Highlights from the 11th International Symposium on Supercritical Water-cooled Reactors

The eleventh edition of the ISSCWR Symposia, namely the 11th International Symposium on Supercritical Water-cooled Reactors (ISSCWR-11), was held in Pisa from February 3 to 5, 2025, being the first one to be held in person after the Covid-19 pandemic. As with the previous ISSCWR Symposia, it constituted one of the most important events for the international community carrying on research in the field of Supercritical Water-cooled Reactors (SCWRs). Around 90 scientists and young researchers joined in Pisa from several countries worldwide and participated in three days of lively discussions on matters related to the design of the only light-water cooled concept of the six Generation IV innovative reactors proposed so far. The occasion of the ISSCWR-11 was particularly fortunate for bringing together this tightly cooperating research community, as the Symposium took place nearly at the end of the EU ECC-SMART project, being a joint European, Canadian and Chinese effort; the final event of the project was hosted at the same premises on February 6. The organisation of the Symposium was endorsed by the European Nuclear Society (ENS) and by the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), whose periodic meeting on SCWR was also hosted on February 7. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also participated in the event, being strongly interested in the ongoing work, because of the current Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on SCWR thermal-hydraulics, which is scheduled to close in April 2027. The matters covered by the presentations and by the related papers, which are included in open access proceedings, were reactor engineering, thermal-hydraulics, neutronics, materials, water chemistry and safety; both experimental data and modelling results were presented and discussed. The group of scientists and young researchers who presented them represents a quite promising critical mass for future research activities and will continue to carry on interesting research within the presently existing frames of IAEA and GIF, as well as in possible future actions to be proposed under the aegis of the European Commission. The present Special Issue of Nuclear Engineering and Design includes twenty papers presented at the ISSCWR-11 Symposium which were further elaborated and reviewed specifically for this publication. They represent a selection from the vast richness of works presented in Pisa at the Symposium, and exhibits representative samples of the quality and the interest of the papers discussed in that occasion.