Revival of a Practical Sodium Safety Culture through Experiemtial Training

In the United States of America (U.S.), sodium-cooled fast-neutron reactors (SFRs) are currently being pursued as candidates for next-generation nuclear power production, as part of the Generation IV initiative. Successful operations of SFR prototypes have been demonstrated in the past in the United States, such as the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II and Fast Flux Test Facility. Both of these programs were scuttled in the 1990s, however, which has led to the eventual decay of experiential knowledge related to handling molten sodium and their associated systems relative to SFRs. With the advent of the concept of the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), a proposed pool-type SFR design that would be utilized as a test reactor for advanced materials and safety analyses, this gap in institutional knowledge related to handling sodium has been further exposed.