Liquid Metal-Cooled Nuclear Systems: Advanced Safety and Thermohydraulic Design Approaches
Date: 20-23 April 2026
Location: on-site: Waterloosesteenweg, 72, 1640 Sint-Genesius-Rode, Belgium - near Brussels
Credits: Heat flux distribution with deformed pin, Dr. Matilde Fiore.
About the lecture series
Liquid metal-cooled fast reactors (LMFRs) are central to the development of next-generation nuclear systems, offering unique advantages in sustainability, safety, and performance. Their design and deployment require a deep understanding of advanced safety features and complex thermohydraulic behavior, including natural circulation, passive decay heat removal, and transient phenomena in large pool configurations. These aspects are critical for ensuring compliance with stringent safety standards and for validating reactor performance under normal and off-normal conditions.
This Lecture Series aims to provide participants with a strong foundation in LMFR technology and a comprehensive overview of recent developments in safety analysis and thermohydraulic design.
Over four days, leading experts participating in the EU-funded projects ANSELMUS and LESTO will address key topics such as reactor design principles, core physics with a primary focus on thermal-hydraulics, coolant chemistry, and material challenges. These discussions will include validation processes supported by state-of-the-art experimental facilities.
Additional sessions will address Phenomena Identification and Ranking Technique (PIRT), uncertainty quantification, digital twins, and inspection strategies at high temperatures, as well as passive safety systems.
Moreover, an interactive panel on the social impact of heavy liquid metal technology will provide participants with valuable insights and practical perspectives on how safety and thermo-hydraulics together influence the future deployment of LMFRs. The session will include an open discussion with the experts.
The lecture series director is Dr. Silvania Lopes From the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Belgium.
Preliminary Programme
Monday 20 April 2026
08:30 - 09:00 Welcoming participants and registration
09:00 - 09:15 Welcome word and Introduction
Philippe Planquart, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Belgium
09:15 - 10:45 Liquid-metal-cooled-fast reactor (To be confirmed)
Gen IV reactor, Research Reactors, SMRs, Current designs, Sustainability, Safety approach
10:45 - 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 - 12:30 PIRT- Phenomena Identification and Ranking Technique (Marco Caramelo, ANSALDO ANN, Italy)
Why we need it, examples, knowledge gaps
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch
13:30 - 15:00 Core - Neutronics (To be confirmed)
Fuel cycle, MOX fuel availability, Safety and Security, Integrability
15:00 - 15:15 Coffee break
15:15 - 16:45 Social impact - Panel
Social impact of heavy metal cooled nuclear technology, Energy use, Ethical considerations
Evening: Social dinner
Tuesday 21 April 2026
09:00 - 10:30 Core Thermo-hydraulics: Operating conditions (Julio Pacio, SCK CEN, Belgium)
Objectives, Different design, Coolability, Numerics and experiments
10:30 - 10:45 Coffee break
10:45 - 12:15 Core – Thermo-hydraulics: Safety scenarios (Petrovic Dorde, SCK CEN, Belgium)
12:15 - 13:15 Lunch
13:15 - 14:45 Coolant – Chemistry (To be confirmed)
Oxygen control, fission products, polonium release, purification
14:45 - 15:00 Coffee break
15:00 - 16:30 Coolant – Material (Annette Heinzel, KIT, Germany)
LFR materials in lead at high temperatures, fretting, erosion
Wednesday 22 April 2026
09:00 - 10:30 Pool thermal-hydraulics (Ferry Roelofs, NRG PALLAS, The Netherlands)
Design straegies, forced/natural convection, validation, scaling
10:30 - 10:45 Coffee break
10:45 - 12:15 Pool thermal-hydraulics- Future prospectives (Lilla Koloszar, VKI, Belgium)
Digital twin, future technologies
12:15 - 13:15 Lunch
13:15 - 14:45 Heat Exchanger – General (Nicola Forgione, UNIPI, Italy)
Used technologies in LFR/SMRs, experiments, modeling
14:45 - 15:00 Coffee break
15:00 - 16:30 Heat Exchanger – Steam Generator Tube Rupture (Ivan Di Piazza, ENEA, Italy)
Description of physics, modeling, experiments
Thursday 23 April 2026
09:00 - 10:30 Passive DHR (Decay Heat Removal) (Fabio Giannetti, UNIROMA, Italy)
What is passive safety? Natural circulation in LMFR, Internal systems (DHR-1), External systems (DHR-2)
10:30 - 10:45 Coffee break
10:45 - 12:15 Monitoring (To be confirmed)
Inspection strategy, inspection at high temperatures, inspection tools
12:15 - 13:15 Lunch
13:15 - 14:45 Summary and Next challenges (To be confirmed)
14:45 - 15:00 Coffee break
15:00 - 16:30 Visit of VKI labs
Fee and Registration
The lecture series is free for the ANSELMUS and LESTO partners.
- Deadline for on-site registration: 6 April 2026
- Deadline for online registration: 30 March 2026
- Discount of 30% for citizens from NATO countries*
* applicable on the price listed below
Early Bird Registration until 20 February 2026
- Undergraduate students: €270
- PhD students: €720
- Staff from recognized universities / research center: €1368
- Staff from commercial organizations: €1728
Late Registration after 20 February 2026
- Undergraduate students: €300
- PhD students: €800
- Staff from recognized universities / research center: €1520
- Staff from commercial organizations: €1920