The Reactor Sustainability Research and Development (R&D) Program is a program to develop the scientific basis to extend existing nuclear power plant operating life beyond the current 60-year limit and ensure their long-term reliability, productivity, safety, and security. The program is funded as part of the Generation IV program and is conducted in collaboration with National Laboratories, universities, industry, and international partners. Idaho National Laboratory serves as the Technical Integration Office and coordinates the R&D projects in the following pathways: Nuclear Materials Aging and Degradation; Advanced Light Water Reactor Fuel Development; Advanced Instrumentation, Controls, and Information Systems Technology; and Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization.

Background

Energy demand continues to grow in the United States along with concerns over carbon dioxide emissions and the need for energy security. The continued operation of the current fleet of 104 nuclear power plants will provide a substantial source of reliable, economic and emissions free electricity generation. The Reactor Sustainability R&D program addresses barriers to long-term operation through research and development related to reliability, availability, productivity, component aging, safety and security. By taking a pro-active approach to the long-term technical barriers to extended plant operation, the Reactor Sustainability R&D activities will help enable sound decisions to extend the lifetime of the existing fleet of nuclear power plants from the currently expected 60 years to 80 years or perhaps longer.

Stakeholder Involvement

The Reactor Sustainability R&D activities focus on addressing technological barriers to extending nuclear power plant operations beyond current operating license limitations.  The National Research Council completed a review of DOE’s Nuclear Energy Research and Development Program in 2008.  The Reactor Sustainability R&D program supports the Council’s Recommendation 2-7 regarding “…the need for a reinvigorated R&D program to improve the performance of existing nuclear plants…” The Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission jointly sponsored a February 2008 workshop to get input from stakeholders in developing the goals and R&D research areas. A summary report from this workshop is available here.  The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) serves as the Technical Integration Office. INL has established a Reactor Sustainability R&D Steering Committee with representatives from DOE, NRC, the domestic nuclear industry, the national laboratories, academia, and international participants to guide program priorities. The INL Technical Integration Office has developed a program plan that describes in more detail the planned activities.

Reactor Sustainability R&D Program

The Reactor Sustainability R&D program is focused on three goals:

• Developing the fundamental scientific basis to understand, predict, and measure changes in materials, systems, structures, and components as they age in environments associated with continued long-term operations of existing reactors,
• Applying this fundamental knowledge to develop and demonstrate methods and technologies that support safe and economical long-term operation of existing reactors, and
• Researching new technologies to address enhanced plant performance, economics, and safety.

To address these goals, four R&D pathways have been identified to better organize the planned activities.

• Nuclear Materials Aging and Degradation
• Advanced Nuclear Fuel Development
• Advanced Instrumentation, Control, and Information Systems Technologies
• Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization

Nuclear Materials Aging and Degradation

Develop the fundamental scientific basis to understand material aging in reactor environments. The R&D supports component life predictions for critical structures, systems, and components; reduces the uncertainty in analytical predictions; provides insights for developing components with longer lifetimes; and provides options for life extension practices such as pressure vessel annealing.

Advanced Nuclear Fuel Development

Improve the fundamental understanding of nuclear fuel and cladding behavior under extended burn-up conditions. The R&D supports the development of advanced high-performance fuels with improved cladding integrity and nuclear fuel cycle economics. Industry incremental upgrades have reached their maximum achievable impact within the constraints of existing fuel designs, material aging limits, and fissile content. Investigations into alternate forms of cladding, fissile matrix constituents, enrichment limits, and phenomenological irradiation behavior will result in development of the next generation of reactor fuels. This will improve core power densities, increase fissile material use, and enhance safety through improvements to cladding integrity.

Advanced Instrumentation, Control, and Information Systems Technologies

Conduct R&D to establish advanced condition monitoring and prognostics technologies to understand and measure the aging of systems, structures, and components of nuclear power plants. Current nuclear power plants rely on obsolete analog instrumentation and control systems technology for condition monitoring and safety. This research investigates the application of digital technologies at existing nuclear power plants for online monitoring and prognostics to measure plant aging and for replacing aging analog instrumentation and control systems.

Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization

Combine risk-informed, performance-based methodologies with fundamental scientific understanding of critical phenomenological conditions and deterministic predictions of nuclear plant performance. As nuclear plants age, the safety margins change, and the need to understand plant safety margins becomes increasingly important. Research will develop advanced new computational methodologies in combining risk-based philosophies, plant aging research, and conventional deterministic applications to achieve accurate safety characterizations of aging plants. The activities planned in this area incorporate results from each of the other Reactor Sustainability R&D program areas through integrated risk modeling efforts and application of fundamental modeling of plant components, systems, and structures.