JHR MTR Finnish in-kind

Introduction

European test reactors have played a crucial role in developing and solving technical issues on nuclear technology for over 40 years. The test reactors in use at this moment do not, however, cover the needs for the forthcoming decades mainly due to ageing. Therefore the French nuclear research organisation CEA (Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique, www.cea.fr) has started to plan a new test reactor, Jules Horowitz Material Testing Reactor (JHR MTR), to be placed in Cadarache in southern France. The design and manufacturing of the reactor has been planned to be performed in European co-operation for which a consortium has been established in March 2007. 

Power of the test reactor will be 100 MWt and its technical preparedness for different tests in several different environments will be versatile and flexible. The first aim is to serve the present second generation reactors and at the same time to develop test facilities and preparedness to serve the third and fourth generation (so-called GEN-IV) reactors. The reactor has been designed so that the available neutron flux doubles the radiation dose in comparison to the present test reactors. Moreover, the design takes into account the requirements for instrumentation and monitoring better. In this way a maximum output is obtained from the reactor tests, which facilitates the modelling and simulation work in different reactor environments and conditions. The second aim in the future is to serve the fast reactors, which may be either gas or sodium cooled or some other type of reactors developed via GEN-IV concepts. The operation requirements of the test reactor have to include also the needs coming from different research programmes as well as from the industrial tests series.  

Finland participates in the construction of the JHR test reactor via VTT’s in-kind deliveries that have been fixed in the negotiations between VTT and CEA. Participation to the JHR project guarantees an access to the applications and technologies developed for the reactor. The full membership in the international consortium also gives us a membership in the management board of the project. In this way the Finnish participants can affect the features of the reactor already in the construction phase and enables a better planning of the tests to be performed after the start-up of the reactor.  

The agreement signed between VTT and CEA states that the value of the Finnish in-kind contribution is 10 M€ in 2007-2014. The Finnish in-kind contribution includes four systems to be delivered: 1) hot cell NDE, 2) underwater photon emission and transmission tomography system, 3) material handling systems (conveyors) and 4) water chemistry modules for the corrosion loop and testing devices used in material studies. The main technology objectives in these systems are:  

1. Hot cell NDE (Non-Destructive Evaluation): Non-destructive evaluation system to be implemented in the dedicated hot cells in order to characterise material and fuel before and after irradiation.

2. Underwater photon emission and transmission tomography system: Underwater gamma spectrometry and X-ray radiography systems to be implemented i) in the reactor pool and ii) in the experimental devices storage pool.

3. Material handling systems (conveyors): A conveyor between truck hall and the hot cell area will be intended to support, present and accost a cask containing irradiated material (spent fuel or irradiated wastes) in the hot cell area.

4. Water chemistry module for corrosion loop and mechanical loading device for material studies: The water chemistry module is used to fix the wanted water chemistry in material studies. The servo-pneumatic mechanical loading device on the other hand enables the material studies in the reactor core under the influence of radiation.

The in-kind work will be performed by the consortium directed by VTT (www.vtt.fi). The consortium members at the moment are: Tekes (www.tekes.fi), Fortum Oy (www.fortum.com), Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO, www.tvo.fi), Posiva Oy (www.posiva.fi), Oxford Instruments Analytical Oy, Cormet Oy (www.cormet.fi), Finpro (www.finpro.fi), Radiation and Nuclear safety authority (STUK, www.stuk.fi) and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy (www.tem.fi).  

Contact information

Coordinator
Dr. Petri Kinnunen
Senior Research Scientist

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
P.O. Box 1000
FI-02044 VTT
FINLAND

Tel. +358 20 722 5375
Petri.Kinnunen@vtt.fi