Development of a Subcritical Test Facility

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The proposal requests funds for the design and development of a facility for testing subcritical reactor assemblies (SRAs) at McMaster University for future small modular reactor designs. When constructed, the facility will provide insight in and experimental verification of the physics of such reactor cores and complement the numerical simulation component of the applicant's long-term research program which covers the physics of current and future nuclear reactor designs. The subcritical reactor assemblies tested at the facility will constitute the first prototyping of nuclear reactors in Canada in decades. The SRAs are expected to be partial prototypes of small modular reactors (SMRs). SMRs are the most recent trend in nuclear reactor design; they are cost-effective, can be assembled in a factory, and be easily deployed. The particular interest for Canada is that they may be deployed to remote regions, e.g. to replace air-lifted oil for the Canadian Arctic communities, for powering remote military installations for national defence, or for remote mining operations. They also have significant safety and operation enhancements over traditional reactors. The inherent feedback mechanisms of an SMR core are of particular interest; for example the feedback of the fuel temperature on the reactivity of the core: when the fuel heats up, possibly as result of a loss-of-coolant event, it is important that the core becomes less reactive, not more. Negative feedback will do this. In modern reactor designs, effects such as fuel temperature feedback are studied using rather complex computer models. However, a definitive determination of the feedback coefficient can only be obtained through a direct measurement in a prototype. The measurement does not need to be made on a reactor in critical conditions; a subcritical assembly would provide the same experimental information. However, in that case, a constant external neutron source must be applied to the assembly. There are several options for such a source available at McMaster, such as the McMaster Nuclear Reactor, a D-D fusion source, an accelerator for spallation, and an Am-241/Be-9 source. The short-term goal of the project is i) to study the viability of the facility (including measurements in support of the study), ii) to optimize the layout, and iii) to design the facilities for the various SMR prototypes that can be tested. The long-term objective, which is part of the applicant's research program, is the actual construction of the assembly and performing the measurements. This phase is out of scope of the current proposal. The activities described in this proposal are an essential step in the development of Canada's first SMRs, in particular with regards to licencing. The students will be among the first, if not the first HQP in Canada to be trained in this new, promising technology. They will be set up to become leaders in the field.