Table of Contents
Do breeder reactors exist?
There are only two commercially operating breeder reactors as of 2017: the BN-600 reactor, at 560 MWe, and the BN-800 reactor, at 880 MWe. Both are Russian sodium-cooled reactors.
What is the best coolant for nuclear reactors?
water
A substance circulated through a nuclear reactor to remove or transfer heat. The most commonly used coolant in the United States is water. Other coolants include heavy water, air, carbon dioxide, helium, liquid sodium, and a sodium-potassium alloy.
What are the safest nuclear reactors?
Molten-salt reactors are considered to be relatively safe because the fuel is already dissolved in liquid and they operate at lower pressures than do conventional nuclear reactors, which reduces the risk of explosive meltdowns.
Why do we not use thorium reactors?
Even though a conventional meltdown would be unlikely, thorium still produces harmful radiation that needs to be contained, and something could always go wrong. But the real reason we use uranium over thorium is a result of wartime politics.
What is wrong with breeder reactors?
Fast neutron reactors have special safety problems. To date, the coolant that has been used in all demonstration breeder reactors is liquid sodium. Although sodium has some safety advantages, it also has serious drawbacks. The most serious: It reacts violently with water and burns if exposed to air.
Why choose SVBR-100 reactor?
PRINCIPALLY HIGHER LEVEL OF SAFETY ♦Reactor SVBR-100 meets this requirement owing to inherent self- protection and passive safety of the reactor, which have been assured by use of chemically inert lead-bismuth coolant (LBC) and integral arrangement of the primary circuit equipment in a single vessel operating at approximately atmospheric pressure.
Can the SVBR-100 burn long-lived nuclides?
See A. Lopatickin, V. Orlov, and A. Filin’s “Transmutation of long-lived nuclides in the fuel cycle of brest-type reactors”. The SVBR-100 does not burn natural uranium, in contrast with the CANDU reactor which does. The SVBR-100 as well as the other heavey metal reactors can burn a variety of “potent” fuels.
What is a “heavy metal” reactor?
The Russian’s SVBR-100 reactor, which is the subject of this short essay, is the first of those “heavy metal” reactors. (SVBR is the Russian acronym for “lead-bismuth fast reactor”). The first SVBR-100 will go critical and begin generating commercial electric power by around 2020.
How does the SVBR-100 meet the requirements of the Nuclear Weapons Act?
♦Reactor SVBR-100 meets this requirement owing to: use of uranium with enrichment below 20% while using oxide uranium fuel at the first stage, extended core lifetime without refueling (7-8 years), elimination of technical opportunities for access to fuel during the lifetime, absence of breeding blankets, where weapon plutonium can be accumulated.