Forty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors (TWG-FR). Working Material

The objectives of the meeting were to: • Exchange information on the national programmes on Fast Reactors (FR) and Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS); • Review the progress since the 44th TWG-FR Annual Meeting, including the status of the actions; • Consider topical technical meeting arrangements for 2012-2013, as well as review FR-related activities included in the IAEA Programme & Budget (P&B) biennium 2012-2013; • Review the IAEA's concluded, on-going and planned coordinated research projects in the technical fields relevant to the TWG-FR (FRs and ADS), as well as coordination of the TWG-FR's activities with other organizations and international initiatives (GIF, INPRO, NEA, ESNII, etc.). The 45th Meeting of the TWG-FR reached the following conclusions/recommendations: • The participants expressed satisfaction and appreciation for the large amount of new information on on-going activities carried out by the Member States in the field of FR and ADS exchanged during the meeting; • Also the organizations which have participated to the TWG-FR meeting for the first time expressed their appreciation for the lively discussion and the results and thanked the IAEA for inviting them at the meeting; • The meeting was very useful in particular for collecting inputs and advice in view of the preparation of the IAEA Programme & Budget 2014-2015 (and then 2016-2017) in the area of FR and ADS technology development; • The TWG-FR remains an unique international forum for information exchange in the field of fast neutron systems and for promoting RT&D activities in this area; • Due to the increasing interest in FR and in view of the forthcoming realizations, it would be advisable to increase the involvement of industries, regulators and other R&D organizations; • The annual TWG-FR meeting should focused on exchange of information on national and international programmes, avoiding duplications or overlapping's with other IAEA initiatives in the field; • Form a general point of view it is recommend to avoid duplications with other FR-related events; • It was underlined the importance of a timely implementation of the different activities, in particular as far as the publication of the IAEA final reports; • The CRPs are recognized as a unique mechanism of RT&D at international level and increasing effort and resources should be implemented by the IAEA in order to cover the many topics of interest of the Member States; • In particular the following general RT&D topics are of interest for a large number of Member States: – Structural materials; – Importance to move to transient in CRP on experimental benchmark (non-linearities); Impact of the Fukushima accident on FRs: safety, severe accidents and initiators, stressing the advantages of LMFR; Coupling methods; Uncertainties evaluation methods; V&V&Q and in particular validation of models with experimental data coming from facilities with advanced instrumentation; In-service inspection; Economic impact. • It is recommend to take advantage of the new FR/ADS projects and realizations and organize the TWGFR activities around data coming from these new facilities/plants; • Particular attention should be given to Generation IV FR nuclear systems; • The TWG-FR should continue to secure training and education in the field of "Fast Neutron System Physics, Technology and Applications", and respective Schools/Workshops/Seminars should be held on a regular basis; • Cooperation and collaboration should be promoted with the NEA-NSC, in particular in the field of reactor transient analyses