Research and Development Initiatives in Support of the Conceptual Design for the CANDU® Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor

Abstract

Canada's Generation-IV National Program has been established to provide research and development (R&D) supports for the concept of the CANDU SuperCritical Water-cooled Reactor (SCWR). It focuses primarily on the key technology areas, such as material, chemistry, thermal-hydraulics, safety, physics, and hydrogen production. Design challenges surrounding out-of-core components are also examined. R&D results of these areas will be applied in finalizing the design options currently being considered in developing Canada’s conceptual design. In this paper, a brief description of the conceptual design options is presented and the linkage of the R&D projects to support the decision in selecting the reference design option for the CANDU SCWR is described. Various participants contributing the R&D information to the Gen-IV National Program are introduced.