel Fabrication TWR-300 Optimized HT9 steel process and supply source Scoping test to optimize HT9 steel microstructure HT9 steel swelling in a near-prototypic test First test of advanced commercial TWR Fuel Laboratory scale to commercial TWR-300 to irradiate LTAs 12

13 Slay Risk Dragons Early Fuel Development at Industrial Scale 13

14 14 Getty images

15 In 2016 the World Acknowledged the Challenge Photo credit: Gobierno de Chile, "Ceremonia de lanzamiento de la Iniciativa "Mission Innovation", November 30, 2015, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License from 15

16 We are now joined in a collaboration of Immense Importance. 16