Education and Training Series #98: Overview and Update of the GIF VHTR Activities

These webinars, organised by the GIF Education and Training Working Group are streamed live monthly. The recordings and slide decks are accessible after the webinar on this website. These webinars cover a very broad range of technical and policy related topics. At the end of 2023 they have been viewed by more than 15000 people (approximately half of the views during the live streams and the other half views being of the archives on the public GIF website). In total, the GIF webinars have reached Generation IV enthusiasts, scientists, and engineers in more than 80 countries.

These webinars are organised and hosted by the GIF Education and Training Working Group (ETWG). 

This webinar will present an overview of recent advancements in Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) research, development and deployment, with a specific focus on the collaborate work performed within the GIF VHTR framework under guidance from the VHTR System Steering Committee.  VHTRs utilize a ceramic TRi-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) fuel form, helium coolant, and a low power density to ensure excellent fission product retention and passive decay heat removal under all transient conditions. While the original approach for VHTRs focused on very high outlet temperatures for hydrogen production, recent research and market assessments suggest that lower outlet temperatures in the 700-900°C range are sufficient for many industrial applications, and limit material challenges associated with near-term deployment. The high outlet temperature and thermal efficiency of HTRs is ideal for hydrogen production and use in the chemical, oil, and iron industries. The presentation will highlight several new HTR test and demonstration projects under development, and identify future research needs, challenges and areas of collaboration.

Dr. Patricia Paviet from PNNL, USA, member of GIF ETWG and initiator of this webinar series, will facilitate this webinar.