Near-term deployment of the prism sodium-fast reactor

In February 2006 President Bush announced the Advanced Energy Initiative which includes the Department of Energy's (DOE) Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). The GNEP policy recognizes that spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from light water reactors (LWR) is an energy asset, not 'nuclear waste,' thus promoting commercial closure of the nuclear fuel cycle. The GNEP concept envisions a single, integrated commercial SNF recycling facility capable of processing LWR and fast reactor SNF, and fabricating actinide fuel. The integrated facility includes a fast reactor that consumes the actinide-bearing fuel to produce marketable electricity. GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH, leverages off previous major government and industry investments in fast reactor technology research and development of the NRC-reviewed PRISM (Power Reactor Innovative Small Module). This paper describes the sodium-cooled PRISM, and presents a schedule to deploy the necessary domestic infrastructure to achieve near-term commercial closure of the nuclear fuel cycle. (authors)