A Case Study of 3S Interfaces in a Generation IV Advanced Modular Reactor

Year
2025
Author(s)
Bryan M. van der Ende - Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
L. Ammirabile - European Commission Joint Research Centre
L.Y. Cheng - Brookhaven National Laboratory (retired), Upton, New York, United States of America
Christopher Chwasz - Idaho National Laboratory
Ben Cipiti - Sandia National Laboratories
G. G. M. Cojazzi - European Commission Joint Research Centre
D. Hummel - Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
G. Renda - European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy
Ryan Stewart - Idaho National Laboratory - BEA
G. Strydom - Idaho National Laboratory
Abstract
The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) was established as a co-operative international endeavor aimed at developing the research necessary to evaluate the feasibility and performance of fourth generation nuclear systems (Gen-IV systems), with the objective of making them available for industrial deployment by 2030. The potential conflicts and synergies at the interfaces between the regimes of safety, security, and safeguards (2S and 3S interfaces) in nuclear facilities are increasingly being recognized, underscoring the importance of addressing them. With Gen-IV systems seeking to move towards deployment, it is an opportune moment to develop guidance on how to effectively identify and address these 2S and 3S interfaces during the earliest design stages. To this end, the GIF Proliferation Resistance & Physical Protection Working Group (PRPPWG), the GIF Risk & Safety Working Group (RSWG) and the GIF Very High Temperature Reactor System Steering Committee (VHTR SSC) conducted a bottom-up 3S interface case study exercise on a notional pebble bed VHTR modular reactor. The objective of this exercise was to identify and characterize the 2S and 3S interfaces on the reference system, thereby developing some technology-neutral guidelines for the identification and characterization of 2S and 3S interfaces. This paper presents a summary of the outcomes of this work.