International Workshop On SMR Safety for a Sustainable Short-Term Deployment

The SASPAM-SA open workshop will promote international exchange of information and practices related to light water SMR safety considering the outcomes from the current ongoing Horizon Euratom SASPAM-SA project, other EU-Projects and other international initiatives (e.g. European SMR Pre-partnership, IAEA, OECD/NEA, ETSON, etc.). The workshop’s objective is to share the advancements of the current major research activities on light water SMR safety and give the opportunity to discuss the main results. This allows to identify the needed knowledge development, in the view of additional short-term research actions, to support the SMR European licensing process.

Nowadays light water cooled Small Modular Reactors (LW-SMR) are one of the key design options for the near-term deployment of nuclear reactor technology due to their generally recognized advantages (inherent safety, design simplicity, possibility of simplified batch production, reduction of construction time, capital and operational cost, etc.) and to their level of technological and licensing readiness.

The technological and licensing readiness of these designs is because LW-SMR starts from the well-proven-established operating large-Light Water Reactor (LWR) technology, incorporates their operational plant experience/feedback, and includes moderate evolutionary design modifications to increase the inherent safety of the plant. Therefore, it is envisaged to benefit from the operating large-LWR knowledge and know-how as a base of the SMR technology, minimizing the technological risks connected with innovative technological solutions proposed in innovative SMRs (that differ significantly from existing operating reactors). Therefore, several LW- SMR concepts are in advanced design state and ready to be licensed. Construction and certification activities are currently on-going and are expected to further increase and accelerate.

Considering the Net Zero Goal by 2050 in Europe, nuclear energy will have a key role in reaching this target with the aim of contributing to decarbonization in Europe. In the view of the envisaged short-term license process in European countries, a R&D program consistent with the European market needs and license requirements is in progress to ensure the implementation of the highest nuclear safety standards.  In this regard, the safety demonstration is the key action to confirm the adequacy of the safety provisions ensuring the stable and safe operation of an SMR in all the plant states. Within this framework, Euratom Research and Training Programs have a key role in supporting R&D activities, speeding-up licensing process, and securing a leading position for European Intuitions within the international framework. European projects are articulated addressing different topics, in order to support the expected safety demonstration of SMR in Europe, and different actions are in progress or have been recently finished (e.g. ELSMOR, HARMONIZE, MCSAFER, PASTELS, SASPAM-SA, TANDEM).

Considering the outcomes from the current on-going Horizon Euratom SASPAM-SA project (organizer of this event) as well as from the other European projects already finished or currently ongoing, as well as other international initiatives (European SMR Pre-partnership, IAEA, OECD/NEA, ETSON,  etc.), the workshop objective is to carry out a state -of-art to identify remaining knowledge gaps linked to the safety demonstration of LW- SMR. The workshop will offer the opportunity to identify the current gaps and how to address them with short-term additional research actions.

For more information visit: https://www.saspam-sa.eu/open-workshop