Conclusion

Abstract

Sodium-cooled fast neutron reactors have ambitious objectives for the future: almost unlimited energy production, safety a minima equivalent to the third generation reactor recent developments, minimization of the waste, of releases and of the staff dosimetry. Superphenix was a step towards these ambitious objectives. Because of an early stop, many demonstrations could not be completed, in particular for the materials and the fuel. But its construction and its operations—even over a short period—enabled to collect a large number of lessons, which can be used to further enhance the design of these fourth-generation future reactors. These operations also allowed showing that these objectives were not unrealistic.