History of the ESFR SMART Project

ESFR-SMART project started at the end of 2017 mainly to integrate the new safety rules resulting primarily from the Fukushima accident. The role of the ESFR-SMART project is to introduce, outside any constructive planning, new ideas for the future, which can be valuable guides for R and D. The preliminary feasibility of new safety measures in the SFR design has been assessed, meeting the new reinforced post-Fukushima safety criteria. This reactor brings about significant simplifications, incorporating feedback from previous European reactors and projects. These simplifications could bring safety improvements, cost savings, and ease of operation. If one day Europe wanted to build a reactor on these bases, the points still to be developed and requiring Rand D are the following: - Fuel technologies and innovative core performances; - Components for prevention and mitigation of severe accidents; - Confirmation of the proposed organization for the reactor pit; - Qualification of low-expansion materials and large-diameter bellows for the secondary circuit; - Industrial validation of the manufacturing method of the EFR-type thick slab. This project makes it possible to have additional knowledge available for the development of these reactors which could potentially solve the energy problems of humanity, but are in 2021, without any short-term project in Europe. (authors)