Speaker
Description
Small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors must become more cost-effective compared to other energy production facilities to be sustainable long-term. In the United States, the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy Advanced Reactor Safeguards and Security (ARSS) program has been working to develop integrated and cost-efficient physical protection system (PPS) designs that could be applicable for SMR and microreactor deployment in the United States and internationally. The work to develop an integrated PPS focuses on both ensuring the integration of detection, delay, and response and incorporating the PPS into the plans for the SMR or microreactor plant layout. To accomplish this, the team started by developing a notional SMR site based on a conceptual reactor core. This model grew into the operational configuration, the notational safety systems, and finally to an effective PPS design for the facility. This hypothetical SMR facility and its PPS highlight the integrated nature in which security-by-design can be employed from the very beginning of an SMR’s development, how design iteration and safety system redesign impacts the PPS, and how the PPS can be devised to reduce operational burden with minimal-to-no impact on safety system designs. This enables an appropriate and cost efficient SMR facility to be created. This work also uses an integrated modeling and simulation approach to develop PPS designs that can be staffed by a much smaller security team than compared to the current light water reactor fleet. The hypothetical site and PPS undergo tabletop exercises and force-on-force modeling to show high system effectiveness with a reduced onsite security presence (i.e., smaller onsite response forces).
| Country OR International Organization | Sandia National Laboratories |
|---|---|
| Email address | aevans@sandia.gov |
| Confirm that the work is original and has not been published anywhere else | Yes |
