Review of Euratom projects on design, safety assessment, R&D and licensing for ESNII/Gen-IV reactor systems

Abstract

Five Euratom projects launched since 2017 in support of the development of ESNII/Generation-IV reactor systems are briefly presented in the paper in terms of key objectives, results, and recommendations for the future. These projects focus on various aspects of the following ESNII/Generation-IV systems: Sodium Fast Reactor, Gas Cooled Fast Reactor, Supercritical Water Cooled Reactor, and Molten Salt Fast Reactor. The paper does not consider EU projects focused on the Gen-IV reactor technologies based on the use of heavy metals as a coolant because these projects are reviewed in a different paper.