PRISM (Power Reactor Innovative Small Module, sometimes S-PRISM from SuperPRISM) is a nuclear power plant design by

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is a provider of advanced reactors and nuclear services. It is headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States. Established in June 2007, GEH is a nuclear alliance created by General Electric and Hitach ...

(GEH).

Design

The S-PRISM represents GEH's

Generation IV reactor Generation IV (Gen IV) reactors are nuclear reactor design technologies that are envisioned as successors of generation III reactors. The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) – an international organization that coordinates the development of ...

solution to closing the

nuclear fuel cycle The nuclear fuel cycle, also known as the nuclear fuel chain, describes the series of stages that nuclear fuel undergoes during its production, use, and recycling or disposal. It consists of steps in the ''front end'', which are the preparation o ...

and is also part of its Advanced Recycling Center (ARC) proposition to U.S. Congress to deal with

nuclear waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...

. S-PRISM is a commercial implementation of the

Integral Fast Reactor The integral fast reactor (IFR), originally the advanced liquid-metal reactor (ALMR), is a design for a nuclear reactor using fast neutrons and no neutron moderator (a "fast" reactor). IFRs can breed more fuel and are distinguished by a nuclea ...

developed by

Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...

between 1984 and 1994. It is a sodium-cooled

fast breeder reactor A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. These reactors can be Nuclear fuel, fueled with more-commonly available isotopes of uranium and Isotopes of thorium, thorium, such as uranium-238 and t ...

, based on the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) design, scaled up by a factor of ten. The design utilizes reactor modules, each having a power output of 311

MWe The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor o ...

, to enable factory fabrication at low cost. In an identical fashion to the EBR-II that it is based on, the reactor would transition to a much lower power level whenever temperatures rise significantly, moreover the reactor vessel modules are pool type, as opposed to loop type, with the pool conferring substantial

thermal inertia Thermal inertia is a term commonly used to describe the observed delays in a body's temperature response during heat transfers. The phenomenon exists because of a body's ability to both store and transport heat relative to its environment. Sinc ...

and the final key safety feature includes a "RVACS", which is a passive reactor vessel air cooling system to remove

decay heat Decay heat is the heat released as a result of radioactive decay. This heat is produced as an effect of radiation on materials: the energy of the alpha particle, alpha, Beta particle, beta or gamma radiation is converted into the thermal movement ...

. These safety systems are passive and therefore always operate and are to prevent core damage when no other means of heat removal are available. As of 2022, the PRISM design is not under active consideration.

History

Integral fast reactor

The integral fast reactor was developed at the West Campus of the

Idaho Falls, Idaho Idaho Falls is the fourth most populous city in Idaho and the county seat of Bonneville County. It is the state's most populous city outside the Boise metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population of Idaho Falls was 64,818.2020 Cen ...

and was an extension (inc fuel reprocessing) to the Experimental Breeder Reactor II, which achieved first criticality in 1965 and ran for 30 years. The Integral Fast Reactor project (and EBR II) was shut down by the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

in 1994. GEH continued work on the concept until 2001.

Possible US demonstration reactor

In October 2010, GEH signed a memorandum of understanding with the operators of the Department of Energy's (DOE)

Savannah River site The Savannah River Site (SRS), formerly the Savannah River Plant, is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reservation in the United States, located in the state of South Carolina on land in Aiken, Allendale and Barnwell counties adjacent to the ...

, which should allow the construction of a demonstration reactor prior to the design receiving full NRC licensing approval.

UK interest in PRISM - 2012

In October 2011, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' reported that the UK

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (formerly the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) formed by the Energy Act 2004. It evolved from ...

(NDA) and senior advisers within the

Department of Energy and Climate Change The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the government of the United Kingdom created on 3 October 2008, by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take over some of the ...

(DECC) had asked for technical and financial details of the PRISM, partly as a means of reducing the country's

plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...

stockpile. In July 2012, GEH submitted a feasibility report to the NDA showing that the PRISM could provide a cost-effective way of quickly dealing with the UK's plutonium stockpile. The feasibility report includes an assessment from the consultancy firm DBD Limited suggesting there are "no fundamental impediment(s)" to the licensing of the PRISM in the UK. A 2012 ''

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...

'' article pointed out that a new generation of fast reactors such as the PRISM "could dispose of the waste problem, reducing the threat of radiation and

nuclear proliferation Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries, particularly those not recognized as List of states with nuclear weapons, nuclear-weapon states by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonl ...

, and at the same time generate vast amounts of low-carbon energy". David J. C. MacKay, chief scientist at the DECC, was quoted as saying that British plutonium contains enough energy to run the country's electricity grid for 500 years. Recent announcements of planned expansion of nuclear power in the UK have made no reference to PRISM.

Possible role in the Versatile Test Reactor program

In 2018 PRISM was selected by Battelle Energy Alliance to support the DOE decision making on the

Versatile Test Reactor The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) was a project by the U.S. United States Department of Energy, Department of Energy to build a fast-neutron reactor, fast-neutron test reactor by 2026. Funding for the project was canceled in 2022. History After th ...

(VTR) program. In February 2019, DOE expected to complete the initial stage of deciding whether to proceed with the VTR within a few weeks. The VTR program was scrapped in 2022.

References

External links

GE Hitachi: GE Hitachi PRISM , The Future of Nuclear Energy

Esquire Magazine: "Meet the Man Who Could End Global Warming"

PRISM IFR (drawing)

S-PRISM Fuel Cycle Study, Proceedings of ICAPP ’03

The Guardian article: Nuclear waste-burning reactor moves a step closer to reality

{{Nuclear fission reactors Unfinished nuclear reactors