Seismic-Initiated events risk mitigation in LEad-cooled Reactors (SILER)

SILER is a Project aimed at studying the risk associated to seismic initiated events in Gen IV Heavy Liquid Metal reactors and developing adequate protection measures. The attention is focused on the evaluation of the effects of earthquakes (with particular regards to beyond de-sign seismic events and tsunamis) and to the identification of mitigation strategies, acting both on structures/components design as well as on the development of isolation devices.

The Consortium is constituted by Partners from Industry, JRC, research organizations and universities with a noticeable background in the development of Generation IV and Transmu-tation systems as well as in research and development of external events protection systems. The external advisory committee (EAC) will permit the involvement of industry, academy, international organization and independent experts, to support and complement the consortium. Thanks to the combination of these different areas of expertise of the consortium partners, the Project is expected to have a strong impact on the overall success of the development program of LFR and ADS systems, which strongly depends on developing, demonstrating, and deploying advanced designs that exhibit, among other, excellent safety characteristics. SILER, in fact, with a deep examination of risks associated to external events on LFR and ADS component, the design of specific critical components, the study of specific layout solutions, the development of advanced isolators, the issuing of guidelines and recommendations for standardization as well as thanks to economic analysis will impact on one of the critical issues recognized by the SRA in the development pat of next generation nuclear systems.
The main results expected by the Project are:
- the identification of the main features of lead-cooled reactor concepts (LFR and ADS) relevant for evaluation of the risks associated with external damaging events;
- the evaluation of the selected system behaviour in case of severe seismic accident; in particular, a key objective is the evaluation of the seismic related movement leading to failure of the primary system; specific consideration is paid to the study of sloshing phenomena;
- the identification of mitigation strategies through the design of adequate reactor com-ponents (i.e., vessel supports, core supports, spent fuel storage pools, steam generator tube supports, joints, foundation slab, etc.) and the development of specific devices (i.e., isolation devices) for structural damage reduction as well as the development of suitable layout design options to avoid the release of radioactivity (i.e. from the fuel storage pools);
- the evaluation of the economic benefits related to the introduction in the reactor design of measures for reducing the reactor damage due to external events, with the consequent increased standardization in the design;
- the transfer of the knowledge gained on the advanced measures for increased safety from external risk mitigation to Gen III LWR technologies.