Overview of the Japanese SCWR Concept Developed Under the Gif Collaboration

Abstract

A Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor (SCWR) concept has been developed in Japan under the financial support of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry since fiscal year 2000, and Japan has been a member of the SCWR development in the Generation IV International Forum (GIF). This paper overviews the Japanese SCWR concept, which is called JSCWR here. The basic design philosophy is to utilize proven light water reactor and supercritical fossil-fired power plant technologies as much as possible to minimize the R&D cost, time and risk. The JSCWR is a thermal neutron spectrum reactor using light water as moderator and coolant. The JSCWR plant consists of a pressure-vessel type, once-through reactor and a direct Rankine cycle turbine system. To assess the viability of the JSCWR, its technical feasibility and plant economics have been evaluated. The results show that the JSCWR concept is viable and there are some future work to be done such as accumulation of various data for design and manufacture and creation of regulatory standards.