The IRIS consortium designed the SPES3 integral test facility at SIET, Piacenza, Italy. Since fairly complete data are publicly available (Carelli et al., 2009), it will be used to illustrate some of the design choices. The facility is characterized by full height and prototypic fluid properties (pressure, temperature, pressure drops). Volume ratio is 1:100; area ratio is the same, 1:100, to maintain the same residence times.

The facility simulates the primary circuit (integral vessel), secondary loop, and the containment system of the IRIS reactor. Comparison of additional selected parameters between the IRIS and SPES3 is shown in Table 8.4. Table 8.4 also indicates which IRIS systems are being represented. A 3-D view of the SPES3 facility is shown in Figure 8.1, while the SPES3 pressure vessel is shown in Figure 8.2 (Carelli et al., 2009). Further details are available in (Carelli et al., 2009).