(INPRO CP SYNERGIES)

Transcription

1 International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO) TERMS OF REFERENCE INPRO Collaborative Project SYNERGISTIC NUCLEAR ENERGY REGIONAL GROUP INTERACTIONS EVALUATED FOR SUSTAINABILITY (INPRO CP SYNERGIES) ToR INPRO CP SYNERGIES

2 Content 1. Summary Rationale 3 3. Overall objective 5 4. Specific objective and project elements Baselines and assumptions 5 6. Scope of work 6 7. Expected outputs Expected outcome Deliverables Resources Organization of work and participants Organization of work Participants Role and responsibility of each participant Representatives of participants Commitment Communications Framework Milestones, duration and costs.. 10 References. 11 Annex 1 Implementation Plan Annex 2 Task descriptions. 13 Project structure 16 Participants, their representatives, and commitments (INPRO- SYNERGIES, ). 17 Page 2 of 20

3 TERMS OF REFERENCE for the INPRO Collaborative Project SYNERGIES 1. SUMMARY Dynamic modelling of nuclear energy systems (NES) is a natural way for understanding NES sustainability. In the INPRO collaborative project Global Architecture of Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems (GAINS) 16 participating INPRO members and observers 1 developed a framework for the dynamic assessment of current and future NES regarding sustainability. GAINS has shown that sustainability of NES will be more difficult to achieve on a global scale if technology users and holders do not collaborate and highlighted some benefits that could be achieved through collaboration among countries, and also identified some challenges. The new INPRO collaborative project titled Synergistic Nuclear Energy Regional 2 Group Interactions Evaluated for Sustainability (INPRO CP SYNERGIES or, in short, SYNERGIES) will apply and amend the analytical framework developed in GAINS to model and examine more specifically the various forms of collaboration among the suppliers and users and identify those of them that ensure a win-win strategy to both on the way to sustainable NES. SYNERGIES will examine drivers and impediments on a collaborative way to sustainable NES. The new project will specifically focus on short-term and medium 3 term collaborative actions capable to develop pathways to long term sustainability. To meet its objective, SYNERGIES will investigate sustainability indicators of a dynamic NES representing a variety of both, technology and infrastructure-related factors, and the collaborative scenarios and architectures of interest to participants, involving, inter alia, dynamic systems analysis of different multi-lateral nuclear approaches, such as fuel cycle infrastructure development and management with shared facilities. The outputs of SYNERGIES will provide an important input for the development of comprehensive and responsible national nuclear energy strategies, regarding international collaboration for a transition to globally sustainable NES. SYNERGIES is open to participants of other INPRO activities interested in dynamic modelling or assessment of NES scenarios or nuclear fuel cycle options. 2. RATIONALE In the INPRO collaborative project Global Architecture of Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems (GAINS), 16 participating INPRO members/observers developed a framework for 1 Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, the USA, EC, Italy, and Argentina as observer. 2 Here and after, regional is used in a non-geographical sense, i.e., regional collaboration may include countries not belonging to the same geographical region. 3 Hereafter, short-term refers to the period before 2030, medium-term refers to the period between 2030 and 2050, long-term refers to the period between 2050 and Page 3 of 20

4 the dynamic assessment of current and future NES regarding sustainable development. GAINS has shown through sample analysis that sustainability of NES will be more difficult to achieve on a global scale if technology users and holders do not collaborate and highlighted some benefits that could be achieved through collaboration among countries, and also identified some challenges. Specifically, GAINS has shown that consecutive introduction of innovative components of NES is capable to enhance NES sustainability securing uranium savings, facilitating spent fuel and waste management infrastructure development and, potentially, strengthening proliferation resistance. On a broader scale, the conclusions of GAINS and other INPRO and Agency s studies regarding sustainability of NES are as follows: Dynamic analysis can be useful in evaluation and understanding of NES sustainability; Collaboration among countries changes the approach to sustainability assessment; for example, if there is regional collaboration, sustainability makes sense for a regional and not national NES; if there is global collaboration, then sustainability makes sense for a global rather than regional NES; Collaboration among countries may in some cases be impeded by national security of supply considerations; these considerations need to be taken into account in the analysis of collaborative scenarios and architectures; Global regional and national NES may at different times face various issues impeding their sustainable development; the issues are typically related to the resource constraints or allocation approaches involving, but not limited to materials, infrastructure, and economics; Collaboration among countries could optimize allocation of resources, minimize costs owing to the economy of scale, offer benefits in minimizing national nuclear infrastructure requirements, suggest a sound solution for spent nuclear fuel utilization and disposal and, probably, offer greater proliferation resistance assurances to the international community. GAINS used rather broad assumptions and only addressed collaboration on a global level, via illustrative sample analysis. The idea of a follow-up effort on GAINS was discussed and supported by many delegates of the 16-th and 17-th INPRO Steering Committee meetings. In line with this, for the follow-up collaborative project, titled Synergistic Nuclear Energy Regional Group Interactions Evaluated for Sustainability (SYNERGIES), it is proposed: To model more specifically particular forms of synergistic architectures involving collaboration among supplier and user countries; To conduct dynamic analysis of scenarios based on such architectures and collaborations and identify those collaborative scenarios ensuring a win-win strategy for the suppliers and users to achieve benefits, resolve issues, and facilitate meeting commitments on the way to a sustainable NES; To evaluate the driving forces and impediments behind possible collaborative architectures and scenarios and highlight those scenarios and architectures that could be driven continually by the interests of both, users and suppliers. Page 4 of 20

5 3. OVERALL OBJECTIVE The overall objective of SYNERGIES is to identify and evaluate mutually beneficial collaborative architectures and the driving forces and impediments for achieving globally sustainable NES by applying and enhancing the analytical framework developed in GAINS. 4. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE AND PROJECT ELEMENTS The specific objective of SYNERGIES is to identify short-term and medium-term collaborative architectures capable to develop pathways to long term sustainability. It is recognized that such architectures should provide benefits in economics, security of supply, resource allocation, national infrastructure requirements, proliferation resistance and other key areas. The specific elements constituting this objective include the following: (1) Select several specific collaborative scenarios of interest to participants; (2) Analyze performance using the GAINS analytical framework; (3) Identify and incorporate upgrades and amendments to the previously developed analytical framework; (4) Revise scenarios as appropriate, based on the results of the analyses; (5) Detail short-term, medium-term and outline longer-term collaborative architectures capable to develop pathways to long term sustainability; (6) Evaluate driving forces and impediments behind the collaborative scenarios and architectures; (7) Identify open issues and gaps requiring further investigation. 5. BASELINES AND ASSUMPTIONS The baselines and assumptions for SYNERGIES are: The benefits and issues associated with collaborative architectures will be analyzed for dynamic scenarios of NES development, i.e., in a time-dependent way, taking into account feedbacks; Sustainability will be checked using the selected key indicators and evaluation parameters, assuming other INPRO criteria are met; for this purpose: o Methods and tools developed in GAINS may be amended or modified as appropriate; o A set of the indicators/parameters developed in GAINS may be upgraded or expanded as appropriate; The idea of fuel cycle strategy groups will be developed further to consider nonpersonified supplier and user countries, as well as suppliers and users interconnected in the different ways; The timespan for consideration will be 100 years. Page 5 of 20

6 6. SCOPE OF WORK To successfully identify short-term and medium term collaborative steps on a pathway to long term sustainability, it is important to consider salient issues that the suppliers and users could face in a short or a medium term, as well as in the long term. All of such issues cannot be investigated through a dynamic modelling of NES within a single INPRO activity, such as SYNERGIES. However, newly introduced key indicators could help clarify the role of many of the above mentioned factors in collaborative NES scenarios and architectures. Based on suggestions from the participants, SYNERGIES may consider a broader set of dynamic NES sustainability indicators representing a variety of both, technology and infrastructure-related factors, including, but not limited to, economics, security of supply 4 ; resource constraints, national infrastructure requirements, and proliferation resistance. The sample scenarios developed in GAINS will serve as a starting point for SYNERGIES studies. However, if requested by participants, some alternative technology options in addition to those considered in GAINS could be included. In the analysis of drivers and impediments behind collaborative architectures and scenarios the following considerations could be taken into account, by appropriately introduced key indicators. The particular scenarios and architectures, key indicators and forms of collaboration among suppliers and users for investigation in the SYNERGIES project are being selected through an advance in-depth discussion among all interested participants of the INPRO project including a discussion at a dedicated meeting held on October 2011 in Vienna. The current expressions of interest from participants are focused on examining collaborations with respect to the scenarios involving: Fuel cycle infrastructure development and management with shared facilities; Back-end fuel cycle services and the various terms of fuel supply and return; Scenarios considering the presence or absence of minor actinide recycling and recycling methods; Scenarios with alternative fast reactor deployment approaches. Upon reaching a consensus, the studies for a particular collaborative scenario/architecture would be carried out by the interested SYNERGIES participants from several countries, who are encouraged to bring in their national perspective on collaborative NES development issues and approaches to achieve sustainability. Following the number of such groups, several project tasks will be established, as well as an umbrella task to coordinate and integrate all activities and the results achieved in each of the groups. Given the integral and multi-disciplinary nature of the proposed investigation and its intrinsic links to several other activities already being implemented by IAEA/INPRO, it incorporates (the outputs of) some of these activities (such as GAINS and RMI). The details of the scope of work are provided in the Implementation Plan given in Annex EXPECTED OUTPUTS The main outputs of SYNERGIES will be: 4 It might be useful to develop a model to assess security of supply. Page 6 of 20

7 Evaluated scenarios based on variants of collaborative architectures involving the suppliers and users, aimed at achieving sustainable NES in the 21st century; Identified collaborative architectures and scenarios offering a win-win strategy to both, suppliers and users; Evaluated drivers and impediments behind the identified win-win collaborative architectures and scenarios. 8. EXPECTED OUTCOME SYNERGIES is deemed to provide an input for the development of comprehensive and responsible national nuclear energy strategies, specifically regarding international collaboration to achieve sustainable regional NES. In particular, SYNERGIES will help: Define attractive innovative fuel cycle options possible at a regional level and promote an improved understanding of associated front-end and back-end regional interactions; Identify technical and institutional gaps that still need to be addressed within the specific future projects. Other expected outcomes may be improved public acceptance and increased interest by investors in national and regional nuclear energy projects. 9. DELIVERABLES The SYNERGIES deliverables will be: IAEA Nuclear Energy Series report presenting collaborative scenarios and architectures beneficial to both, suppliers and users, and the results of supporting analyses; An updated electronic template including any upgraded/ amended key indicators and enhancements to analytical framework and the companion database of primary input and output data for the NES dynamic assessments regarding sustainability of collaborative scenarios and architectures. The target audiences are senior experts working in the area of planning of a nuclear power programme and senior officers of national ministries and regulatory bodies responsible for nuclear technology development and international cooperation programmes, especially, decision makers. 10. RESOURCES Each country and corresponding representatives will meet their own expenses including those on manpower and travel deployed for this purpose. Page 7 of 20

8 11. ORGANIZATION OF WORK AND PARTICIPANTS Organization of work The experience of the GAINS project will be fully applied in organizing the work within SYNERGIES. The desired improvements are: Enhanced link to decision makers who would benefit from this analysis and evaluation; More clear indication of the participants of each INPRO national team supporting this and other INPRO projects. SYNERGIES will pursue a broad in-house cooperation, including that with NPTDS, NPES, NEFW, SG, PESS, NS, INIG, etc., depending on the exact scope of work. Coordination with IAEA TC will be provided. Additional scientific secretaries could be appointed to implement integration with the other IAEA/INPRO activities as highlighted in Paragraph Participants SYNERGIES will pursue broader participation by inviting: The participants and observers of GAINS, to ensure necessary degree of continuity; New participants, to bring in their national perspectives and views on the role of collaborations among countries in achieving sustainability of NES. Specifically, broader participation of user countries (including the developing and newcomer countries) is targeted, as such countries are expected to become an important part of the regional and global NES in the 21 st century Role and responsibility of each participant Each participant will perform the activities assigned in these ToR, and those identified during the project implementation in order to achieve the overall objective, the specific objectives and the outcome of SYNERGIES, according to available means. Each participant holding nuclear technology relevant to the NES identified in SYNERGIES or adequate analytical tools is also expected to contribute with data and information available in the public domain and necessary for performing the activities of SYNERGIES under the framework established in these ToR. The data and information may include available values of performance parameters and characteristics of national codes necessary to establish the specification for future codes. Each participant will perform the modelling of selected case studies by applying adequate analytical tools, modifying and amending them as appropriate, according to these ToR. The table with the case studies to be analysed by each participant and the codes to be applied, amended or modified will be developed in a timely manner. Page 8 of 20

9 11.4. Representatives of participants Each participant will communicate to the INPRO Secretariat, in writing, the nomination of its responsible personnel to perform the activities assigned in these ToR, including business coordinates (institution, organization, position, post address, telephone/s, fax and ). It is recommended to identify also an alternative representative for cases in which the first person responsible is not available. The alternate will be put on copy of the most relevant information distributed among the participants, at least, unless otherwise requested. It is recommended to keep the nominated representatives unchanged during the duration of the project; nevertheless, when changes will take place it will be communicated to the INPRO responsible officers as soon as decided. IAEA/INPRO will provide support to the participants through the responsible officers of the Collaborative Project (Mr. Vladimir KUZNETSOV and Mr. Yuri BUSURIN), by facilitating task definition, coordination and meetings and timely access to GAINS tools and data library, with necessary training being provided upon request. Table A2.1 5 indicates the responsible person and alternative nominated by the participants at the moment to establish these ToR Commitment The representative of each country in SYNERGIES will confirm to the INPRO representative officers of this project, in writing, his acceptance of the ToR and corresponding activities assigned to his country, indicating his commitment to perform such activities according to the ToR and to the specific conditions agreed with the participants during the implementation of the project. Further written confirmation of commitment has to be provided also, to the INPRO representative officers, by the representative of the country at the INPRO Steering Committee; in case there is no fixed representative, this confirmation has to be issued by the representative attending the last Steering Committee meeting held. The commitments will be done by in a timely manner and then completed with the corresponding signatures in Table A Communication The flow of information should be done by e-correspondence, hence avoiding the expenses incurred in travel. Nevertheless, several meetings are considered necessary for completing the activities of SYNERGIES (see Table 1 in Section 12) Framework SYNERGIES will be implemented according to the framework described in the Framework Document, developed by the IAEA/INPRO Secretariat and endorsed by the INPRO Steering Committee [1]. 5 Table A2.1 is provided at the end of the document (See Annex 2) 6 Table A2.2 is provided at the end of the document (See Annex 2). Page 9 of 20

10 12. MILESTONES, DURATION AND COSTS The milestones, duration and costs for SYNERGIES are summarized in Table 1. A detailed Implementation Plan, covering the activities to be performed, the participants involved and the corresponding schedules will be developed through communications with all interested INPRO participants, including a discussion at the dedicated meeting on October 2011 in Vienna. Table 1. Milestones, duration and costs 7 Year Milestones Cost (k ) One meeting, implementation plan development, endorsement by the INPRO Steering Committee Project implementation, 2 project meeting Project implementation, 2 project meetings Consultants, document first draft Consultants, document final draft, publications There are suggestions that net project duration of two years will be insufficient to carry out all of the targeted activities and, therefore, the initial project schedule should be extended by at least one more year. Page 10 of 20

11 REFERENCES [1] Framework, options, topics and guidelines for the implementation of Collaborative Projects in INPRO Phase 2, endorsed by the INPRO Steering Committee in the Ad-hoc meeting held at the IAEA Head Quarters, Vienna, from April Page 11 of 20

12 ANNEX 1 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN Page 12 of 20

13 1. TASK DESCRIPTIONS Task 1 (Core Task). Evaluation of Synergistic Collaborative Scenarios of Fuel Cycle Infrastructure Development Making a transition to globally sustainable nuclear energy system (NES) requires gradual introduction of innovative reactors and closed nuclear fuel cycles. On a national level, it requires plenty of resources and time to develop relevant technologies, and many of the countries interested in the use of nuclear power will be unable to do so in the 21 st century. Some advanced technologies considered for sustainable energy systems may have technical, economic and socio-political impediment for worldwide deployment. Additionally, investments in the research and development of fast reactors and closed nuclear fuel cycles make sense only in view of a large scale anticipated deployment of such technologies. Notwithstanding what has been said above, and as has been shown in the GAINS study, all countries could benefit from the above mentioned technologies if a collaborative approach is pursued to achieve sustainability of national, regional and global nuclear energy systems. Investigations of synergistic collaborations, e.g., under the auspices of IAEA or on a bi-lateral or multi-national basis, will pursue: Exploration of technical options and strategies for fresh fuel supply and spent fuel and HLW management, to identify advantages and challenges in the near, as well as in the medium and longer term; Examination of various scenarios for sharing of facilities and services and identification of timeframes for required infrastructure introduction and expansion in different stages of the nuclear fuel cycle, from mining to final disposal. To support these objectives it will be necessary to: Further elaborate key indicators to better support the task objective of evaluating the synergistic aspects. In particular, the indicators of collaborative activities, such as economics, infrastructure development, transportation, different types of material storage, fractions of shared facilities etc. will be considered; Apply considered key indicators and the GAINS tools/ database, as well as the tools of Member States, for comparative assessment of different synergistic scenarios for representative groups of (non-personified) countries, in order to define mutually beneficial collaborative approaches ( win-win strategies) and understand their evolution toward a sustainable NES; Identify and assess other factors that could drive or impede synergistic collaborations among representative groups of countries. Task Leader: France (to be confirmed) Page 13 of 20

14 Participants: Russia, India, Romania, Ukraine, Canada 8, China, Indonesia, Spain, France Observers: Belgium 8 Use of HWR technology to reburn LWR actinide waste to reduce the requirements for repositories and/or the deployment of fast reactors, with an emphasis on the economics of such an interaction. Page 14 of 20

15 Task 2 (Support Task). Evaluation of Additional Options for NES with Thermal and Fast Reactors The INPRO studies performed so far comprehensively addressed many but not all of the possible technological options with a potential of supporting a transition to sustainable NES. In a number of countries high conversion thermal reactors are under development which could noticeably change the requirements to fast reactors and closed fuel cycles. Similar to this, some designs of innovative small modular reactors having a high conversion ratio are progressing toward advanced design stages and prototype deployment. If deployed instead of conventional water cooled reactors, they could help reduce the consumption of natural uranium which would affect the requirements to fast reactors and closed fuel cycles. A few countries continue pursuing/considering gradual introduction of Thorium or Thorium based nuclear fuel and/or fast reactors with higher breeding ratios and suggest that not all of the essential scenarios involving such technologies have been so far duly examined by INPRO. Non-electrical applications of nuclear energy and co-generation options for nuclear power plants (NPPs) are being considered by several countries. Finally, designers of some fast reactors propose an alternative approach to the deployment of fast reactors which is to use enriched uranium as a first fuel load and then recycle the own spent fuel of such reactors. Therefore, the objective of this task is to carry out investigation of possible synergies among such additional (still not addressed) and the already considered technology options. Additional scenarios of transition to sustainable NES, emerging from this task, would be used as inputs for Task 1 to examine collaborations among different countries. Technology development for the innovative reactors and nuclear fuel cycles referred to above requires implementation of substantial R&D programmes. Task Leader: Russia Participants: India, Russia, China, Ukraine Observers: Spain, Belgium, Romania Task 3 (Support Task). Evaluation of Options for Minor Actinide Management Minor actinides (MA) have high radiotoxicity and lifetimes of hundreds of thousands of years. Some of them are fissile materials or fertile materials from which fissile materials could be bred. MA create additional burden on repositories by producing heat. Management of MA is considered important because it could reduce engineering complexities on final repository of nuclear waste and uncertainties in long term performance of repositories, although repositories could be designed to avoid migration and release of minor actinides in the long term. Different options to incinerate minor actinides are under investigation, which include adding them to fuel of thermal or fast reactors as well burning them in dedicated transmutation systems, such as fast burner reactor, accelerator driven system (ADS) or molten salt reactor (MSR). Options of purposeful use of MA, e.g., as targets to create very high mass transuranics or as thermal generators for space applications, etc. exist. Page 15 of 20

16 The objective of this task is to examine how NES (including reactors and nuclear fuel cycles) could take advantage of the emerging dedicated transmutation systems or purposeful MA applications in creation of a synergistic sustainable architecture. Studies accomplished in Member States point to technical feasibility of some technologies for MA management but also indicate that their development and deployment would require large investments in R&D that might be impossible to raise on a national level. Therefore, collaboration among countries pursuing the development of such systems becomes a key to their successful implementation. Additional scenarios of transition to sustainable NES, emerging from this task, would be used as inputs for Task 1 to examine collaborations among different countries. Task Leader: Belgium Participants: Belgium, Spain, Russia, India, France Observer: European Commission, China Task 4 (Cross-cutting Task). Elaboration of key indicators specific for synergistic collaboration, including economic assessment methods Economics is a key driver in commercialization of technologies and infrastructure development. However, economic predictions for advanced nuclear technologies involve considerable uncertainties. Since collaborative efforts need to be economically attractive for all parties to participate, it is necessary that a method of economic assessment be developed. In application to SYNERGIES, this method needs to take into account both general and time dependent indicators. Collaborative scenario assessment may include not only economics, but considerations of security of supply, infrastructure development costs, including shared infrastructure, proliferation concerns, etc. Key indicators need to be developed to support such assessments. This task is cross-cutting among all other tasks of the SYNERGIES project. Its objective is to develop scenario assessment methods and indicators for all other tasks. Task leader: India Participants: Canada, Russia, EC (JRC Petten), Romania, India, Observers: European Commission, Spain, Belgium, Ukraine, China Page 16 of 20

17 2. PROJECT STRUCTURE The relationship between project tasks is shown in Fig. 1. Task 1 (Core Task). Evaluation of Synergistic Collaborative Scenarios of Fuel Cycle Infrastructure Development How could collaborations facilitate transition to a globally sustainable system? Task 2 (Support Task). Evaluation of Additional Options for NES with Thermal and Fast Reactors Task 3 (Support Task). Evaluation of Options for Minor Actinide Management Task 4 (Cross-cutting Task). Elaboration of key indicators specific for synergistic collaboration, including economic assessment methods Figure 1. Relationship between tasks 1-4 of the SYNERGIES project Page 17 of 20

18 ANNEX 2 PARTICIPANTS, THEIR REPRESENTATIVES, AND COMMITMENTS (INPRO CP SYNERGIES, ) Page 18 of 20

19 Table A2.1. Participants, their representatives, and observers of SYNERGIES ( ) - EXAMPLE Country Responsible Expert Organization Contact details ROMANIA (Observer or Participant) Cristina Alice MĂRGEANU Institute for Nuclear Research Pitesti Senior Researcher, PhD Reactor Physics, Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Fuel Performances Dept. Institute for Nuclear Research Pitesti No 1, Campului Str Mioveni, Arges County Romania tel: ext. 639 fax: cristina.margeanu@nuclear.ro Coordination Mr. Vladimir KUZNETSOV IAEA/INPRO NE / NENP / INPRO Wagramerstrasse 5, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, AUSTRIA Tel Fax.: V.Kuznetsov@iaea.org Mr. Yuri BUSURIN IAEA/INPRO Same organization and address. Tel Fax.: Y.Busurin@iaea.Org Page 19 of 20

20 Table A2.2. Signatures of commitment for SYNERGIES ( ) - EXAMPLE Country Responsible expert Date and Signature ROMANIA (Observer) Cristina Alice MĂRGEANU Andrei GOICEA (replacement) INPRO SCM * Representative Eugen BANCHEŞ Senior Adviser Ministry of Economy, Trade and the Business Environment NUCLEAR AGENCY & RADIOACTIVE WASTE D.I. Mendeleev St., Bucharest, Romania Tel.: Fax: eugen.banches@agentianucleara.ro Date and Signature Coordination Vladimir KUZNETSOV Yuri BUSURIN Randy BEATTY *Representative at the INPRO Steering Committee Meeting. For IAEA: INPRO Coordinator. Page 20 of 20