Search

International audience; After 6 years of conceptual design phase, the French ASTRID project has started at the beginning of 2016, a 4 years basic design phase. The objective of this paper is to show and underline ASTRID progress and status and to give information of what we have intended for the next 2 years. The ASTRID project is based on a very efficient partnership, allowing versatility and manageability. Very high level and up-to-date project management methods are performed, including technical control with engineering System tools and 3D mock-up consolidation.All the industrials partners involved in the project during the last phase have decided to pursue in the ASTRID project, and the strategic partnership with Japan is going to be reinforced.ASTRID design has also evolved, taking into account new progresses on design to reach better consistency according to high level of reliability and safety, consistent with Generation IV objectives. A cost killing methodology is provided and feedbacks will be expected during 2018 and 2019 years. In the same time, an ongoing effort started two years ago is underway to map all the qualification needs and define all associated processes consistent with safety regulator requirement.

International audience; Vermiculite materials were obtained by uniaxial pressing of potassic vermiculite powders obtained by sonication without any binder addition. The vermiculite powders, made of aggregates of particles with nanometric thick-ness and micrometric in plane dimension, were pressed in the range 17.7–80 MPa at room temperature and 200 °C, and further annealed in the range 400–800 °C. Pressing powders at 200 °C instead of 25 °C allowed the slight increase of the density of the formed materials (from 1.9 to 2 g·cm −3) due to the desorption of the water molecules from the interaggregate and interparticle spaces, allowing a higher densification. The density was also increased by tailoring the particle size distribution. The pressed materials were formed of oriented arrangement of vermiculite aggregates. The porous structure, characterized by mercury porosimetry, scanning electron microscopy, and small angle X-ray scattering, was modelled by oriented oblate spheroidal pores formed in the voids between the stacked aggregates organized in a structure possessing a cylindrical symmetry. The porous structure was found to vary with the pressure and the annealing temperature.