PRISM (Power Reactor Innovative Small Module, sometimes S-PRISM from SuperPRISM) is a nuclear power plant design by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH).

Design

The S-PRISM represents GEH's Generation IV reactor solution to closing the nuclear fuel cycle and is also part of its Advanced Recycling Center (ARC) proposition to U.S. Congress to deal with nuclear waste. S-PRISM is a commercial implementation of the Integral Fast Reactor developed by

Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a science and engineering research United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory operated by University of Chicago, UChicago Argonne LLC for the United States Department of Energy. The facil ...

between 1984 and 1994. It is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, based on the

Experimental Breeder Reactor II Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) is a sodium-cooled fast reactor designed, built and operated by Argonne National Laboratory at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho.

(EBR-II) design, scaled up by a factor of ten. The design utilizes reactor modules, each having a power output of 311 MWe, 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 and the final key safety feature includes a "RVACS", which is a passive reactor vessel air cooling system to remove decay heat. These safety systems are passive and therefore always operate and are to prevent

core damage A nuclear meltdown (core meltdown, core melt accident, meltdown or partial core melt) is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term ''nuclear meltdown'' is not officially defined by the Internation ...

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

in Idaho Falls, Idaho and was an extension (inc fuel reprocessing) to the

, 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 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, 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'' reported that the UK

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

(NDA) and senior advisers within the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) had asked for technical and financial details of the PRISM, partly as a means of reducing the country's plutonium 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, Unite ...

'' 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, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as " Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Wea ...

, and at the same time generate vast amounts of low-carbon energy".

David J. C. MacKay Professor Sir David John Cameron MacKay (22 April 1967 – 14 April 2016) was a British physicist, mathematician, and academic. He was the Regius Professor of Engineering in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and fro ...

, 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 (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