Page 28 - Thermal Hydraulics Aspects of Liquid Metal Cooled Nuclear Reactors

Introduction to liquid metal cooled reactors 3

Fig. 1.1 History of liquid-metal fast reactors worldwide.

safety engineers. In parallel, the United Kingdom operated the experimental DFR and
prototype PFR sodium-cooled reactors. Germany operated the experimental KNK-II
reactor and constructed in collaboration with neighboring countries Belgium and the
Netherlands the prototype SNR-300 sodium-cooled reactor that was eventually never
put into operation for political reasons. Similarly, the Italian experimental PEC reactor
was constructed but never put into operation after Italy decided to phase out nuclear
energy production after the events in Chernobyl in the mid-1980s. That was also the
time when in Europe the forces joined and the design of the European fast reactor
(EFR) began that was brought to a quite advanced design stage before the project
was abandoned in the mid-1990s. Nowadays, several countries in Europe are involved
in the design of future liquid-metal-cooled fast reactors. The most important ones will
be highlighted later in this chapter.
Just a few years after the United States, also Russia started the development of a
fast reactor program. They constructed and operated the experimental BR5/10 reactor
and later the experimental BOR60 reactor that is still operational today. In the 1970s,
Russia constructed the prototype BN350 reactor followed by the somewhat larger pro-
totype BN600 reactor. Recently, in 2015, Russia started operating the commercial
BN800 power plant, and they are designing now the even larger BN1200 power plant.
All these reactors are sodium cooled. Russia is the only country with operational expe-
rience concerning lead-bismuth-cooled reactors that they used in their military sub-
marines from the 1970s to the 1990s.