Conclusion

The feasibility of sodium-cooled fast reactors has been fully demonstrated in France by the operation of the Phénix and Superphénix reactors, and by the demonstration of the feasibility of their dismantling. In addition to this feasibility, the use of liquid sodium as a coolant has also been demonstrated. Studies in this field have been put on hold in Germany, the UK and the USA. In France, the Phénix reactor was definitively shut down in 2009 after 36 years of operation. Since 2010, studies on a fourth-generation sodium-cooled prototype reactor (the ASTRID project) have been conducted at CEA in collaboration with industrial partners and international organizations, notably in Japan. Outside the European Union, studies and operation of this type of reactor are continuing in Asia, with the CEFR reactor in China, the PFBR reactor in India and the KALIMER project in South Korea. The BN 600...