An Integrated Design Approach to Address Safety of the Westinghouse LFR: an Innovative Pool-Type, Liquid Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor

The Westinghouse Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) is a highly compact, pool type reactor with a core power of 950 MWt and net electrical output of 450 MWe produced through use of a supercritical steam (sH2O) power conversion system with an air-cooled condenser and integral energy storage system. Westinghouse has targeted IAEA Passive Category B safety, as it is felt that successfully achieving this goal would result in a level of robust simplicity which also correlates to a widely deployable, rugged, and economic power plant for customers around the world. Pure lead-coolant technology is supportive of this goal and Westinghouse selected this coolant and design direction after consideration of many competing technology types. The benefits of this technology were predicted at the time and continue to show an ability to simplify reactor safety systems, enable optimized secondary efficiency, enhance fuel burn-up, reduce component count (especially in safety), and (through these improvements) drive towards a competitive cost of electricity.