European Lead Fast Reactor

The conceptual design of the European Lead Fast Reactor is being developed starting from September 2006, in the frame of the ELSY project. The ELSY reference design is a 600 MWe pool-type reactor cooled by pure lead. The ELSY project demonstrates the possibility of designing a competitive and safe fast critical reactor using simple engineered technical features, whilst fully complying with the Generation IV goal of sustainability and minor actinide (MA) burning capability. Sustainability was a leading criterion for option selection for core design, focusing on the demonstration of the potential to be self sustaining in plutonium and to burn its own generated MAs. Economics was a leading criterion for primary system design and plant layout. The use of a compact and simple primary circuit with the additional objective that all internal components be removable, are among the reactor features intended to assure competitive electric energy generation and long-term investment protection. Low capital cost and construction time are pursued through simplicity and compactness of the reactor building (reduced footprint and height). Among the critical issues, the impact of the large mass of lead has been carefully analyzed. The paper presents the overall work performed so far in the different areas.