ABSTRACT
With the limited operating experience of SFRs (~400 reactor years), limited number of safety experiments carried out in the test reactors (experimental breeder reactor (EBR)-II, southwest experimental fast oxide reactor (SEFOR), Rapsodie, Phénix), less number of transient test facilities (Transient Reactor Test Facility [TREAT], CABRI, SCARABEE), and with high demand for enhanced reactor safety, the development of novel test facilities to address comprehensively all the issues related to SFR safety is considered as essential for the growth of SFRs. The facilities, apart from simulating various severe accident scenarios, should generate quantum test data to validate the associated numerical simulation tools explained in Chapter 17. In this respect, new facilities are planned with extensive sensors and instrumentations (under sodium viewing, high-energy x-rays, thermal imaging, innovative imaging techniques, advanced tomography). Hence, it is also expected that the test facilities planned now will be executed under broad national collaborations. A first step toward this is the compilation of the test facilities having potential to pursue research on SFR safety and release in the form of a document by a Task Group on Advanced Reactor Experimental Facilities (TAREF) formed under nuclear energy agency (NEA) [18.1].
