IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol. PAS-99, No. 5 Sept/Oct 1980

LIQUID METAL FAST BREEDER REACTOR PROGRAM IN FRANCE

Mr. SAUVAGECOMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE

Centre de CadaracheSaint Paul lez Durance

Abstract - LMFBR program in FRANCEcan be characterised by a great steadiness inthe basic technical options, the acquiredoperating and design experience bringingconfirmation of the future plants design. Onthe eve of a new industrial period aiming at a

commercial production, is it or not necessary

to deeply modify some of the conceptualchoices with the hope of reducing investmentcosts ? Studies developped so far in otherdirections than the CREYS MALVILLE ones

have revealed either large difficulties or thenecessity to launch a specific and hazardousdevelopment task. Conceptual continuity fromPHENIX to SUPERPHENIX will therefore bemaintained for the next step, the design ofwhich has already started.

INTRODUCTION

In 1978, 75 % of the 185 M.TOEconsumed in FRANCE has been imported -

(99 % of the oil, 66 % of the gas and 50 % ofthe coal) - This national debt (13 billions $

accounting for the oil only) has been coveredby the exportation of 10 % of the industrialand agricultural production (roughly 4.75 %of the Internal National Product).

National ressources in raw energy seemvery low compared to the needs (3 years oftotal energy consumption in coal ressources,

10 months for gas and 1 month for oil) if oneneglects uranium ore whose reserves can beevaluated at 100000 t. (at a production costof 30 $ the U308 pound).

This uranium burnt in PWR powerstations represents 1.5 billion of TOE (i.e1.5 time the prospective french cumulateduranium consumption until the year 1985). InLMFBR power stations these 100000 t ofuranium ore can produce 100 billion of TOEi.e twice the proven oil Middle East reserves

or once the proven world ones [1].

If Nuclear energy is vital for FRANCE,breeder reactors together with uraniumindustry from the mine to the reprocessing

F 79 835-0 A paper presented at the IEEE/AS2'E/ASCEJoint Power Generation Conference, Charlotte, NorthCarolina, October 7-11, 1979. Manuscript received May

24, 1979; made available for printing August 21, 1979.

0018-9510/80/0900-194

Mr. M.F. SIMONELECTRICITE DE FRANCE

SEPTENPARIS La DEFENSE

plants seem ineluctable. In so doing threeobjectives are pursued:

- reduction of electricity cost,- foreign currency saving,- reduction of the french energy dependance.

THE FRENCH LMFBR PROGRAM [2]

The french LMFBR program can becharacterized by a steady and cautiousprogression, the experience gained at eachstage being usefull for the following one.

This, while the first experimentalbreeder RAPSODIE was started up in 1967 at20 MW thermal (40 MW thermal were reachedin June 1970), the testing program of someof the PHENIX components was also initiated.

In July 1974 PHENIX power stationbegan industrial operation at 250 MWe and socontributed to the knowledge of thecomponent behaviour while RAPSODIE wasoriented towards fuel experiments.

When the SUPERPHENIX NSSS wasordered in 1977 for the CREYS MALVILLEplant (1200 MWe), it was then possible tobenefit of three years of industrial operationof PHENIX and of the experience accumulatedon fuel performances in RAPSODIE andPHEN IX.

To day, one can consider that the wellknown "pool concept" is validated togetherwith the basic options selected sinceRAPSODIE for the main components and sincePHENIX on the NSSS design.

SOME DATA ACCUMULATED SINCE 1967 [3]

At the beginning of 1978, RAPSODIEhad produced the equivalent of 2000 fullpower days with the handling of 7500 fuelassemblies. Some of the 25000 fuel pins havebeen irradiated up to 170000 MWD/ton and120 DPA at a temperature ranging from 400°Cto 560°C. Primary pumps bearings lookedbrand new after 75000 hours of operation.Roughly 1000 experiments have beenconducted including the rotating plugreplacement.

Simultaneously, PHENIX brought,precious data on the behaviour underindustrial conditions of a sodium cooledbreeder power plant as one can realize fromtable 1.

43$00.75© 1980 IEEE

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1944TABLE 1

PHENIX power station datas.

YEARS 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978

Days equivalentfull power ... JEPP

Thermalenergy....... MWD

Electricalenergy ....... MWh

178 237 177 62 231

100565 133675 99725 34835 130077

1029810 1403220 1034590 339400 1334310

Fuel burn up

Heavy atomper cent..... % 3,73 7,66 7,8 7,8 8,5

Megawatt daysper ton......MWD/t 30700 65000 66400 66400 72200

Dosimetry:

Total ...... rem 4 4 8 15 8

Average perman......... mrem 15 16 25 34 20

Maximum..... mrem 290 275 1245 930 460

Effluents

Solids(2) ...... t 11 48 19 25Ci 1.5103 7.6105 3.3106 1.2106 5.8105

Liquides...... m3 0 0 660(1) 1000(1) 370(1)Ci 0 0 253 166 63

Gas ........... Ci 129 168 234 128 135(3)

(1) due to IHX repairs (mainly Mn54)

(2) these numbers are due to the on site dismantlingof subassemblies

(3) out of these 135 curies 4.154 Ci are due to tritium

In march 1979, 72000 MWD/t peak valuewere reached on one fuel assembly and thehighest availability factor of the plant wasrecorded (66 nominal power days for 64 daysof operation at more than 100 % of thenominal power of the plant). Fuel cycle willbe completed within the year 1979, theplutonium contained in 7 fuel subassemblieswhose burn up is representative of the coreaverage, being now used to manufacture newfuel pins. Breeding ratio was thus measuredat 0.143 + 0.045 (0.128 predicted) whichconfirms the 0.24 value predicted forSUPERPHENIX reactor.

In January 1979 residual power of thePHENIX reactor was measured confirming thegood conservatism of the theoritical modelused for the design of the CREYS MALVILLEemergency core-cooling circuits.

THE CREYS MALVILLE PLANT [4]

Organization

Three european utilities have in 1974,taken participation in one company calledNERSA, with the following shares:

ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE (EDF)ENTE NATIONALE PER L'ENERGIAELETTRICA (ENEL)RHEINISCH-WESTFALISCHES ELEC-TRIZITATS WERK (RWE)

51 %

33 %

16 %

Later on RWE shares were purchased bySBK (SCHNELLBRUTER KERNKRAFT WERKSGESELLSCHAFT) which includes thefollowing partners:

RWE (Germany)SEP (Netherlands)ELECTRO NUCLEAIRE (Belgium)CEGB (England).

Thermal powerGross efficiency factor:Gross electrical power

The NSSS order was given in 1977 to a

NOVATOME (FRANCE) - NIRA (ITALY) jointventure, the patent owner being CEA(FRANCE).

Basic options

Mixed plutonium uranium oxyde forfuel.

Pool type reactor this optionreconducted from PHENIX facilitates thecontainment of the activated sodium andargon in an easy to workshop and to inspectmain vessel. Furthermore it allows thanks toa natural large thermal inertia a goodtemperature behaviour of the core and helpsthe design of the emergency core coolingcircuits.

Core instrumentation of the PHENIXtype has been chosen. This enables thesurvey of each subassembly outlettemperature and through sodium samplingsthe localization of the fuel pins failures.Additional reactivity measurements areprovided.

The fuel handling techniques of PHENIXhave been adapted to two rotating plugsassociated with two tranfer mechanisms of theRAPSODIE type. Fuel subassemblies are

transferred from the core through a rotatinglock to a storage tank of the barrel type ;later on they are evacuated in sodium filledcontainers to the reprocessing plant.

All contaminated fuel handlingequipments and activated parts of the NSSSare confined in a single building.

In order to reduce the pumps and theintermediate heat exchangers scale factor,four secondary sodium loops were chosen.Thus, the secondary sodium constitutes stilla natural barrier between the primary acti-vated sodium and the steam water circuit.

Steam generator of the modular PHENIXtype have been replaced by 750 MW thermalunits of the helicoYdal type because ofeconomical considerations. For technicalreasons, sodium reheat was abandoned in fa-vour of steam reheat.

Two 620 MW turbines coupled with two690 MVA alternators at 3000 rpm were chosenin order to reduce the industrial risk.

Technical characteristics of the plant

With a primary tank diameter abouttwice as big as the PHENIX one and aprimary circuit containing 4 times moresodium, the SUPERPHENIX reactor has athermal power of 3000 MWth i-e. 5 times morethan PHENIX. Thus the scale factor betweenPHENIX and SUPERPHENIX is smaller thanthe one between PHENIX (560 MWth) andRAPSODIE (40 MWth)

Core characteristics

Neutron fluxPeak specific power

Core heightFuel assemblies

NumberLengthN° fuel pinFuel pin diameter X

Maximum cladding tempe-ratureBurn up (peak value)Breeding ratio

Primary circuit

Sodium weightNumber of pumps

Sodium temperatureCore inletCore outlet

Sodium flow

Secondary circuits

NumberNumber of IHXSodium temperature

IHX inletIHX outlet

Sodium flow (4 loops)Sodium weight (4 loops)

6.1 1015n/cm2/s467 w/cmI m

3645.4 m

2717 mm

6200C70000/100000 MWD/t0.24

Pool type

3300 t4

3950C5450C16400 kg/s

Loop type

48

3450C5250C13200 kg/s1700 t

Tertiary circuit: Water steam

NO of steam generatorSteam temperatureSteam pressure

Steam flow

44900C190 bars1360 kg/s

Site progress

Since the order placed in 1977, theplant works have progressed steadily aimingat a completion foreseen in 1983.

In march 1979 1000 workers were on thesite (maximum forecasted is 1500) andconcrete work was on time (95000 m3 out of170000 m3 were laid and 11000 t out of thereinforcing steel 17000 t was erected). Thereactor building height reached 65 m(maximal height 85 m) and turbo generatorhall was erected up to 30 %.

In the onsite workshop, the reactor slabwas in course of assembling together with,the main vessel, the barrel type storagetank, the safety vessel and the sodiumstorage tanks.

Commercial LMFB R programme afterCREYS MALVILLE [5]

Considering that LMFBR are comple-mentary to PWR reactors, ELECTRICITE DE

19453000 MWth40 %1200 MWe

FRANCE has since PHENIX power stationdesign studies taken an active part in LMFBRresearch and development tasks. Taking intoaccount the good reliability factor so farrecorded on PHENIX and RAPSODIE,ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE has, with the helpof NOVATOME and of the COMMISSARIAT ALIENERGIE ATOMIQUE (CEA), started thedesign of a new LMFBR plant, which, ifeconomically attractive might become the headof a series of 6 units which total power isforecast to be 8000 to 10000 MWe in 1995.

Three objectives are pursued:

Competitivity with KWh price of PWR(investment+fuel cycle costs optimization).

Improved design in the light of theCREYS MALVILLE design studies.

Consistency of the technical choices atan increased rated power.

Preliminary design studies have abreadyshown the validity of the conceptual choicesand of the CREYS-MALVILLE basic optionsup to a power level in the range of 1800 MWe(4400 MWth) .

Since, and in order to take the bestbenefit of scale and twin effects the design isbeing oriented twowards two 1500 MWe unitsassociated on the same production site, thegeometrical size and main componentsorganization of the boiler remaining as closeas possible to the CREYS MALVILLE one (asan example the primary vessel diameter hasbeen sofar maintained equal to 21 m).

In addition, research and developmentwork results have been incorporated in thedesign of the plant. (Turboalternator-axialsuction possibility on the primary pumps.Shorter fuel subassemblies and so on...).

Fuel reprocessing

Fuel reprocessing at a reasonable costhas to be demonstrated in order to permit theLMFBR industry to reach a goodcompetitivity.

In FRANCE PWR and gas cooled fuelreprocessing is already launched at an

industrial level. This will produce sufficientplutonium for the penetration of a first seriesof LMFBR plants and gives time to prepare

LMFBR fuel reprocessing at industrial scale.This latter program has been iniated by the

COMMISSARIAT A L*ENERGIE ATOMIQUEmany years ago and is now coordinated withELECTRICITE DE FRANCE LMFBR plantsprogram and with CREYS MALVILLE power

station operation.

Conclusion

French LMFBR program has so fardemonstrated the validity of the technicalchoices and options engineered all along thepast 20 years. Today, one of the keys of the

problem lies in the competitivity with PWR.

Nevertheless it would not be realistic to

disregard public opinion acception, whichreluctancy is all the strongest as no serie isyet in operation.

R6f6rence

[1] M. BOITEUX. Expos6 au congres AIEAde SALZBOURG Mai 1977.

[2] MMrs. A. BENMERGUI, J. MEGY,L. VAUTREY, J. VILLENEUVE.Perspectives du programme de reacteursa neutrons rapides en FRANCE.SM.225/81AIEA Bologne, 10-14 Avril 1978.

[3] MMrs CONTE, BROSSON, PONTIER.L'experience acquise avec RAPSODIE etPHENIX. SM.225/73 AIEA Bologne, 10-14 Avril 1978.

[4] Mr. B. SAITCEVSKY and Al.Centrale de CREYS-MALVILLE OptionsDescription Conf6rence Europ6enneParis 1975.

[5] MMrs. ALLAIN, AUBERT, SIMON.Development of commercial LMFBRplants after SUPER PHENIX. ENC79Hamburg.

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