Methodology

The ambition of delivering to industry a well characterized design of the innovative ICS, specifically tailored for application to each of the selected reactor typologies encompassed in PIACE, requires a well-defined sequence of activities identified in four steps:

STEP 1: The starting phase focuses on performing the limited confirmatory studies for Heavy Liquid Metal (HLM) applications and on adapting the innovative ICS concept specifically to the other reactor technologies, thereby aligning all the five concepts to the same maturity level.

STEP 2: Once developed the reference concepts, a thorough phase of simulation of selected real reactors, each belonging to one of the encompassed technologies so as to be fully representative of the category, will be performed to precede the experimental demonstration of the anticipated performances. This phase will provide exhaustive information to drive the selection of enveloping cases, as well as to define an experimental test matrix permitting the experiments to tackle all operative aspects of the concepts.

STEP 3: For the selected cases, ad-hoc test sections will be set on an experimental facility (SIRIO) made available by ENEA and SIET, and specific runs will be performed. Proper conditions and extensive instrumentation will provide all the insights of the experimented concepts and, by interpolation, will also disclose relevant information to those not directly simulated. Post-test analyses, performed mainly by the industrial partners with their proprietary codes, will strengthen their confidence in the concept to the aim of finalizing tailored designs.

STEP 4: Finally, specific designs of the innovative ICS will be set, starting from the drafting of detailed technical specifications and ending up with the drawing of a scaled-up model, each meant for application to one of the reference reactor technologies.