SAFEGUARDS-BY-DESIGN APPROACH IMPLEMENTATION INTO TERRESTRIAL ENERGY’S IMSR400 DESIGN

Abstract

Terrestrial Energy Inc. (TEI) has entered the Detailed Engineering phase of the Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR400) design. The IMSR400 is a Generation IV molten salt fueled and cooled Small Modular Reactor (SMR), with less than 5% U-235 enrichment. The approach to the design process is an integrated approach that started in the previous design phase, Basic Engineering. Early integration of disciplines such as safeguards, security, safety, human factors, decommissioning, with the “core” engineering design disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and control, civil structures, has thus informed the design such that potentially late and costly major changes due to their effects are effectively mitigated.

Furthermore, safeguards-by-design has been holistically integrated with nuclear security and safety. A couple of previous papers by TEI have discussed this holistic approach and methodology used for both safeguards-by-design and security-informed design. This paper reports on progress and implementation to-date of the safeguards-by-design (SBD) approach into the IMSR400 design. This work also considers the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) feedback received from the Vendor Design Review (VDR) of TEI’s IMSR400, as well as the feedback from ongoing discussions with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).