Prism, The Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor Design Concept

The program for the development of the Advanced Liquid Metal Cooled Reactor (ALMR), based upon the PRISM concept which was initiated by GE in 1981, is proceeding under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy. This activity Is currently viewed as a national program and is being carried out by a team involving wide participation by U.S. Industry, National Laboratories, and international organizations in the advanced conceptual design phase, with key development and testing tasks proceeding in parallel. The ALMR features simple and reliable safety systems, seismic isolation, passive decay heat removal, natural reactivity control, and generous margins against structural and fuel damage. A major goal of the program is to achieve a standard design certification by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by about the year 2005. A unique characteristic of the ALMR is its potential capability to utilize as fuel the long-life radioactive actinides that are the residual waste in spent fuels. This capability provides a means for converting extremely long-life actinide radioactive wastes to elements whose lifetimes and thus storage needs are much shorter, namely hundreds of years. While it does not change the need for or timing of a geological repository, this potential coupling with the high level waste program requires completion of the ALMR prototype program and its certification by the NRC on a timing consistent with the high level waste repository program.