Key Aspects for Design and Fitness-for-Service of Mechanical Components in Small Modular Reactors

Abstract

A recent surge of nuclear industry interest in the development of small, factory built, and inherently safe nuclear rectors is underway for the last few years. Many of the proposed new designs use non-conventional cooling mediums and operate at high temperatures. Such combination will likely create many new challenges to the regulators and the designers. The focus of this paper is to initiate the discussions regarding regulatory requirements for the design of mechanical components and how to bridge the gap in knowledge of material behaviour for these reactors.