Versatile Test Reactor
The nation’s only large-scale, advanced fast-neutron source for endurance testing of nuclear fuels, sensors and materials. The 300-megawatt (thermal) reactor will be a user facility open to researchers based on the merits of the proposed experiments.
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Setting the record straight on the Versatile Test Reactor -- ANS / Nuclear Newswire
Read Jordi Roglans-Ribas's recent piece in Nuclear Newswire "Setting the record straight on the Versatile Test Reactor." He calls for support for VTR to ensure U.S. leadership by providing access to fast spectrum testing capability for all U.S. vendors, national laboratories, and universities.
Setting the record straight on the Versatile Test Reactor -- ANS / Nuclear Newswire
The Department of Energy announced in 2020 its approval of Critical Decision 1 for the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) project, a one-of-a-kind scientific user facility that would support research and development of innovative nuclear energy and other technologies. The decision was well received by the nuclear energy community—after all, the DOE’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee had studied and reported on the need for the VTR and found strong support for the project among reactor developers, federal agencies and national laboratories, and university researchers.
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About
The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) is a sodium fast-reactor design, where fast neutrons are produced at high concentrations, allowing researchers to perform accelerated and more diverse tests and experiments currently not possible with the U.S. Department of Energy's other reactors; and when you test fission with high-energy neutrons, it takes nuclear technology from “propellors” into the possibility of “jet engines.”
Essentially, VTR is an instruction platform that will help new advanced reactor vendors:
• Experiment with and qualify different types of reactor fuels.
• Explore and advance structural materials.
• Test and innovate components, instruments and tools.
This ability gives researchers and developers the empirical data they need to approach the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and say, “I want to build my technology, and here’s proof that I understand the material behavior.” Because, in the end, safety is not dependent on fancy gadgets or artificial intelligence, it’s more about fundamentally understanding physics and how materials behave.
VTR is proposed to be sited at either Idaho National Laboratory or Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Having this one-of-a-kind facility on American soil will also play a critical role in reestablishing the United States as a nuclear industry leader.
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