European Research Program on Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor

Abstract

The article summarizes the major achievements and scope of the projects supported by the European Commission with the main focus on the supercritical water-cooled reactor, one of the concepts of the Generation IV reactors. The presented projects are focused mainly on the design of the future reactor, the study of the very specific knowledge gaps related to the technology cooled by supercritical water in large-scale installation as well as the small modular reactor type. Major research topics cover the fields of the constructional materials, their corrosion and mechanical stability, validation of the thermal-hydraulic computing codes and design of the future reactor core including the neutronic calculations. Main goals and future direction of the supercritical water-cooled reactor research program are stated to gain as much as possible from the already performed research not only in the nuclear field—but also in the area of fossil-fueled supercritical-water cooled power plants.