Operation, test, research and development of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) (FY2018)

Department of HTTR

The High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR), a graphite-moderated and helium gas-cooled reactor being able to get 950C temperature of the outlet coolant with 30 MW of thermal power, constructed at the Oarai Research and Development Institute of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency is the first High- Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) in Japan. The purpose of the HTTR is to establish and upgrade basic technologies for HTGRs. The HTTR has accumulated a lot of experience of HTGRs' operation and maintenance up to the present time throughout rated power operations, safety demonstration tests, long-term high temperature operations and demonstration tests relevant to HTGRs' R&Ds. In the fiscal year 2018, we made effort to pass the inspection of application document for the HTTR licensing to prove conformity with the new regulatory requirements for research reactors that took effect since December 2013 in order to restart operations of the HTTR that stopped since the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake. This report summarizes the activities carried out in the 2018 fiscal year, which were the situation of the new regulatory requirements screening of the HTTR, the operation and maintenance of the HTTR, R&Ds relevant to commercial-scale HTGRs, the international cooperation on HTGRs and so on.