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Future Nuclear Energy Factual Status Document: Resource Document for the Workshop on Basic Research Needs for Future Nuclear Energy, July 2017

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1616167· OSTI ID:1616167
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  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  4. General Electric Company, Boston, MA (United States)
  5. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  6. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
  7. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  8. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  9. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  10. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Since commercialization in the mid-1950s, nuclear power has been widely deployed and provides an important clean source of energy, primarily through the generation of electricity. There are currently 449 commercial nuclear power reactors operating in 31 countries with over 390 GWe total capacity, with 99 operating units in the United States with a total generating capacity of about 100 GWe. Nuclear power plants provide over 11% of the world’s electricity production and, as of 2016, thirteen countries rely on nuclear energy to supply at least one-quarter of their total electricity. Virtually all of that power is generated with water-cooled reactor systems. A number of advanced nuclear energy system concepts have been developed to provide improved efficiency, greater fissile fuel utilization, reduced high level waste generation, and increased margins of safety over today’s water-cooled systems. However, there are a number of technical challenges that must be addressed to enable the broad deployment of these systems from concept to the electrical grid. This Technical Document is written to provide workshop participants with an overview of the current status of a number of advanced reactor systems: Key issues for advanced nuclear energy, including coolants, materials in extremes (irradiation, coolant, and/or high temperature) and interfaces; Nuclear fuel technologies for key reactor types and limitations in testing and design; State of science and understanding for nuclear systems, including characterization, testing, and modeling and simulation tools. For each of these technical areas, this document describes the technological challenge, current state of the art for the technology, and barriers to advanced nuclear concepts.
Research Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC) (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
OSTI ID:
1616167
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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