Assessment of innovative reactor designs in PSI
Between the years 2015 and 2019, PSI coordinated a project investigating the pebble bed high temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) reactor aside with molten salt reactor (MSR) concepts and the use of thorium fuel. The project involved different groups from the ETH domain and the main purpose is to build-up the specific know-how in Switzerland that is necessary to provide in-depth information to decision makers and identify research needs for the future. Several key aspects of both HTGR and MSR reactors were addressed in this research project. These include economic and accident phenomenology studies of the HTGR, fuel cycle optimization of both MSR and HTGR, as well as a study on waste volume reduction of the pebble bed reactors.