This paper describes the main objectives, technical content, and status of the H2020 project entitled “High-performance advanced methods and experimental investigations for the safety evaluation of generic Small Modular Reactors (McSAFER)”. The main pillars of this project are the combination of safety-relevant thermal hydraulic experiments and numerical simulations of different approaches for safety evaluations of light water-cooled Small Modular Reactors (SMR). It describes the goals, the consortium, and the involved thermal hydraulic test facilities, e.g., the COSMOS-H (KIT), HWAT (KTH), and MOTEL (LUT), including the experimental programs. It also outlines the different safety assessment methodologies applied to four different SMR-designs, namely the CAREM (CNEA), SMART (KAERI), F-SMR (CEA), and NuScale. These methodologies are multiscale thermal hydraulics, conventional, low order, and high fidelity neutron physical methods used to demonstrate the inherent safety features of SMR-core designs under postulated design-basis-accident conditions. Finally, the status of the investigations is shortly discussed followed by the dissemination activities and an outlook.

A study of power coefficient of reactivity in heavy water reactors is made analyzing the reactivity components of fuels with several modifications oriented at reducing the coefficient. A cell model is used for neutronics calculations; a non-linear two dimensional model is used to evaluate the thermal changes that follow a power change; and a levelized unit energy cost model is used to assess the economical feasibility of the design changes introduced to reduce power coefficient.The necessity of modelling all the aforementioned quantities in a coupled scheme is stressed, as a strong interdependence was found. A series of design changes complied with a negative power coefficient of reactivity, with a feasible power radial distribution and with low refuelling cost. Some investigation lines that exceed the fuel cell study and deal with the plant operation are marked as potentially addressing the stable operation of big heavy water reactors. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experimentally validated void reactivity calculations were used to study the feasibility of a change in the design basis of Atucha II Nuclear Power Plant including the Large LOCA event. The use of CARA fuel element with burnable neutronic absorbers and enriched uranium is proposed instead of the original fuel. The void reactivity, refuelling costs, and power peaking factors are analysed at conceptual level to optimize the burnable neutronic absorber, the enrichment grade, and their distribution inside the fuel. This work concludes that, for the considered plant conditions, either a void reactivity coefficient granting no prompt critical excursion on Large LOCA or negative void reactivity is achievable, with advantages on refuelling cost and linear power density.

Analysis is made on CARA fuel element design to achieve a negative coolant void coefficient in Argentinean nuclear power plants, looking for lower cost and preserving its advantages on operational performance. Different fuel settings were found to meet the safety, economical and performance combined criteria, taking as the reference case the Atucha II nuclear power plant.