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Liquid metal thermal hydraulics R&D at European scale: achievements and prospects

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Abstract

A significant role for a future nuclear carbon-free energy production is attributed to fast reactors, mostly employing a liquid metal as a coolant. This paper summarizes the efforts that have been undertaken in collaborative projects sponsored by the European Commission in the past 20 years in the fields of liquid-metal heat transfer modeling, fuel assembly and core thermal hydraulics, pool and system thermal hydraulics, and establishment of best practice guidelines and verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification (UQ). The achievements in these fields will be presented along with the prospects on topics which will be studied collaboratively in Europe in the years to come. These prospects include further development of heat transfer models for applied computational fluid dynamics (CFD), further analysis of the consequences of fuel assembly blockages on coolant flow and temperature, analysis of the thermal hydraulic effects in deformed fuel assemblies, extended validation of three-dimensional pool thermal hydraulic CFD models, and further development and validation of multi-scale system thermal hydraulic methods.

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Acknowledgements

The work described in this paper summarizes the European collaborative efforts from the following projects which have received funding from the Euratom research and training program under grant agreements: No. FIKW-CT-2001-80121 (ASCHLIM), No. 44824 (EISOFAR), No. 36439 (ELSY), No. 516520 (EUROTRANS), No. 36469 (VELLA), No. 249677 (HeLimNet), No. 232658 (CP-ESFR), No. 249668 (LEADER), No. 232527 (CDT), No. 295736 (SEARCH), No. 323312 (MAXSIMA), No. 249337 (THINS), No. 754501 (ESFR-SMART), No. 945341 (PASCAL), No. 945077 (PATRICIA), No. 662186 (MYRTE), and No. 654935 (SESAME).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG), Westerduinweg 3, 1755 LE, Petten, The Netherlands

    Ferry Roelofs

  2. CEA DES, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Antoine Gerschenfeld

  3. SCK CEN, Boeretang 200, 2400, Mol, Belgium

    Katrien Van Tichelen

Authors
  1. Ferry Roelofs
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  2. Antoine Gerschenfeld
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  3. Katrien Van Tichelen
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ferry Roelofs, Antoine Gerschenfeld or Katrien Van Tichelen.

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Roelofs, F., Gerschenfeld, A. & Van Tichelen, K. Liquid metal thermal hydraulics R&D at European scale: achievements and prospects. Front. Energy 15, 842–853 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0743-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0743-2

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