JAEA Intends to Unify Japanese and British HTGR Basic Designs

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The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) will unify its work on a basic design for a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) with that of the United Kingdom. The Japanese government already eyes the start of operation of a demonstration HTGR in the 2030s, while the UK government estimates its start at the beginning of the same decade.

Participating in a British project to develop a demonstration reactor, JAEA also aims at a basic design. The time of the development of a basic design is, however, likely to be the same in the two countries, since doing the work separately appears to be difficult because of a fixed schedule.

Japan will also develop a fuel based on technology at the High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) in Oarai Town, Ibaraki Prefecture. There, too, Japan will aim for rationalization.

The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) chose an HTGR for its Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) Development and Demonstration Programme. In August 2022, it began preliminary investigations regarding a basic design for the reactor (Phase A). Already in a consortium with the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), JAEA was chosen by BEIS as a party for those investigations.

This year or later, BEIS will start basic design investigations as the basis for a detailed design (Phase B), while activities for obtaining site and operations permits and licenses (Phase C) will start in 2025 or later. JAEA is steadily preparing its application, due early next month, for those investigations.

In Japan, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE), under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), issued a technology roadmap (outline) last year for developing advanced reactors. To obtain licenses and achieve the production, installation, and construction of a demonstration reactor in FY30, Japan will have to complete a detailed design by the end of this decade.