Over the past couple years Argonne National Laboratory has been developing a FASt TEst Reactor as part of the DOE-NE Advanced Reactor Campaign in order to address the growing needs for fast neutron irradiation capabilities. FASTER is a 300 MWth sodium-cooled fast reactor relying on well-established technologies in order to provide both reliable testing capabilities and high availability factor. An overview of the FASTER design will be presented. The design process used, core design, plant layout and safety analysis results will all be discussed. Irradiation and test capabilities offered by the FASTER design will also be highlighted, including the closed loops incorporated in the design. A unique feature of FASTER is that not only it offers very high fast fluxes and large irradiation volumes, but it can also offer very high thermal fluxes by making use of the large neutron leakage probability. This would enable FASTER to support R&D for both fast spectrum and thermal spectrum systems.
Florent Heidet is a Principal Nuclear Engineer at Argonne National Laboratory. Florent studied mechanical engineering in France where he obtained a Master of Science in 2006, and nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley where he obtained a Ph.D. in 2010. Florent joined Argonne National Laboratory where he worked on advanced reactors systems and associated fuel cycles. As part of the collaboration between Argonne and KAERI on developing the Prototype Gen-VI Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor, to start operation in South Korea by 2028, Florent was the lead core designer for the Argonne team. Over the past couple years Florent also lead the core design for the test reactor concept, FASTER, being developed by Argonne as part of the DOE Advanced Reactor campaign. In addition of his work at Argonne, Florent is also involved with the American Nuclear Society where he is serving as an officer of the Reactor Physics Division and in multiple committees.
