Project Consortium

An international collaboration for developing the supercritical water Small Modular Reactor (SCW-SMR) Technology!

Partners of the Consortium

20 Institutions and Universities from 15 countries are involved

Click on the country names to see institutions!

Facilities that will be used

Experiments will be conducted in the following facilities

LVR-15 Research Reactor of CVR

LVR-15 is a light water tank-type research reactor placed in a stainless steel vessel under a shielding cover. It has forced cooling, IRT-4M fuel and an operational power level of 10 MWt. In ECC-SMART, it will be used to irradiate some potential cladding material specimens that will then be tested -post irradiation- in autoclaves.

Hot Cells of CVR

After irradiation, samples are transported from reactor LVR-15 to CVR’s hot laboratories, with use of standard transport cask. Cask is chosen according to the overall activity of the samples. CVR’s hot laboratories is a complex of 8 gamma, 2 alfa hot cells, one semi-hot cell and one dry pool. The main purpose of the laboratories is to provide mechanical testing with the aim to study the mechanical properties of highly irradiated materials. Maximum samples activity which can be shielded by steel shielding of our hot cells is 300 TBq (of 60Co activity).

Thermalhydraulic Rig of KIT

Themalhydraulics experiments will be conducted for a particular heated specimen geometry using a test rig at KIT, called the KIMOF facility.

Autoclave of CVR

The Supercritical water Autoclave is used for long-term exposure of samples under constant or slightly changing conditions and minimum medium flow. The autoclave for this project is connected to the mini water loop in Hot cell in CVR facility for ensuring water flow and treatment. Main mini loop part is a primary high-pressure circuit (25 MPa) with piston pump, autoclave vessel, external heater and cooler. The maximum operating temperature of the autoclave is 500 °C. The auxiliary part is secondary low-pressure circuit equipped with filters, mass exchanger for water treatment and variety of sensors to monitor liquid quality and gas content. The loop is equipped with process monitoring and all data are stored in a DAQ system and the whole loop can be remotely operated.

Autoclave of CIEMAT

Some materials specimens will be tested under SCW environment in this autoclave system of CIEMAT.

Autoclave of VTT

“VTT has two larger SCW autoclaves for materials exposure. One of them is equipped with a stepper motor controlled loading frame for slow strain rate tensile (SSRT) or constant load tests. The other larger SCW autoclave is mainly for exposure of general corrosion/oxidation samples.

Additional Autoclaves from other Partners

Additional materials tests will be performed in autoclaves from CNL, JRC, RATEN, SJTU, USTB and VSCHT.

Consortium institutions