Overview of Research on Advanced and Small Modular Reactors at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Abstract

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is part of an international community that is actively performing research and development (R&D) in support of the safe and secure deployment of advanced and small modular nuclear reactor (A&SMR) technologies. This paper offers an overview of recent research activities at ORNL across three key areas: reactor safety, nuclear security, and safeguards. In the area of reactor safety, this document presents the application of the phenomenon identification and ranking table process, examinations of regulations for each of the distinct fuel cycle features, and the development of an approach for assessing licensing basis events. In the field of nuclear security, investigations into probabilistic risk assessment methods for evaluating physical security and the security-by-design approach for embedding security concepts during the plant’s design phase are discussed. Under the safeguards initiatives for A&SMRs at ORNL, this paper explores the development of a tool kit to generate simulated radiation measurements and the advancement of material control and accounting approaches. Overall, this paper covers a subset of the R&D activities related to A&SMRs, aiming to provide insight into the broader R&D efforts underway at ORNL.