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"breeder reactor" Definitions
  1. a type of nuclear reactor that produces more fissionable material than it consumes
  2. Compare converter reactor See also fast-breeder reactor
"breeder reactor" Synonyms
nuclear reactor reactor atomic furnace atomic pile atomic power plant atomic reactor chain reactor core reactor fast breeder reactor neutron factory nuclear furnace nuclear power plant pile plutonium reactor reactor pile thermonuclear reactor uranium reactor

205 Sentences With "breeder reactor"

How to use breeder reactor in a sentence? Find typical usage patterns (collocations)/phrases/context for "breeder reactor" and check conjugation/comparative form for "breeder reactor". Mastering all the usages of "breeder reactor" from sentence examples published by news publications.

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He also opposed the nuclear breeder reactor and limited offshore exploration.
The fast breeder reactor is not going to be commercially viable.
In one instance she pushed Congress to back the construction of a nuclear breeder reactor just outside Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The experimental fast-breeder reactor, once dubbed the "dream reactor," was designed to produce more plutonium than it consumes, thus minimizing the amount of nuclear waste.
In 1955, a small nuclear meltdown took place just outside Atomic City, at the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1, the world's first electricity-generating nuclear power plant.
INL is using spent fuel from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II, a nuclear power station that provided electricity for much of the lab for nearly 3.63 years and also used recycled fuel.
In Butte County, ID, the Experimental Breeder Reactor-I, which back in 1951 was the first power plant to produce electricity using atomic energy, is now a national historic landmark and a museum.
Now, Russia's BN-85033 fast reactor has entered commercial operation; India is expected to commission a commercial fast breeder reactor by the end of 2017; and China is making significant advances in both molten salt and fast reactor technologies.
The move to shut the Monju prototype fast breeder reactor in Fukui prefecture west of Tokyo adds to a list of failed attempts around the world to make the technology commercially viable and potentially cut stockpiles of dangerous nuclear waste.
Since the uranium-235 used in the Experimental Breeder Reactor was enriched to 67 percent, it must also be blended to bring it to enrichment levels below 20 percent by mixing the uranium-235 with other isotopes that can't be used as fuel.
The decision would have no impact on Japan's nuclear recycling policy as Tokyo would continue to co-develop a fast-breeder demonstration reactor that has been proposed in France, while research will continue at another experimental fast-breeder reactor, Joyo, which was a predecessor of Monju.
And then there is the question of what to do with Monju, a fast-breeder reactor (one that generates more fuel than it consumes) which cost $10 billion to build but has generated power for only one hour since its inauguration in 1995 owing to a series of accidents.
It was home of Experimental Breeder Reactor I, the world's first electricity-generating nuclear power plant.
The Experimental Breeder Reactor II Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) is a sodium-cooled fast reactor designed, built and operated by Argonne National Laboratory at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho.Experimental Breeder Reactor II, Argonne National Laboratory It was shut down in 1994. Custody of the reactor was transferred to Idaho National Laboratory after its founding in 2005. Initial operations began in July 1964 and it achieved criticality in 1965 at a total cost of more than US$32 million (US$ million in 2019 dollars).
The Fast Breeder Reactor-600 (FBR-600) or Commercial Fast Breeder Reactor (CFBR) is a 600 MWe fast breeder nuclear reactor presently being constructed. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) is responsible for the design of this reactor as a successor for Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR). The 1st twin unit would come up at Kalpakkam, close to the PFBR site itself. Designed to "burn" a mixture of Uranium Oxide and Plutonium Oxide to generate 600 MWe of power each, current plans involve building 6 Units, co- locating 2 at any given place.
In 1976, he participated in the demonstrations against the building of the fast breeder reactor Superphénix at Creys-Malville, Isère (France).
A cutaway model of the 2nd most powerful presently operating fast breeder reactor in the world. The (BN-600), at 600 MW of nameplate capacity is equivalent in power output to a natural gas CCGT. It dispatches 560 MW to the Middle Urals power grid. Construction of a second breeder reactor, the BN-800 reactor was completed in 2014.
This is considered an important milestone in Indian breeder reactor technology. Using the experience gained from the operation of the FBTR, the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, a 500 MWe Sodium cooled fast reactor is being built at a cost of INR 5,677 crores (~US$900 million) and is expected to be critical by 2020. The PFBR will be followed by six more Commercial Fast Breeder Reactors (CFBRs) of 600 MWe each. The Gen IV SFR is a project that builds on two existing projects for sodium cooled FBRs, the oxide fueled fast breeder reactor and the metal fueled integral fast reactor.
In September 2002, fuel burn- up in the FBTR for the first time reached the 100,000 megawatt-days per metric ton uranium (MWd/MTU) mark. This is considered an important milestone in breeder reactor technology. Using the experience gained from the operation of the FBTR, a 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is in advanced stage of construction at Kalpakkam.
The FUJI MSR was a design for a 100 to 200 MWe molten-salt-fueled thorium fuel cycle thermal breeder reactor, using technology similar to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Reactor Experiment. It was being developed by a consortium including members from Japan, the United States, and Russia. As a breeder reactor, it converts thorium into nuclear fuels.Fuji MSR pp.
JAEA has another head base in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. It is a fast breeder reactor center and a Research and Development (R&D;) center.
The Indian Molten Salt Breeder Reactor (IMSBR) is under development. Studies on conceptual design of the Indian Molten Salt Breeder Reactors (IMSBR) have been initiated.
Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) is a decommissioned research reactor and U.S. National Historic Landmark located in the desert about southeast of Arco, Idaho. It was the world's first breeder reactor. At 1:50 p.m. on December 20, 1951, it became one of the world's first electricity-generating nuclear power plants when it produced sufficient electricity to illuminate four 200-watt light bulbs.
The Clinch River Breeder Reactor was initially conceived as a major step toward developing liquid-metal fast breeder reactor technology as a commercially viable electric power generation system in the United States. In 1971 U.S. President Richard Nixon established this technology as the nation’s highest priority research and development effort. However, the Clinch River project was controversial from the start, and economic and political considerations eventually led to its demise.
In France, CEA and EDF had started to build Phénix in 1968, which was powered up in December 1973. It was a pool-type liquid-metal fast breeder reactor cooled with liquid sodium and a small-scale (gross 264/net 233 MWe) prototype fast breeder reactor, located at the Marcoule nuclear site, near Orange, France. Phénix had to be stopped for refueling every two months. Between 1990 and 1996, it was run sporadically.
Architect's conception of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor The Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project (CRBRP) was a joint effort of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (and a successor agency, the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), and subsequently the U.S. Department of Energy) and the U.S. electric power industry to design and construct a sodium-cooled fast- neutron nuclear reactor. The project was opposed by President Carter.Peter A. Bradford. Delivering the nuclear promise, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June 2016.
Argonne's Nuclear Science and Technology Legacy, Reactors: Modern-Day Alchemy As the first liquid metal cooled reactor, it demonstrated Fermi's breeder reactor principle to maximize the energy obtainable from natural uranium, which at that time was considered scarce.Fast Reactor Technology. EBR-I (Experimental Breeder Reactor-I) In August 1945, the first widely distributed account of nuclear energy, the pocketbook The Atomic Age, was released. It discussed the peaceful future uses of nuclear energy and depicted a future where fossil fuels would go unused.
The BN-800 is an updated version of the BN-600, and started operation in 2014. The Phénix breeder reactor in France was powered down in 2009 after 36 years of operation. Both China and India are building breeder reactors. The Indian 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor is in the commissioning phase, with plans to build more. Another alternative to fast breeders are thermal breeder reactors that use uranium-233 bred from thorium as fission fuel in the thorium fuel cycle.
The Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) is a breeder reactor located at Kalpakkam, India. The Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research (IGCAR) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) jointly designed, constructed, and operate the reactor.
Oak Ridge investigated both ways to make a breeder for their molten salt breeder reactor. Because the fuel is liquid, they are called the "single fluid" and "two fluid" thorium thermal breeder molten salt reactors.
Construction of a second breeder reactor, the BN-800 reactor, is completed. The BN-600 reactor is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, built at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station, in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Designed to generate electrical power of 600 MW in total, the plant dispatches 560 MW to the Middle Urals power grid. It has been in operation since 1980 and represents an evolution on the preceding BN-350 reactor. In 2014, its larger sister reactor, the BN-800 reactor began operation.
Schematic diagram showing the difference between the Loop and Pool designs of a liquid metal fast breeder reactor There have been two main design approaches to sodium-cooled reactors. In the pool type, the primary coolant is entirely contained in the main reactor vessel, which therefore includes not only the reactor core but also a heat exchanger. The US EBR-2, French Phénix and others used this approach, and it is used by India's Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor and China's CFR-600. In the loop type, the heat exchangers are external to the reactor tank.
The BN-800 reactor The BN-reactor is a type of sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor built in Russia from the company OKBM Afrikantov. Two BN-reactors are to date (2015) the only commercial fast breeder reactors in operation worldwide.
This percentage is expected to double every 10 years for several decades out. Plans are for 200 GW installed by 2030 which will include a large shift to Fast Breeder reactor and 1500 GW by the end of this century.
The FUJI molten salt reactor is a proposed molten-salt-fueled thorium fuel cycle thermal breeder reactor, using technology similar to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Molten Salt Reactor Experiment – liquid fluoride thorium reactor. It was being developed by the Japanese company International Thorium Energy & Molten-Salt Technology (IThEMS), together with partners from the Czech Republic. As a breeder reactor, it converts thorium into the nuclear fuel uranium-233. To achieve reasonable neutron economy, the chosen single- salt design results in significantly larger feasible size than a two-salt reactor (where blanket is separated from core, which involves graphite-tube manufacturing/sealing complications).
The site for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor was a land parcel owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) adjacent to the Clinch River in Roane County, Tennessee, inside the city limits of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but remote from the city's residential population.
However, in 2014 Japan agreed to cooperate in developing the emergency reactor cooling system, and in a few other areas, with the French ASTRID demonstration sodium- cooled fast breeder reactor. As of 2016, France was seeking the full involvement of Japan in the ASTRID development.
Experimental Breeder Reactor II, which served as the prototype for the Integral Fast Reactor The integral fast reactor (IFR, originally advanced liquid-metal reactor) is a design for a nuclear reactor using fast neutrons and no neutron moderator (a "fast" reactor). IFR would breed more fuel and is distinguished by a nuclear fuel cycle that uses reprocessing via electrorefining at the reactor site. IFR development began in 1984 and the U.S. Department of Energy built a prototype, the Experimental Breeder Reactor II. On April 3, 1986, two tests demonstrated the inherent safety of the IFR concept. These tests simulated accidents involving loss of coolant flow.
Phénix (French for phoenix) was a small-scale (gross 264/net 233 MWe) prototype fast breeder reactor, located at the Marcoule nuclear site, near Orange, France. It was a pool-type liquid-metal fast breeder reactor cooled with liquid sodium. It generated 590 MW of thermal power, and had a breeding ratio of 1.16 (16% more plutonium produced than consumed), but normally had to be stopped for refueling operations every two months. Phénix continued operating after the closure of the subsequent full-scale prototype Superphénix in 1997. After 2004, its main use was investigation of transmutation of nuclear waste while also generating some electricity.
The second core was similarly designed but more powerful, having a larger seed. The highly energetic seed required more refueling cycles than the blanket in these first two cores. The third and final core used at Shippingport was an experimental, light water moderated, thermal breeder reactor.
In practice, both the difficulty of handling the highly radioactive fission products and other political concerns make fuel reprocessing a contentious subject. One such concern is the fact that spent uranium nuclear fuel contains significant quantities of 239Pu, a prime ingredient in nuclear weapons (see breeder reactor).
Monju enters extended testing. Aug 31, 2007. A restart date of February 2009 was again delayed due to the discovery of holes in the reactor's auxiliary building; in August 2009 it was announced that restart might be in February 2010.Reuters. Japan fast-breeder reactor may restart in Feb.
While Hahn was often said to have made a breeder reactor, his actual work was on a neutron source. The confusion is because his device did create new radioactive materials through neutron activation. None of the materials used or created were fissile, so it was not a reactor.
Advances in breeder reactor technology could allow the current reserves of uranium to provide power for humanity for billions of years, thus making nuclear power a sustainable energy. However, in 2010 the International Panel on Fissile Materials said "After six decades and the expenditure of the equivalent of tens of billions of dollars, the promise of breeder reactors remains largely unfulfilled and efforts to commercialize them have been steadily cut back in most countries." But in 2016, the Russian BN-800 fast-neutron breeder reactor started producing commercially at full power (800 MWe), replacing the previous BN-600. , the Chinese CFR-600 is under construction after the success of the China Experimental Fast Reactor, based on the BN-800.
The JAEA began preparatory engineering work on May 24, 2011 to set up equipment to be used to retrieve the IVTM that fell inside the vessel. The fallen device was successfully retrieved from the reactor vessel on June 23, 2011.Fallen device retrieved from Japan fast-breeder reactor June 23, 2011.
The 69 MWe prototype fast breeder reactor Fermi 1 unit was under construction and development at the site from 1956 to 1963. Initial criticality was achieved on August 23, 1963. On October 5, 1966 Fermi 1 suffered a partial fuel meltdown. Two of the 92 fuel assemblies were partially damaged.
In general terms, the hybrid is similar in concept to the fast breeder reactor, which uses a compact high-energy fission core in place of the hybrid's fusion core. Another similar concept is the accelerator-driven subcritical reactor, which uses a particle accelerator to provide the neutrons instead of nuclear reactions.
These test assemblies, also referred to as test vehicles or test loops, can simulate the conditions of a light water reactor, heavy water reactor, liquid metal fast breeder reactor, or a gas cooled reactor. In some experiments, provisions were made to make high speed film recordings of the experiment, such as these videos.
AR 265 begins near Strickler at AR 170 near SEFOR, a deactivated experimental fast breeder reactor. The route continues north as a winding, two-lane highway into Greenland until its junction with I-49 and US 71 in south Fayetteville. The roadway continues north after these intersections (as Arkansas Highway 112) into Fayetteville.
The ARC-100 is a 100 MWe sodium cooled, fast- flux, pool-type reactor with metallic fuel based on the 30-year successful operation of the Experimental Breeder Reactor II in Idaho. ARC Nuclear is developing this reactor in Canada, in partnership with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, with the intent of complementing existing CANDU facilities.
The integral fast reactor was developed at the West Campus of the Argonne National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho and was the intended successor to the Experimental Breeder Reactor II, which achieved first criticality in 1965 and ran for 30 years. The Integral Fast Reactor project was shut down by the U.S. Congress in 1994.
EBR-I was deactivated by Argonne in 1964 and replaced with a new reactor, Experimental Breeder Reactor II. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and with its dedication ceremony held on August 25, 1966, led by President Lyndon Johnson and Glenn T. Seaborg. It was also declared an IEEE Milestone in 2004.
Harry Soodak (December 24, 1920 - September 30, 2008) was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, publishing the first design of a sodium-cooled breeder reactor, and was a professor at City College of New York. Along with Arthur Iberall, Soodak developed the concept of homeokinetics to explain the functioning of complex systems.
It kept the same seed-and-blanket design, but the seed was now uranium-233 and the blanket was made of thorium.Kasten, P. R. (1998). "" Science & Global Security, 7(3), 237-269. Being a breeder reactor, it had the ability to transmute relatively inexpensive thorium to uranium-233 as part of its fuel cycle.
Only new fertile fuel is added, which breeds to fissile inside the reactor. In addition the fission products need to be removed. This type of reactor is called a breeder reactor. If it breeds just as much new fissile from fertile to keep operating indefinitely, it is called a break-even breeder or isobreeder.
All operating plants today are PWRs. The sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor technology development reactors, Phénix and Superphénix, have been shut down. Work on a more advanced design in the form of the ASTRID reactor was finally abandoned in September 2019. The PWR plants were all developed by Framatome (now Areva) from the initial Westinghouse design.
The reactor on the left, the vent stack on the right fast breeder reactor SNR-300, now an amusement park. The SNR-300 was a fast breeder sodium cooled nuclear reactor built near the town of Kalkar, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The reactor was completed but never taken online. SNR-300 was to output 327 megawatts.
However, it is possible to build a fast reactor that breeds fuel by producing more than it consumes. After the initial fuel charge such a reactor can be refueled by reprocessing. Fission products can be replaced by adding natural or even depleted uranium without further enrichment. This is the concept of the fast breeder reactor or FBR.
On May 22, 1986, a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at La Hague in Normandy, sustained a mechanical malfunction. Five workers were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation and hospitalized. On April 12, 1987, the Tricastin Nuclear Power Plant fast breeder reactor coolant leaked contaminating seven workers. In July 2008, approximately 100 workers were exposed to a radiation leak.
In 1977 there was a massive demonstration at the Superphénix breeder reactor in Creys-Malvillein which culminated in violence.Dorothy Nelkin and Michael Pollak (1982). The Atom Besieged: Antinuclear Movements in France and Germany, ASIN: B0011LXE0A, p. 3. In West Germany, between February 1975 and April 1979, some 280,000 people were involved in seven demonstrations at nuclear sites.
The third and final UKAEA-operated reactor to be built on the Dounreay site was the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR). In 1966 it was announced that the PFR would be built at Dounreay. PFR was a pool-type fast breeder reactor, cooled by 1,500 tonnes of liquid sodium and fuelled with MOX. The design output of PFR was 250 MWe (electrical).
184 Americium often enters landfills from discarded smoke detectors. The rules associated with the disposal of smoke detectors are relaxed in most jurisdictions. In 1994, 17-year-old David Hahn extracted the americium from about 100 smoke detectors in an attempt to build a breeder nuclear reactor.Ken Silverstein, The Radioactive Boy Scout: When a teenager attempts to build a breeder reactor.
Thermal reactors require less of the expensive fissile fuel to start, but are more sensitive to fission products left in the core. There are two ways to configure a breeder reactor to do the required breeding. One can place the fertile and fissile fuel together, so breeding and splitting occurs in the same place. Alternatively, fissile and fertile can be separated.
June 18, 2009 S-PRISM is a commercial implementation of the Integral Fast Reactor developed by Argonne National Laboratory between 1984 and 1994. It is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, based on the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) design, scaled up by a factor of ten. The design utilizes reactor modules, each having a power output of 311 MWe, to enable factory fabrication at low cost. In an identical fashion to the EBR-II that it is based on, the reactor would transition to a much lower power level whenever temperatures rise significantly, moreover the reactor vessel modules are pool type, as opposed to loop type, with the pool conferring substantial thermal inertia and the final key safety feature includes a "RVACS", which is a passive reactor vessel air cooling system to remove decay heat.
On 21 October 2011 the Japanese government appointed a commission to study ways to cut wasteful expenditures, one possibility being decommissioning the Monju prototype fast breeder reactor. The Government Revitalization Unit took up this issue, because the calls to abolish this reactor were growing after the nuclear accident at Fukushima. As the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant made it difficult, if not impossible, to build new nuclear power plants, the government panel would also review subsidies for localities with atomic power plants as well as functions of related entities such as the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.Mainichi Japan (22 October 2011) Gov't cost-cutting unit to study Monju reactor's abolition On 27 November, after a visit to the plant, nuclear disaster minister Goshi Hosono said that scrapping the Monju-fast- breeder reactor was an option that would be given serious thought.
Changes in the composition of a MSR fast neutron (kg/GW) Reprocessing refers to the chemical separation of fissionable uranium and plutonium from spent fuel. Such recovery could increase the risk of nuclear proliferation. In the United States the regulatory regime has varied dramatically across administrations. In the 1971 Molten Salt Breeder Reactor proposal, uranium reprocessing was scheduled every ten days as part of reactor operation.
Even with its normal shutdown devices disabled, the reactor shut itself down safely without overheating anywhere in the system. The IFR project was canceled by the US Congress in 1994, three years before completion.The IFR at Argonne National Laboratory The proposed Generation IV Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor is its closest surviving fast breeder reactor design. Other countries have also designed and operated fast reactors.
This heat is transferred from the reactor core via three independent circulation loops. Each comprises a primary sodium pump, two intermediate heat exchangers, a secondary sodium pump with an expansion tank located upstream, and an emergency pressure discharge tank. These feed a steam generator, which in turn supplies a condensing turbine that turns the generator. There is much international interest in the fast-breeder reactor at Beloyarsk.
Thus PNC was created and did development work for the Monju reactor and other cutting edge projects. The breeder reactor technology was difficult to master due to the difficulty in handling of Sodium, and for a time, PNC was even called the pros of Sodium. Various accidents associated with the Tokaimura site, Monju plant, and another asphalt processing plant ultimately caused reorganization yet again into the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute.
Post-operation examination of pieces of a control-rod thimble, heat-exchanger tubes and pump bowl parts revealed the ubiquity of the cracking and emphasized its importance to the MSR concept. The crack growth was rapid enough to become a problem over the planned thirty-year life of a follow-on thorium breeder reactor. This cracking could be reduced by adding small amounts of niobium to the Hastelloy-N.
RAF Dounreay was built for RAF Coastal Command in 1944, but not used by them. It was transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Tern II, but not commissioned and on care and maintenance until 1954. In 1955 the airfield was taken over by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) for developing a fast breeder reactor. One runway was kept operational until the 1990s for transport to/from the site.
We Almost Lost Detroit, a 1975 Reader's Digest book by John G. Fuller, presents a history of Fermi 1, America's first commercial breeder reactor, with emphasis on the 1966 partial nuclear meltdown. It took four years for the reactor to be repaired, and then performance was poor. In 1972, the reactor core was dismantled and the reactor was decommissioned. America's first effort at operating a full-scale breeder had failed.
Recycled thorium that is recovered from the reactor is then sent back, and plutonium is stored to be later used for a fast breeder reactor. The fuel for AHWR would be manufactured by ADVANCED FUEL FABRICATION FACILITY, which is under the direction of BARC Tarapur. AFFF is currently working on PFBR fuel rod production. AFFF has been associated with fuel rod fabrication for other research purposes in the past.
He entered the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1967 and received his PhD degree in nuclear engineering two years later. In 1969, he joined Argonne National Laboratory as a researcher, working in the area of energy and environmental systems, including Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor safety research, and electric hybrid vehicle development. More than one hundred technical reports and articles had been published before his early retirement in 1996.
The dual fluid reactor (DFR) is a German project combining the advantages of the molten salt reactor with the ones of the liquid metal cooled reactor.Dual Fluid Reactor As a breeder reactor the DFR can burn both natural uranium and thorium, as well as recycle nuclear waste. Due to the high thermal conductivity of the molten metal, the DFR is an inherently safe reactor (the decay heat can be removed passively).
Spent fuel is processed at facilities in Trombay near Mumbai, at Tarapur on the west coast north of Mumbai, and at Kalpakkam on the southeast coast of India. Plutonium will be used in a fast breeder reactor (under construction) to produce more fuel, and other waste vitrified at Tarapur and Trombay. Interim storage for 30 years is expected, with eventual disposal in a deep geological repository in crystalline rock near Kalpakkam.
Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Idaho, the first power reactor. The reactor is in the building top right, the two structures lower left are reactors from the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Project Had the program progressed, follow-on aircraft would have been based on the successor to the B-36, Convair's swept-wing B-60.. The X-6 would have been powered by General Electric X-39 engines (J47 engines modified to use nuclear energy as fuel), utilizing a P-1 reactor.. In a nuclear jet engine, the reactor core was used as a heat source for the turbine's air flow, instead of burning jet fuel. One disadvantage of the design was that, since the airflow through the engine was used to cool the reactor, this airflow had to be maintained even after the aircraft had landed and parked. GE built two prototype engines, which can be seen outside the Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Arco, Idaho.
Decisions about the 2012 budget would be taken after the discussions in a panel of cabinet members about the nuclear policy of Japan, including the fast breeder reactor project, would be complete.NHK-world (20 November 2011) Govt panel seeks to revise nuclear projects Reports in 2012 indicated that plans to generate electricity at Monju would be abandoned, and the plant repurposed into a research centre for handling spent nuclear fuel. On 29 May 2013, the NRA announced that JAEA was prohibited from restarting the fast breeder reactor, describing the safety culture at the plant as "deteriorated", because the problems at the plant were not addressed, and the staff were aware of the delayed inspections. The NRA said that before it could plan a restart of the reactor, JAEA must allocate appropriate funds and human resources to rebuild a maintenance and management system to prevent the recurrence of coolant leakages and other problems.
Rather, an excess of fuel is inserted with reactivity control mechanisms, such that the reactivity control is inserted fully at the beginning of life to bring the reactor from supercritical to critical; as the fuel is depleted, the reactivity control is withdrawn to support continuing fission. In a fast breeder reactor, the above applies, though the reactivity from fuel depletion is also compensated by breeding either or and from thorium-232 or , respectively.
MSRE plant diagram Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) took the lead in researching MSRs through the 1960s. Much of their work culminated with the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). MSRE was a 7.4 MWth test reactor simulating the neutronic "kernel" of a type of epithermal thorium molten salt breeder reactor called the liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR). The large (expensive) breeding blanket of thorium salt was omitted in favor of neutron measurements.
While preparing enriched uranium fuel for use in the Jōyō experimental breeder reactor, a criticality occurred causing a criticality lasting 20 hours during which the nuclear fission chain reaction emitted intense gamma and neutron radiation. At least 667 workers, nearby residents and emergency response team members were exposed to excess radiation. Two technicians, Hisachi Ouchi and Masato Shinohara died from the accident. Radiation levels at the plant were 15,000 time higher than normal.
INL's Fuel Conditioning Facility uses electrolysis to separate certain components from used nuclear fuel rods. Unlike traditional aqueous reprocessing techniques, which dissolve the fuel rods in acid, "pyroprocessing" melts the rods and uses electricity to separate components such as uranium and sodium out of the mix. INL is using this technique to remove the sodium metal from Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) fuel rods so they can be safely stored in a national repository.
Robert Hurst, (3 January 1915 – 16 May 1996) was a New Zealand-born scientist. He was the first director of the experimental fast-breeder reactor complex at Dounreay, and later the director of the British Ship Research Association. During World War II he worked in bomb disposal and mine detection, and was awarded the George Medal for his work as part of the team that defused the first V-1 flying bomb found intact in Britain.
There is a potential for nuclear-powered Stirling engines in electric power generation plants. Replacing the steam turbines of nuclear power plants with Stirling engines might simplify the plant, yield greater efficiency, and reduce the radioactive byproducts. A number of breeder reactor designs use liquid sodium as coolant. If the heat is to be employed in a steam plant, a water/sodium heat exchanger is required, which raises some concern as sodium reacts violently with water.
At Atomics International, Koontz designed a pinhole gamma ray camera. He also developed techniques for measuring absolute thermal neutron flux using radioactive indium foils, and helped design and fabricate equipment to automate air and water sampling equipment and radiation activity measuring devices. Koontz was involved in the Clinch River Breeder Reactor project, where he was responsible for Atomics International's contract on the design of the radioactive waste and sodium disposal system. The project was cancelled in 1983.
Demonstration against nuclear tests in Lyon, France, in the 1980s. European Pressurised Reactor) protest in Toulouse, France. In 1971, 15,000 people demonstrated against French plans to locate the first light-water reactor power plant in Bugey. This was the first of a series of mass protests organized at nearly every planned nuclear site in France until the massive demonstration at the Superphénix breeder reactor in Creys-Malvillein in 1977 culminated in violence.Dorothy Nelkin and Michael Pollak (1982).
A cutaway model of the reactor. The core, that is the nuclear fuel at the heart of the reactor has dimensions of 2 meters in height by 0.75 meters in diameter, similar to the BN-800 reactor. Main building of Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station as seen from the Beloyarskoye Reservoir near Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Beloyarsk has the largest fast breeder reactor, the (BN-600), at 600 MW it is the most powerful breeder in the world.
In Koriyama, Fukushima, 16,000 people called for the end of nuclear power. In Shizuoka Prefecture, 1,100 people appealed for the scrapping of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant. In Tsuruga, Fukui, 1,200 people marched in the streets of the city of Tsuruga, the home of the Monju fast-breeder reactor prototype and other nuclear reactors. In Nagasaki and Hiroshima, anti-nuclear protesters and atomic-bomb survivors marched together and demanded that Japan should end its nuclear dependency.
Because the plant has ostensibly fallen behind on a major contract – fabricating MOX fuel rods for a breeder reactor at the Hanford Site – employees are required to work long hours and weekends of overtime. She believes that managers are falsifying safety reports and cutting corners wherever possible, risking the welfare of the personnel. Karen approaches the union with her concerns and becomes active in lobbying for safeguards. She travels to Washington, D.C. to testify before the Atomic Energy Commission.
The breeders were designed to create more fissile material than they consumed. By 1948, he had become convinced that it would be unwise to build large experimental reactors near Chicago, and the AEC acquired land around Arco, Idaho, which became an outpost of Argonne. The Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I, but known at Argonne as "ZIP" — Zinn's Infernal Pile) was the first reactor to be cooled by liquid metal, and the first to produce electricity. It proved the breeder concept.
The project was intended as a prototype and demonstration for building a class of such reactors, called Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactors (LMFBR), in the United States. The project was first authorized in 1970.Congressional Budget Office, Comparative Analysis of Alternative Financing Plans for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project, September 20, 1983 After initial appropriations were provided in 1972, work continued until the U.S. Congress terminated funding on October 26, 1983. The project was seen to be "unnecessary and wasteful".
Jay Boudreau, The American Breeder Reactor Program Gets a Second Chance, Los Alamos Science, vol 2, no 2, summer/fall 1981.Kurt Andersen, Gary Lee, and Peter Staler, Clinch River: a Breeder for Baker, Time, August 3, 1981 A Congressional committee investigation released in 1981 found evidence of contracting abuse, including bribery and fraud, that added to project costs. Before it was finally canceled in 1983, the General Accounting Office of the Congress estimated the total project cost at $8 billion.
He removed the initial problems and raised the reactor power in steps, after commissioning of all the systems. The reactor was connected to the grid and electricity was generated in July 1997 at 10 MW power. In September 2002 the indigenously designed and fabricated fuel reached a burn up of 100,000 MWd/t without any failure. In 1985, he was designated as the Head of Nuclear Systems Division and was responsible for the preliminary design of 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).
When the project for the subsequent full-scale power-plant prototype Superphénix was started in 1986, it was generally felt that no more experimental FBT prototypes were needed. Superphénix demonstrated very poor reliability and had a historical capacity factor less than 7%. Many of these problems were solved over time, and by 1996 the prototype was reaching its design operational goals. The Russian BN-600 reactor is a similar sodium- cooled fast breeder reactor, built at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station, in Russia.
It was renamed as Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) by the then Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi in December 1985. The centre is engaged in broad-based multidisciplinary programme of scientific research and advanced engineering directed towards the development of Fast Breeder Reactor technology, in India. The present Director of IGCAR is A. K. Bhaduri. He has taken over as Director with effect from 1 July 2016, following the superannuation of Dr. S. A. V. Satya Murty.
Cook mainly dealt with the development of new reactors. A number of types were developed, including the Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor (AGR) at Windscale, considered a natural successor to the Magnox reactors; the Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) at Dounreay; the high-temperature Dragon reactor at Winfrith. In addition, under the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, the Royal Navy received access to Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) technology used in US nuclear submarines. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1962.
Chen studied nuclear engineering at National Tsing Hua University and completed a doctorate in the subject at Iowa State University in 1983. His dissertation was titled Simulation of plenum thermo-hydraulics in a liquid metal fast breeder reactor under a buoyancy-affected condition. Chen worked for Argonne National Laboratory and General Electric before serving as president and chief executive officer of Macromicro Technology. He served on the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan between 2005 and 2008, as a representative of overseas Chinese affiliated with the Democratic Progressive Party.
The company continued to expand globally throughout the 1940s, particularly in the Middle East. In 1949, Bechtel began working with nuclear power after being contracted to build the Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Idaho. The company later built the United States' first privately financed commercial nuclear power plant, the Dresden Generating Station, for Commonwealth Edison in Illinois in 1957. Other major projects in the 1950s included the Trans Mountain Pipeline in 1952, an oil pipeline in Canada, and a preliminary study for the English Channel in 1959.
In the 1970s, there were many large and dramatic anti-nuclear protests and demonstrations in France. In 1971, 15,000 people demonstrated against French plans to locate the first light -water reactor power plant in Bugey. This was the first of a series of mass protests organized at nearly every planned nuclear site until the massive demonstration at the Superphénix breeder reactor in Creys-Malvillein in 1977 culminated in violence.Nelkin, Dorothy and Michael Pollak (1982). The Atom Besieged: Antinuclear Movements in France and Germany, ASIN: B0011LXE0A, p. 3.
On December 20 of that year, atomic energy was successfully harvested at EBR-1 for the first time. The following day, the reactor produced enough power to light the whole building. The power plant produced 200 kW of electricity out of 1.4 MW of heat generated by the reactor. Part of the core after the 1955 partial meltdown The design purpose of EBR-I was not to produce electricity but instead to validate nuclear physics theory that suggested that a breeder reactor should be possible.
In 1966, ETEC began as the Liquid Metals Engineering Center (LMEC). The LMEC was created by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to provide development and non-nuclear testing of liquid metal reactor components. The Liquid Metals Information Center (LMIC) was established at the same time by the AEC. The LMIC served as a technical information library relating to liquid metals and liquid metal components for the United States government. Both the LMEC and LMIC supported the United States Government’s Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor program.
A breeder reactor is not restricted to using recycled plutonium and uranium. It can employ all the actinides, closing the nuclear fuel cycle and potentially multiplying the energy extracted from natural uranium by about 60 times. Reprocessing must be highly controlled and carefully executed in advanced facilities by highly specialized personnel. Fuel bundles which arrive at the sites from nuclear power plants (after having cooled down for several years) are completely dissolved in chemical baths, which could pose contamination risks if not properly managed.
Fast neutron reactors use fast fission to produce energy, unlike most nuclear reactors. In a conventional reactor, a moderator is needed to slow down the neutrons so that they are more likely to fission atoms. A fast neutron reactor uses fast neutrons, so it does not use a moderator. Moderators may absorb a lot of neutrons in a thermal reactor, and fast fission produces a higher average number of neutrons per fission, so fast reactors have better neutron economy making a plutonium breeder reactor possible.
The BN-1200 reactor is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor project, under development by OKBM Afrikantov in Zarechny, Russia. The BN-1200 is based on the earlier BN-600 and especially BN-800, with which it shares a number of features. The reactor's name comes from its electrical output, nominally 1220 MWe. Originally part of an aggressive expansion plan including as many as eight BN-Reactors starting construction in 2012, plans for the BN-1200 were repeatedly scaled back until only two were ordered.
Walter Henry Zinn (December 10, 1906 – February 14, 2000) was an American nuclear physicist who was the first director of the Argonne National Laboratory from 1946 to 1956. He worked at the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory during World War II, and supervised the construction of Chicago Pile-1, the world's first nuclear reactor, which went critical on December 2, 1942, at the University of Chicago. At Argonne he designed and built several new reactors, including Experimental Breeder Reactor I, the first nuclear reactor to produce electric power, which went live on December 20, 1951.
Two were never operated; except for the Neutron Radiography Facility, all the other reactors were shut down by 2000. In the early afternoon of December 20, 1951, Argonne director Walter Zinn and fifteen other Argonne staff members witnessed a row of four light bulbs light up in a nondescript brick building in the eastern Idaho desert. Electricity from a generator connected to Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) flowed through them. This was the first time that a usable amount of electrical power had ever been generated from nuclear fission.
Unit 1 of the Higashidori plant is now scheduled to begin operating in December 2015, while unit 2 will start up in 2018 at the earliest. As of September 2008, Japanese ministries and agencies were seeking an increase in the 2009 budget by 6%. The total requested comes to 491.4 billion Japanese yen (US$4.6 billion), and the focuses of research are development of the fast breeder reactor cycle, next- generation light water reactors, the Iter project, and seismic safety.NucNet. Japan Budget Proposals Seek Increase In Nuclear Spending .
ASTRID (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration) was a proposal for a 600 MW sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor (Generation IV), proposed by the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA). It was to be built on the Marcoule Nuclear Site in France. It was the successor of the three French fast reactors Rapsodie, Phénix and Superphénix. The main goals of ASTRID were the multi-recycling of plutonium, aiming at preserving natural uranium resources, minor actinide transmutation, aiming at reducing nuclear waste, and an enhanced safety comparable to Generation III reactors, such as the EPR.
Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Idaho, USA. Sometimes the switch will have a flip cover to prevent inadvertent operation A scram or SCRAM, also known as AZ-5 (), is an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor effected by immediately terminating the fission reaction. It is also the name that is given to the manually operated kill switch that initiates the shutdown. In commercial reactor operations, this type of shutdown is often referred to as a "SCRAM" at boiling water reactors (BWR), a "reactor trip" at pressurized water reactors (PWR) and EPIS at a CANDU reactor.
Superphénix () or SPX was a nuclear power station prototype on the Rhône river at Creys-Malville in France, close to the border with Switzerland. Superphénix was a 1,242 MWe fast breeder reactor with the twin goals of reprocessing nuclear fuel from France's line of conventional nuclear reactors, while also being an economical generator of power on its own. Construction began in 1974 but suffered from a series of cost overruns, delays and enormous public protests. Construction was complete in 1981, but the plant was not connected to the grid until December 1986.
In June 1997, one of the first actions of Lionel Jospin on becoming Prime Minister was to announce the closure of the plant "because of its excessive costs". As Jospin's government included Green ministers, pro-nuclear critics argued that Jospin's decision was motivated by political motives. Superphénix was the last fast breeder reactor operating in Europe for electricity production. According to a 1996 report by the French Accounting Office (Cour des Comptes), the total expenditure on the reactor to date was estimated at 60 billion francs (9.1 billion euro).
Given the limited reserves of uranium ore known in the 1960s, and the rate that nuclear power was expected to take over baseload generation, through the 1960s and 1970s fast breeder reactors were considered to be the solution to the world's energy needs. Using twice-through processing, a fast breeder increases the energy capacity of known ore deposits by as much as 100 times, meaning that existing ore sources would last hundreds of years. The disadvantage to this approach is that the breeder reactor has to be fed expensive, highly-enriched fuel.
Aerial shot ~1979. PFR in centreground, DFR 'sphere' top right Dounreay Nuclear Power Development Establishment was formed in 1955 primarily to pursue the UK Government policy of developing civil fast breeder reactor (FBR) technology. The site was operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Three nuclear reactors were built there by the UKAEA, two of them FBRs plus a thermal research reactor used to test construction materials subject to high radiation levels for the programme, and also fabrication and reprocessing facilities for the materials test rigs and for fuel for the FBRs.
Despite its intention to close the Monju facility, the Cabinet appeared to reaffirm its commitment to a fast breeder program of some kind, essential if Japan's stockpile of some 50 tonnes of plutonium is to be disposed of. Jōyō is a test fast breeder reactor located in Ōarai, Ibaraki. The reactor was built in the 1970s for the purpose of experimental tests and the development of FBR technologies. The successor to Monju was expected to be a larger demonstration plant to be completed around 2025, built by the newly formed Mitsubishi FBR Systems company.
Diversification of the site was started in the 1970s with the creation of the Phénix prototype fast breeder reactor, which was operational until 2009, and is nowadays an important site for decommissioning nuclear facilities activities. the Phénix reactor was planned to be succeeded by the sodium-cooled fast reactor ASTRID (Advanced Sodium Technical Reactor for Industrial Demonstration), foreseen to become operational in the 2030s. However in 2019 the ASTRID project was closed. Since 1995, the MELOX factory has been producing MOX from a mix of uranium and plutonium oxides.
The LMEC and the LMIC were established within a western portion of Santa Susana Field Laboratory called Area IV. In 1978, the LMEC charter was expanded to include general energy-related technology and the center was renamed the Energy Technology Engineering Center. Research and development at ETEC primarily involved metallic sodium because the proposed Fast Breeder Reactor required liquid sodium to operate. Sodium was chosen because it has desirable heat transfer properties, a low operating pressure when compared to water, and sodium has a relatively low melting point.
Nuclear fuel assemblies being inspected before entering a pressurized water reactor in the United States. As opposed to light water reactors which use uranium-235 (0.7% of all natural uranium), fast breeder reactors use uranium-238 (99.3% of all natural uranium) or thorium. A number of fuel cycles and breeder reactor combinations are considered to be sustainable and/or renewable sources of energy. In 2006 it was estimated that with seawater extraction, there was likely some five billion years' worth of uranium-238 for use in breeder reactors.
Plutonium is fissionable with both fast and thermal neutrons, which make it ideal for either nuclear reactors or nuclear bombs. Most reactor designs in existence are thermal reactors and typically use water as a neutron moderator (moderator means that it slows down the neutron to a thermal speed) and as a coolant. But in a fast breeder reactor, some other kind of coolant is used which will not moderate or slow the neutrons down much. This enables fast neutrons to dominate, which can effectively be used to constantly replenish the fuel supply.
Of the eleven sites identified within the preferred geographic region, the DOE selected three sites in Tennessee for further study. In March 1987, after more than a year of legal action in the federal courts, the DOE submitted its final proposal to Congress for the construction of an MRS facility at the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Following considerable public pressure and threat of veto by the Governor of Tennessee, the 1987 amendments to the NWPA "annulled and revoked" MRS plans for all of the proposed sites.
Because of the high development cost of more than 160 millionBrochure of the German National Museum, Bonn Deutsche Mark and the lack of success in marketing, the project has been increasingly evaluated critically and compared with other unsuccessful research (Breeder reactor, Transrapid). Therefore, the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology waived the funding of the planned second phase of evolving into a commercial project. This decision stymied the commercial success because it denied a successor system on which potential customers could have relied. Continuity is an essential prerequisite for software development or applied industrial use.
A LFTR is usually designed as a breeder reactor: thorium goes in, fission products come out. Reactors that use the uranium-plutonium fuel cycle require fast reactors to sustain breeding, because only with fast moving neutrons does the fission process provide more than 2 neutrons per fission. With thorium, it is possible to breed using a thermal reactor. This was proven to work in the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, whose final fuel load bred slightly more fissile from thorium than it consumed, despite being a fairly standard light water reactor.
In the Snake River Plain, most of INL is high desert with scrub vegetation and a number of facilities scattered throughout the area; the average elevation of the complex is above sea level. INL is accessible by U.S. Route 20, and U.S. Route 26, but most of the area (except Experimental Breeder Reactor I) is restricted to authorized personnel and requires appropriate security clearance. The tiny town of Atomic City is on the INL's southern border, and the Craters of the Moon National Monument is to the southwest.
From 1969 to 1994, Argonne National Laboratory's EBR-II produced nearly half of the electricity needed for test site operations. In 1964, Experimental Breeder Reactor II and the nearby Fuel Conditioning Facility proved the concept of fuel recycling and passive safety characteristics. So-called "passive" safety includes systems that rely on natural physics laws such as gravity rather than systems that require mechanical or human intervention. In a landmark test on April 3, 1986, such systems in EBR-II demonstrated that nuclear power plants could be designed to be inherently safe from severe accidents.
Scientists speculated that, used in a breeder reactor, these materials would potentially provide limitless source of energy. American military requirements declined in the 1960s, and the government completed its uranium procurement program by the end of 1970. Simultaneously, a new market emerged: commercial nuclear power plants. In the U.S. this market virtually collapsed by the end of the 1970s as a result of industrial strains caused by the energy crisis, popular opposition, and finally the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979, all of which led to a de facto moratorium on the development of new nuclear reactor power stations.
Intermediate-energy neutrons have poorer fission/capture ratios than either fast or thermal neutrons for most fuels. An exception is the uranium-233 of the thorium cycle, which has a good fission/capture ratio at all neutron energies. Fast-neutron reactors use unmoderated fast neutrons to sustain the reaction and require the fuel to contain a higher concentration of fissile material relative to fertile material U-238. However, fast neutrons have a better fission/capture ratio for many nuclides, and each fast fission releases a larger number of neutrons, so a fast breeder reactor can potentially "breed" more fissile fuel than it consumes.
Mossad agents triggered explosions in April 1979 at a French production plant near Toulon, damaging two reactor cores destined for Iraqi reactors. Mossad agents may also have been behind the assassinations of an Egyptian nuclear engineer in Paris as well as two Iraqi engineers, all working for the Iraqi nuclear program. On June 7, 1981, Israel launched an air strike destroying the breeder reactor at Osirak, Iraq, in Operation Opera. Mossad may have also assassinated professor Gerald Bull, an artillery expert, who was leading the Project Babylon supergun for Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, which was capable of delivering a tactical nuclear payload..
After the Fast Flux Test Facility and the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) were decommissioned in 1992 and 1994, respectively, the United States was left with no fast-neutron reactor in its fleet. Fast-neutron research was limited to a few restricted reactors located in Russia, including the Bor-60. To address this problem Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act of 2017 included a provision directing the Department of Energy to begin planning for a fast- neutron source. Congress included $35 million in 2018 and $65 million in 2019 in the budget in support of this.
Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) construction in Kakrapur, Gujarat, during Basu's term as the secretary at the DEA. As the secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) between 2015 and 2018, Basu supported initiatives to accelerate the pace of nuclear power deployment in India. In May 2017, the Government of India gave its approval to DAE's plan for construction of 10 pressurized heavy-water reactors (PHWRs) and two pressurized water reactors (PWRs). In this period, the DAE took pm simultaneous construction of 21 reactors, with the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam being in advanced stages of commissioning.
Hurst returned to Cambridge after the war to complete his PhD in physical chemistry. In 1948 he joined the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, working first on the chemistry of plutonium, before heading a team that investigated the potential of different types of nuclear reactors. In 1957, he was appointed chief chemist at the Atomic Energy Authority Industrial Research and Development branch at Risley, Cheshire, and in 1958 he was named as the first director of the Dounreay experimental fast- breeder reactor complex. In 1963, Hurst left Dounreay to take up the directorship of the British Ship Research Association.
Another issue was the high cost of building and operating breeder reactors to produce electricity. In 1981, it was estimated that construction costs for a fast breeder reactor would be twice the cost of building a conventional light-water nuclear reactor of similar capacity. That same year it was estimated that the market price of mined, processed uranium, then $25 per pound, would have to increase to nearly $165 per pound in 1981 dollars before the breeder would become financially competitive with the conventional light-water nuclear reactor. United States electric utility companies were reluctant to invest in such an expensive technology.
A sample of thorium A Stage III reactor or an Advanced nuclear power system involves a self-sustaining series of thorium-232–uranium-233 fuelled reactors. This would be a thermal breeder reactor, which in principle can be refueled – after its initial fuel charge – using only naturally occurring thorium. According to the three-stage programme, Indian nuclear energy could grow to about 10 GW through PHWRs fueled by domestic uranium, and the growth above that would have to come from FBRs till about 50GW. The third stage is to be deployed only after this capacity has been achieved.
The dual fluid reactor (DFR) is a reactor concept of a private German research institute, the Institute for Solid-State Nuclear Physics. Combining the advantages of the molten salt reactor with those of the liquid metal cooled reactor, it is supposed to reach the criteria for reactors of the Generation IV International Forum. The fuel is a molten solution of actinide chloride salts, while the cooling is provided by molten lead in a separate loop. As a fast breeder reactor, the DFR can use both natural uranium and thorium to breed fissile material, as well as recycle High-level waste and plutonium.
Tritium is relatively expensive to produce because each triton produced requires production of at least one free neutron which is used to bombard a feedstock material (lithium-6, deuterium, or helium-3). Actually, because of losses and inefficiencies, the number of free neutrons needed is closer to two for each triton produced (and tritium begins decaying immediately, so there are losses during collection, storage, and transport from the production facility to the weapons in the field.) The production of free neutrons demands the operation of either a breeder reactor or a particle accelerator (with a spallation target) dedicated to the tritium production facility.
A breeder reactor produces more nuclear fuel than it consumes and thus can extend the uranium supply. It typically turns the dominant isotope in natural uranium, uranium-238, into fissile plutonium-239. This results in hundredfold increase in the amount of energy to be produced per mass unit of uranium, because U-238, which constitute 99.3% of natural uranium, is not used in conventional reactors which instead use U-235 which only represent 0.7% of natural uranium. In 1983, physicist Bernard Cohen proposed that the world supply of uranium is effectively inexhaustible, and could therefore be considered a form of renewable energy.
In June 2011 Generation mPower signed a letter of intent with the Tennessee Valley Authority for constructing up to six reactors at Clinch River Breeder Reactor site in Tennessee. Generation mPower planned to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for design certification by 2013. Babcock & Wilcox announced on February 20, 2013, that they had contracted with the Tennessee Valley Authority to apply for permits to build an mPower small modular reactor at TVA's Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In November 2012, mPower won a US Department of Energy funding competition for new Small modular reactor (SMR) designs.
Photo source: U.S. Department of Energy. The Fast Flux Test Facility at Hanford: In 1972, Ferguson joined the Richland Operations Office at Hanford in Washington State where he served as Director of Contracts and Assistant Manager for Projects. In 1973, he formed the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) Project Office and assumed total responsibility for the Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory's breeder reactor program and construction of the FFTF experimental fast neutron reactor. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Programs: In 1978, Ferguson was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy by the first Secretary of Energy, James R. Schlesinger.
Reprocessing Development Laboratory was designed in early seventies and the commissioning of inactive facilities was carried out in 1976. The plutonium handling facilities were cleared for operation in 1980. The reprocessing of irradiated thorium rods which was carried out during the period 1989 to 1992 in the concrete shielded cells, was the first major radioactive operation. The U-233 recovered during the operation was used in fabricating the fuel for the KAlpakkam MINI reactor (KAMINI). U-233 was also useful for the fuel development programme for carrying out the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor test fuel irradiation experiments in Fast Breeder Test Reactor.
Currently, the Board consists of a full-time Chairman, an ex officio Member, three part-time Members and a Secretary. AERB is supported by the Safety Review Committee for Operating Plants (SARCOP), Safety Review Committee for Applications of Radiation (SARCAR) and Advisory Committees for Project Safety Review (ACPSRs) (e.g. Pressurized heavy-water reactor, light water reactor, Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor and waste management projects). ACPSRs recommend to AERB issuance of authorisations at different stages of a plant of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), after reviewing the submissions made by the plant authorities based on the recommendations of the associated Design Safety Committees.
Test synopsis: The destruction of BORAX-I caused the "aerial distribution of contaminants resulting from the final experiment of the BORAX-I reactor" and the likely contamination of the topmost 1 foot of soil over about 2 acres in the vicinity. The site needed to be cleaned up prior to being used for subsequent experiments. The 84,000-square foot (7,800 m2) area was covered with 6 inches of gravel in 1954, but grass, sagebrush, and other plants reseeded the area since then. The BORAX-I burial ground is located about northwest of the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1, a publicly accessible national monument.
On April 23, 2007, the FBI received a lead regarding Hahn's alleged possession of a second breeder reactor in his freezer. Contacted via telephone, Hahn insisted that he was not in possession of radioactive material. The FBI decided no imminent terrorist threat was present but decided to attempt a personal interview. During an interview at an FBI office on May 16, 2007, investigators asked Hahn about flyers that he had distributed promoting his book and upcoming film; theft of tires and rims from a vehicle prior to his Navy service; a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia; and, a few less significant topics.
The original emphasis in the design and operation of EBR-II was to demonstrate a complete breeder-reactor power plant with on-site reprocessing of solid metallic fuel. Fuel elements enriched to about 67% 235-U were sealed in stainless steel tubes and removed when they reached about 65% enrichment. The tubes were unsealed and reprocessed to remove neutron poisons, mixed with fresh 235-U to increase enrichment, and placed back in the reactor. Testing of the original breeder cycle ran until 1969, after which time the reactor was used to test concepts for the Integral Fast Reactor concept.
Dr. Clifford Dalton (1916-1961) was a New Zealand nuclear scientist and inventor of the fast breeder reactor. During the Second World War in 1942 he married scientist and author Catherine Graves (daughter of the writer Robert Graves) at Aldershot Register Office in Manor Park. Peter J. Conradi, A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London (2012) - Google Books pg 145 In 1947, he joined the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell in England. They subsequently emigrated to Australia, where he worked as Engineer-In-Chief of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission. Family.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited commented in its annual report for 2011 that its biggest challenge is to address public and policymaker perceptions about the safety of nuclear power, particularly after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan. In 2011, India had 18 pressurized heavy water reactors in operation, with another four projects launched totalling 2.8 GW capacity. India is in the process of launching its first prototype fast breeder reactor using plutonium-based fuel obtained by reprocessing the spent fuel of first-stage reactors. The prototype reactor is located in Tamil Nadu and has a capacity of 500MW.
His initiatives in these areas are driven by a vision of achieving energy independence through the deployment of advanced nuclear energy systems that may be located close to population centres in our densely populated country. Dr. Sinha has overseen the launch of various important projects of the Department of Atomic Energy including the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is under advanced stages of construction in Kalpakkam, India. The foundation stone of the 2800 Megawatt Gorakhpur Nuclear Power Plant or the Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana (GHAVP) was laid in January 2014.
The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) replaced the Manhattan Project on January 1, 1947, and on January 1, 1948 it announced that the Argonne National Laboratory would be "focused chiefly on problems of reactor development." Zinn did not seek the additional responsibility, which he realised would divert the Laboratory away from research, and divert him from other responsibilities, such as designing a fast breeder reactor. He even obtained a written assurance from Carroll L. Wilson, the AEC's general manager, that it would not. He was therefore willing to collaborate with Alvin Weinberg to allow the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to remain involved in reactor design.
Zirconium crystal bar and cube During his early years at the DAE, Sundaram was in charge of the production of zirconium, beryllium, titanium, tantalum and other refractory metals and he contributed to the establishment of a production facility at Nuclear Fuel Complex which produced zirconium sponge, niobium and tantalum metal products. He oversaw the project from research to production, including the setting up of a pilot plant. Later, when he moved to IGCAR, he took over the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) project and it was during his tenancy as the director, the reactor reached criticality, in 1985. Subsequently, he guided the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor project until his retirement.
" Furthermore, he said the project would have little value for determining the commercial viability of breeder technology in the United States.Veto of Department of Energy Authorization Bill Message to the Senate Returning S. 1811 Without Approval, November 5th, 1977 Congress persisted in keeping the Clinch River project alive over the President's objections, and Carter repeatedly chastised Congress for its actions. In a speech in 1979, after the House Science and Technology Committee had voted to proceed with the project over his opposition, he said "The Clinch River breeder reactor is a technological dinosaur. It's a waste of more than $1-1/2 billion of taxpayers' money.
TerraPower has chosen traveling wave reactors (TWRs) as its primary technology. The major benefit of such reactors is high fuel utilization in a manner that does not require nuclear reprocessing and could eventually eliminate the need to enrich uranium. TWRs are designed to convert typically non-fissile fertile nuclides such as U-238 into fissile nuclides like Pu-239 in-situ and then shift the power from the highly burned region to the freshly bred region, as an integrated breeder reactor. This allows the benefits of a closed fuel cycle without the expense and proliferation-risk of enrichment and reprocessing plants typically required to get them.
It first reached criticality in October 1985, making India the seventh nation to have the technology to build and operate a breeder reactor after United States, UK, France, Japan, Germany, and Russia. The reactor was designed to produce 40 MW of thermal power and 13.2 MW of electrical power. The FBTR has rarely operated at its designed capacity and had to be shut down between 1987 and 1989 due to technical problems. From 1989 to 1992, the reactor operated at 1 MW. In 1993, the reactor's power level was raised to 10.5 MW. The initial nuclear fuel core used in the FBTR consisted of approximately 50 kg of weapons-grade plutonium.
The power plant was located in Aktau (formerly known as Shevchenko in 1964–1992), Kazakhstan, on the shore of the Caspian Sea. Construction of the BN-350 fast breeder reactor began in 1964, and the plant first produced electricity in 1973. In addition to providing power for the city (135 MWe), BN-350 was also used for producing plutonium and for desalination to supply fresh water (120,000 m³ fresh water/day) to the city. The project lifetime of the reactor officially finished in 1993, and in June 1994, the reactor was forced to shut down because of a lack of funds to buy fuel.
Aurora powerhouse The Aurora powerhouse is an advanced fission plant concept design that received a site use permit for testing in 2020 from the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The site use permit, issued in December 2019 is not an Nuclear Regulatory Commission permit. It is the "first and only permit ever issued in the U.S. to a nuclear plant using something other than a light water ("water-cooled") reactor". It will use "recycled" high-assay, low- enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel originally fabricated for the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II), and if fully operational, would become "the first fuel-recycling commercial reactor in the United States".
HTRE-3. As part of the AEC/USAF ANP program, in 1956 modified General Electric J47s were first operated on nuclear power using a reactor test assembly known as Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment 1 (HTRE-1). HTRE-1, which used vertically- oriented control rods, was reconfigured with a removable core to become HTRE-2 for additional testing. HTRE-3 was built separately to test horizontally- oriented control rods as appropriate for use in an airframe. The decommissioned HTRE-2 and HTRE-3 reactors and test assemblies can be viewed by the public in the Experimental Breeder Reactor I parking lot at Idaho National Laboratory.
Suzuki (born 1942) was an authority on the nuclear fuel cycle, and became President of the JAEA in August 2010. Before this he was a professor at the University of Tokyo and the chairman of the former Nuclear Safety Commission. Yonezo Tsujikura, vice president of the JAEA, served as acting president until a successor was chosen.The Mainichi Shimbun (17 May 2013) Head of operator of trouble-plagued fast-breeder reactor resigns At the end of the fiscal year 2011, a budget of was requested to continue the Monju project. This money would cover the costs of maintenance and the costs of the test run, planned in the summer of 2012.
The twelve-minute film shows the remains of the "V Site" where the first atomic bomb was assembled. Nuclear Pioneers: The 28-minute documentary film on the Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) tells the story of the first nuclear reactor built by the Atomic Energy Commission. With first-hand accounts from scientists and engineers, the film explores the challenges of creating the world's first reactor to produce usable quantities of electricity and "breed" more fuel than it consumed. Completed in 1951, the EBR-I paved the way for future generations of "peaceful" reactors and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1966 by President Johnson.
Certain fast breeder reactor designs may be more susceptible to meltdown than other reactor types, due to their larger quantity of fissile material and the higher neutron flux inside the reactor core. Other reactor designs, such as Integral Fast Reactor model EBR II,Integral fast reactor had been explicitly engineered to be meltdown-immune. It was tested in April 1986, just before the Chernobyl failure, to simulate loss of coolant pumping power, by switching off the power to the primary pumps. As designed, it shut itself down, in about 300 seconds, as soon as the temperature rose to a point designed as higher than proper operation would require.
During its construction, a total of 3.8 lakh (380,000) railway sleeper (logs) were brought from all over India to lift the 180 ton critical equipment in the first unit, due to lack of proper infrastructure and handling equipment. the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) was in its final construction stage, and was expected to reach criticality in March 2017 with 500 MW of electricity production. The following month the loading of the 1750 ton liquid sodium coolant were expected to happen in four to five months, with sources in the Department of Atomic Energy reporting that criticality would likely be reached only around May 2017.
Hahn was a Boy Scout fascinated by chemistry, and spent years conducting amateur chemistry experiments, which sometimes caused small explosions and other mishaps. He was inspired in part by reading The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, and tried to collect samples of every element in the periodic table, including the radioactive ones. He later received a merit badge in Atomic Energy and became fascinated with the idea of creating a breeder reactor in his home. Hahn diligently amassed radioactive material by collecting small amounts from household products, such as americium from smoke detectors, thorium from camping lantern mantles, radium from clocks, and tritium from gunsights.
His "reactor" was a bored-out block of lead, and he used lithium from $1,000 worth of purchased batteries to purify the thorium ash using a Bunsen burner. Hahn posed as an adult scientist or high school teacher to gain the trust of many professionals in letters—and succeeded, despite misspellings and obvious errors. Hahn ultimately hoped to create a breeder reactor, using low-level isotopes to transform samples of thorium and uranium into fissionable isotopes. His homemade neutron source was often incorrectly referred to as a reactor, but it did end up emitting dangerous levels of radiation, likely well over 1,000 times normal background radiation.
A Scav participant wearing a suit of armor made of sponges during the 2010 hunt Scav Hunt was founded in 1987 by Chris Straus, who organized the list and judged items collected by other residents of Hitchcock house, with Cassie Scharff, Diane Kelly, and Nolan McCarty. Perhaps the most notable item that has yet been completed was from the 1999 list; a breeder reactor in a shed was successfully built in front of Ida Noyes Hall. The item itself was a joke referring to the "Radioactive Boy Scout" David Hahn. The students irradiated thorium with thermal neutrons and observed traces of uranium and plutonium.
A fast-neutron reactor, meaning one with little or no neutron moderator and hence utilising fast neutrons, can be configured as a breeder reactor, producing more fissile material than it consumes, using fertile material in a blanket around the core, or contained in special fuel rods. Since plutonium-238, plutonium-240 and plutonium-242 are fertile, accumulation of these and other nonfissile isotopes is less of a problem than in thermal reactors, which cannot burn them efficiently. Breeder reactors using thermal-spectrum neutrons are only practical if the thorium fuel cycle is used, as uranium-233 fissions far more reliably with thermal neutrons than plutonium-239.
The nuclear fission properties of berkelium are different from those of the neighboring actinides curium and californium, and they suggest berkelium to perform poorly as a fuel in a nuclear reactor. Specifically, berkelium-249 has a moderately large neutron capture cross section of 710 barns for thermal neutrons, 1200 barns resonance integral, but very low fission cross section for thermal neutrons. In a thermal reactor, much of it will therefore be converted to berkelium-250 which quickly decays to californium-250.G. Pfennig, H. Klewe-Nebenius, W. Seelmann Eggebert (Eds.): Karlsruhe nuclide, 7 Edition, 2006 In principle, berkelium-249 can sustain a nuclear chain reaction in a fast breeder reactor.
Georges Vendryes (1920 – 16 September 2014) was a French physicist who played a significant role in the French nuclear industry and is considered the "father" of fast breeder reactor technology, for which he received the Enrico Fermi Prize and Japan Prize. Vendryes studied at the École Polytechnique and the École des Ponts et Chaussées and received his doctorate in nuclear physics at the Sorbonne. From 1948 he was employed by the French nuclear research authority CEA, where he made his first experiments under Frédéric Joliot- Curie. At the CEA he worked on neutron transport experiments and research and development of different type of reactors including controlled thermonuclear fusion.
The first four bulbs lit by electricity from nuclear power hung near the generator on the second floor of EBR-I In the early afternoon of December 20, 1951, Argonne National Laboratory scientist Walter Zinn and a small crew of assistants witnessed a row of four light bulbs light up in a nondescript brick building in the eastern Idaho desert. Electricity from a generator connected to Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) flowed through them. This was the first time that a usable amount of electrical power had ever been generated from nuclear fission. Only days afterward, the reactor produced all the electricity needed for the entire EBR complex.
For ten years, Nissim, believing that fast breeder reactor "can explode with their fast neutrons","les surgénérateurs comme Creys-Malville, qui, avec leurs neutrons rapides, peuvent faire explosion" did everything he could to stop the construction of the Superphénix nuclear plant, including training himself for underground guerilla, notably sabotaging electricity pylons with explosives. On 18 January 1982, Nissim fired five rockets on the Superphénix nuclear plant, then under construction. Five rocket-propelled grenades were launched at the incomplete containment building – two hit and caused damage, missing the reactor's empty core. The weapon, a RPG-7, was obtained from the Red Army Faction through Carlos the Jackal and the Belgian Cellules Communistes Combattantes.
MSRE plant diagram: (1) Reactor vessel, (2) Heat exchanger, (3) Fuel pump, (4) Freeze flange, (5) Thermal shield, (6) Coolant pump, (7) Radiator, (8) Coolant drain tank, (9) Fans, (10) Fuel drain tanks, (11) Flush tank, (12) Containment vessel, (13) Freeze valve. Also note Control area in upper left and Chimney upper right. The Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) was an experimental molten salt reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researching this technology through the 1960s; constructed by 1964, it went critical in 1965 and was operated until 1969. The MSRE was a 7.4 MWth test reactor simulating the neutronic "kernel" of a type of inherently safer epithermal thorium breeder reactor called the liquid fluoride thorium reactor.
He even dressed as if he were living in that decade. Later on, Hammerhead's entire skull was replaced with or reinforced with some type of nearly unbreakable metal (possibly vibranium or secondary adamantium). A gang war broke out between Hammerhead's mob and Doctor Octopus's criminal organization. Hammerhead was forced to flee the country due to Spider-Man's interference.The Amazing Spider-Man #113-115 He later had a rematch with Doctor Octopus next to an atomic breeder reactor on a remote Canadian island which caused a chain reaction, blasting Hammerhead "out of phase" with this dimension.The Amazing Spider-Man #130-131 Some time later, he appeared as an immaterial ghost-like being to haunt Doctor Octopus.
He continued to work with Fermi and Wigner on nuclear reactor design, and is credited with coining the term "breeder reactor". With an enduring passion for the preservation of human life and political freedom, Szilard hoped that the U.S. government would not use nuclear weapons, but that the mere threat of such weapons would force Germany and Japan to surrender. He also worried about the long-term implications of nuclear weapons, predicting that their use by the United States would start a nuclear arms race with the USSR. He drafted the Szilárd petition advocating that the atomic bomb be demonstrated to the enemy, and used only if the enemy did not then surrender.
Patel, page 23 Meanwhile, the laboratory was also helping to design the reactor for the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus, which steamed for more than 513,550 nautical miles (951,090 km). The next nuclear reactor model was Experimental Boiling Water Reactor, the forerunner of many modern nuclear plants, and Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II), which was sodium-cooled, and included a fuel recycling facility. EBR-II was later modified to test other reactor designs, including a fast-neutron reactor and, in 1982, the Integral Fast Reactor concept—a revolutionary design that reprocessed its own fuel, reduced its atomic waste and withstood safety tests of the same failures that triggered the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island disasters.
David Charles Hahn (October 30, 1976 – September 27, 2016), sometimes called the "Radioactive Boy Scout" or the "Nuclear Boy Scout", was an American man who built a homemade neutron source at the age of seventeen. A scout in the Boy Scouts of America, Hahn conducted his experiments in secret in a backyard shed at his mother's house in Commerce Township, Michigan. Hahn's goal was to build and demonstrate a homemade breeder reactor. While he never actually managed to build a reactor (what he built was a neutron source), Hahn's progress attracted the attention of local police when they found material in his vehicle that troubled them during a stop for a separate matter.
The first electrical power was produced on December 18, 1957 as engineers synchronized the plant with the distribution grid of Duquesne Light Company. The first core used at Shippingport originated from a cancelled nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and used highly enriched uranium (93% U-235) as "seed" fuel surrounded by a "blanket" of natural U-238, in a so-called seed-and-blanket design; in the first reactor about half the power came from the seed.J. C. Clayton, "The Shippingport Pressurized Water Reactor and Light Water Breeder Reactor", Westinghouse Report WAPD-T-3007, 1993 The first Shippingport core reactor turned out to be capable of an output of 60 MWe one month after its launch.
France had considered the problem of plutonium production just after the end of World War II. At the time, the conventional solution to this problem was to use a graphite moderated air or water cooled reactor fueled with natural uranium. Such designs have little economic value in terms of power production, but are simple solutions to the problem of "breeding" plutonium fuel, which can then be separated from the original uranium fuel with chemical processing. It had long been known that another solution to the breeder reactor design was to replace the graphite with liquid sodium metal. The graphite is used as a moderator, slowing the neutrons released in the nuclear reactions to a speed that makes other uranium atoms receptive to them.
India published about twice the number of papers on thorium as its nearest competitors, during each of the years from 2002 to 2006. The Indian nuclear establishment estimates that the country could produce 500 GWe for at least four centuries using just the country's economically extractable thorium reserves. , India's first Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor had been delayed – with first criticality expected in 2015 – and India continued to import thousands of tonnes of uranium from Russia, Kazakhstan, France, and Uzbekistan. The 2005 Indo–US Nuclear Deal and the NSG waiver, which ended more than three decades of international isolation of the Indian civil nuclear programme, have created many hitherto unexplored alternatives for the success of the three-stage nuclear power programme.
The goals of the IFR project were to increase the efficiency of uranium usage by breeding plutonium and eliminating the need for transuranic isotopes ever to leave the site. The reactor was an unmoderated design running on fast neutrons, designed to allow any transuranic isotope to be consumed (and in some cases used as fuel). Compared to current light-water reactors with a once-through fuel cycle that induces fission (and derives energy) from less than 1% of the uranium found in nature, a breeder reactor like the IFR has a very efficient (99.5% of uranium undergoes fission) fuel cycle. The basic scheme used pyroelectric separation, a common method in other metallurgical processes, to remove transuranics and actinides from the wastes and concentrate them.
On July 1, 1946, the "Metallurgical Laboratory" was formally re-chartered as Argonne National Laboratory for "cooperative research in nucleonics." At the request of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, it began developing nuclear reactors for the nation's peaceful nuclear energy program. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the laboratory moved to a larger location in unincorporated DuPage County, Illinois and established a remote location in Idaho, called "Argonne-West," to conduct further nuclear research. In quick succession, the laboratory designed and built Chicago Pile 3 (1944), the world's first heavy-water moderated reactor, and the Experimental Breeder Reactor I (Chicago Pile 4), built-in Idaho, which lit a string of four light bulbs with the world's first nuclear- generated electricity in 1951.
His major ambition while there was to build a "nuclear Stonehenge" on a heavily contaminated area of land in the site, incorporating twelve uranium breeder- blanket assemblies. Acord was the only private individual in the world licensed to own and handle radioactive materials, and acquired nuclear fuel rods containing depleted uranium from the completed but not operated German SNR-300 breeder reactor to use as artistic materials. He had his nuclear license number tattooed onto his neck. He spoke on art and nuclear science at both artJames Acord at "The Influencers" conference, February 4th, 2010 (Barcelona, Spain) and nuclear industry events in the US and the UK and organised many forums that brought together artists, activists and nuclear industry experts.
Their study noted that the hybrid would produce most of its energy indirectly, both through the fission events in its own reactor, and much more by providing Pu-239 to fuel conventional fission reactors. In this overall picture, the hybrid is essentially identical to the breeder reactor, which uses fast neutrons from plutonium fission to breed more fuel in a fission blanket in largely the same fashion as the hybrid. Both require chemical processing to remove the bred Pu-239, both presented the same proliferation and safety risks as a result, and both produced about the same amount of fuel. Since that fuel is the primary source of energy in the overall cycle, the two systems were almost identical in the end.
"History of Argonne Reactor Operations", p. 6. With Albert Wattenberg, Lichtenberger designed and tested the first pressurized heavy-water reactor, Chicago Pile-3, and with Walter Zinn performed a number of other reactor experiments at the Argonne National Laboratory, including the first breeder reactor, EBR-1, and the boiling water reactor BORAX-III, the first reactor to supply power to an entire city (Arco, Idaho, in 1955 with 500 kW). He became director of the Idaho Division of the Metallurgical Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, where new reactors were tested. In 1954, Lichtenberger was also in charge of experiments at the proving ground in Idaho in which experimental reactors were systematically taken beyond criticality and caused to explode by manipulation of the control rods.
The reactor would have been rated at 1000 megawatts (MW) of thermal output, with a net plant output of 350 MW (electrical) and a gross output of 380 MW.Nuclear Power Reactor Details - Clinch River, International Atomic Energy AgencyL. E. Strawbridge (Westinghouse Advanced Reactors Division), Safety Related Criteria and Design Features in the Clinch River breeder Reactor Plant, presented at American Nuclear Society Fast Reactor Safety Meeting, April 2–4, 1974 The reactor core was designed to contain 198 hexagonal fuel assemblies, arranged to form a cylindrical geometry with two enrichment zones. The inner core would have contained 18% plutonium and would have consisted of 108 assemblies. It would have been surrounded by the outer zone, which would have consisted of 90 assemblies of 24% plutonium to promote more uniform heat generation.
Lithium fluoride, when highly enriched in the lithium-7 isotope, forms the basic constituent of the fluoride salt mixture LiF-BeF2 used in liquid fluoride nuclear reactors. Lithium fluoride is exceptionally chemically stable and LiF-BeF2 mixtures have low melting points. In addition, 7Li, Be, and F are among the few nuclides with low enough thermal neutron capture cross-sections not to poison the fission reactions inside a nuclear fission reactor.Beryllium and fluorine occur only as one isotope, 9Be and 19F respectively. These two, together with 7Li, as well as 2H, 11B, 15N, 209Bi, and the stable isotopes of C, and O, are the only nuclides with low enough thermal neutron capture cross sections aside from actinides to serve as major constituents of a molten salt breeder reactor fuel.
Therefore, President Carter's dramatic changes in U.S. nuclear energy policy to discontinue reprocessing spent nuclear fuel and terminate the U.S. Breeder Reactor Program, a program Ferguson himself had worked on and believed in, were abrupt and difficult for most countries to understand. Carter hoped that in setting this example, the U.S. would encourage other nations to follow its lead. Most nations went ahead with reprocessing and breeder development until high costs and loss of political support delayed plans in nuclear projects around the world. Other major events that marked Ferguson's service at DOE were the gasoline shortages during the 1979 energy crisis caused by oil embargoes leveled at the United States during political upheaval in Iran, and the Three Mile Island accident at the nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania on March 28, 1979.
The first nuclear reactor capable of producing usable amounts of electricity was Experimental Breeder Reactor I, which lit up four light bulbs on December 20, 1951. This historical milestone is one of many captured in the Race for Atomic Power exhibit that opened on May 24, 2005 at the EBR-I. Upon entering the EBR-I, visitors can relax in a 1950s living room and watch TV. Clips from the 1950s as well as Nuclear Pioneers, a brief history of the EBR-I produced by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. Throughout the exhibit are kiosks with video recordings of the veterans explaining aspects of the reactor’s operations. In the control room, Kirby Whitham explains when the misunderstanding of the command, “Take it down,” resulted in a partial meltdown of the reactor core.
When discovered on the eve of World War II, this insight led multiple countries to begin programs investigating the possibility of constructing an atomic bomb — a weapon which utilized fission reactions to generate far more energy than could be created with chemical explosives. The Manhattan Project, run by the United States with the help of the United Kingdom and Canada, developed multiple fission weapons which were used against Japan in 1945 at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During the project, the first fission reactors were developed as well, though they were primarily for weapons manufacture and did not generate electricity. In 1951, the first nuclear fission power plant was the first to produce electricity at the Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1 (EBR-1), in Arco, Idaho, ushering in the "Atomic Age" of more intensive human energy use.
In a thermal neutron spectrum, the concentrations of several heavy actinides (curium-242 and plutonium-240) can become quite high, creating fuel that is substantially different from the usual uranium or mixed uranium-plutonium oxides (MOX) that most current reactors were designed to use. Another pyrochemical process, the PYRO-B process, has been developed for the processing and recycling of fuel from a transmuter reactor ( a fast breeder reactor designed to convert transuranic nuclear waste into fission products ). A typical transmuter fuel is free from uranium and contains recovered transuranics in an inert matrix such as metallic zirconium. In the PYRO-B processing of such fuel, an electrorefining step is used to separate the residual transuranic elements from the fission products and recycle the transuranics to the reactor for fissioning.
Instead, bombarding 238U with slow neutrons causes it to absorb them (becoming 239U) and decay by beta emission to 239Np which then decays again by the same process to 239Pu; that process is used to manufacture 239Pu in breeder reactors. In-situ plutonium production also contributes to the neutron chain reaction in other types of reactors after sufficient plutonium-239 has been produced, since plutonium-239 is also a fissile element which serves as fuel. It is estimated that up to half of the power produced by a standard "non-breeder" reactor is produced by the fission of plutonium-239 produced in place, over the total life-cycle of a fuel load. Fissionable, non-fissile isotopes can be used as fission energy source even without a chain reaction.
His work for the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was mainly concerned with the physical and mechanical metallurgy aspects (deformation, fracture, stress corrosion cracking and low cycle fatigue) of AISI 304, 304 LN, 316 and 316 LN austenitic stainless steels and an improved grade D9, all construction materials for the Fast Breeder Reactor program. He was a consultant to the R & D Centre for Iron and Steel, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), when they produced for the first time in the country both Extra Deep Drawing (EDD) and Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) grades of steel. He was a consultant to Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (now known as Tata Motors) when they introduced the micro-alloyed ferrite - pearlite steel (first generation), 49MnVS3, for the first time in India for the forging of crankshafts.
It improved upon the work of the X-10 reactor, producing more medical isotopes, as well as allowing higher fidelity of materials research. Researchers in the Biology Division studied the effects of chemicals on mice, including petrol fumes, pesticides, and tobacco. In the late 1960s, cuts in funding led to the cancellation of plans for another particle accelerator, and the United States Atomic Energy Commission cut the breeder reactor program by two-thirds, leading to a downsizing in staff from 5000 to 3800. The inside of ORMAK, an early tokamak, was gold plated for reflectivity In the 1970s, the prospect of fusion power was strongly considered, sparking research at ORNL. A tokamak called ORMAK, made operational in 1971, was the first tokamak to achieve a plasma temperature of 20 million Kelvin.
Nonetheless, reactor research accounted for almost half the laboratory's budget in 1949, and 84 percent of its research was classified. Zinn did not get along well with Captain Hyman G. Rickover, the US Navy's Director of Naval Reactors, but nonetheless Argonne assisted in the development of nuclear marine propulsion, eventually producing two reactors, a land-based prototype Mark I and a propulsion reactor, the Mark II. The STR (Submarine Thermal Reactor) pressurized water reactor designed at Argonne powered the first nuclear- powered submarine, , and became the basis of nearly all the reactors installed in warships. The other branch of reactor development at the Argonne National Laboratory, and the one closer to Zinn's heart, was the fast breeder reactor. At the time it was believed that uranium was a scarce resource, so it would be wise to make the best use of it.
In 1965 he was appointed vice president of Union Carbide's Nuclear Division. In a 1971 paper, Weinberg first used the term "Faustian bargain" to describe nuclear energy: Weinberg was fired by the Nixon administration from ORNL in 1973 after 18 years as the laboratory's director, because he continued to advocate increased nuclear safety and molten salt reactors (MSRs), instead of the Administration's chosen Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) that the AEC's Director of Reactor Division, Milton Shaw, was appointed to develop. Weinberg's firing effectively halted development of the MSR, as it was virtually unknown by other nuclear laboratories and specialists. There was a brief revival of MSR research at ORNL as part of the Carter administration's nonproliferation interests, culminating in ORNL-TM-7207, "Conceptual Design Characteristics of a Denatured Molten-Salt Reactor with Once-Through Fueling", by Engel, et al.
The Story of the Borax Nuclear Reactor and the EBR-I Meltdown — Ray Haroldsen Although EBR-I produced the first electricity available in-house, a nearby experimental boiling water reactor plant called BORAX-III (also designed, built, and operated by Argonne National Laboratory) was connected to external loads, powering the nearby city of Arco, Idaho in 1955, the first time a city had been powered solely by nuclear power. Besides generating the world's first electricity from atomic energy, EBR-I was also the world's first breeder reactor and the first to use plutonium fuel to generate electricity (see also the Clementine nuclear reactor). EBR-1's initial purpose was to prove Enrico Fermi's fuel breeding principle, a principle that showed a nuclear reactor producing more fuel atoms than consumed. Along with generating electricity, EBR-1 would also prove this principle.
In September 2011 the ministry of education, science and technology asked for the fiscal year of 2012 only 20 to 30 percent of the budget to maintain and manage the Monju reactor for the year 2011. The uncertainty about Japan's future energy policy caused the ministry to conclude that the project could not proceed.JAIF (26 September 2011) Earth-quake-report 217: Japan to freeze fast-breeder reactor project The test run of the reactor, in which the reactor's output would be raised to 40 percent of its capacity by the end of March 2012, was postponed on September 29, 2011, by the Japanese Government because the uncertainty over the future of nuclear energy. After the disaster in Fukushima, the Atomic Energy Commission of Japan made a start with a review of Japan's long term energy policy.
Because the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant and the Monju fast breeder reactor could also be affected by a possible earthquake caused by the Urazoko fault.The Mainichi Shimbun (7 March 2012) Quake severity estimate for Tsuruga nuclear plant to be reassessed On 17 July 2013 a commission of five experts led by NRA commissioner Kunihiko Shimazaki started the investigations on the geological activity of 8 zones of crushed rock under the reactor. Whether these old faults could move in conjunction with the active fault situated half a kilometer from the reactor site, and would constitute a hazard for the reactor safety. One of the experts, Chiba University professor Takahiro Miyauchi,The Mainichi Shimbun (19 July 2013) Govt's nuclear fuel cycle policy teeters on edge as onsite Monju inspection completed did not take part in the two-day survey, but would visit the site afterwards.
In 1975, the company had been selected to construct the Clinch River Breeder Reactor. However, increasing public opposition to the construction of nuclear plants, lengthy delays brought by challenges before public utility commissions, and corresponding increases in plant construction costs, capped by the incident at Three Mile Island in 1979, brought about a moratorium on the construction of large nuclear plants and the cancellation of many existing orders. The company began to respond to these challenges during the remainder of the 1970s and into the early 1980s. Stone & Webster met its clients' reluctance to build by improving engineering and construction efficiencies through the use of computer-assisted design and innovative working agreements with contractors and the building trades unions, as well as by providing services that kept plants operating safely, efficiently, and for a longer time than originally intended.
Retrieved 10 December 2011. As an alternative to electrowinning, the wanted metal can be isolated by using a molten alloy of an electropositive metal and a less reactive metal.Ionic Liquids/Molten Salts and Lanthanides/Actinides Reference List. Merck.de. Retrieved 10 December 2011. Since the majority of the long term radioactivity, and volume, of spent fuel comes from actinides, removing the actinides produces waste that is more compact, and not nearly as dangerous over the long term. The radioactivity of this waste will then drop to the level of various naturally occurring minerals and ores within a few hundred, rather than thousands of, years. The mixed actinides produced by pyrometallic processing can be used again as nuclear fuel, as they are virtually all either fissile, or fertile, though many of these materials would require a fast breeder reactor in order to be burned efficiently.
During the time that AESD was active, the Large site also housed the Westinghouse Fusion Power Systems Department (FPSD), which had a role in development and startup of the Tokamak Reactor at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in 1982. Along with the Advanced Coal Conversion Department (ACCD) and Advanced Reactors Division (ARD), AESD and FPSD constituted the Company's Advanced Power Systems Business Unit (APSBU), which was based at the Company's Waltz Mill Site in Madison, Pennsylvania, along I-70 a few miles west of the New Stanton interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76). ACCD operated a coal gasification process demonstration unit (PDU), which was funded by DoE in the early 1970s, and conducted related research projects. ARD had the development contract for the planned Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) project at Clinch River, Tennessee, near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The surplus plutonium bred in each fast reactor can be used to set up more such reactors, and might thus grow the Indian civil nuclear power capacity till the point where the third stage reactors using thorium as fuel can be brought online, which is forecasted as being possible once 50 GW of nuclear power capacity has been achieved. The uranium in the first stage PHWRs that yield 29 EJ of energy in the once- through fuel cycle, can be made to yield between 65 and 128 times more energy through multiple cycles in fast breeder reactors. The design of the country's first fast breeder, called Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), was done by Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR). Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd (Bhavini), a public sector company under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), has been given the responsibility to build the fast breeder reactors in India.
Heysham nuclear power stations Britain's fleet of operational reactors consists of 14 advanced gas-cooled reactors at six discrete sites and one PWR unit at Sizewell B. The total installed nuclear capacity in the United Kingdom is about 9 GW. In addition, the UK experimented with Fast Breeder reactor technologies at Dounreay in Scotland; however the last fast breeder (with 250MWe of capacity) was shut down in 1994. Even with changes to the planning system to speed nuclear power plant applications, there are doubts over whether the necessary timescale could be met to increase nuclear power output, and over the financial viability of nuclear power with present oil and gas prices. With no nuclear plants having been constructed since Sizewell B in 1995, there are also likely to be capacity issues within the native nuclear industry. The existing privatised nuclear supplier, British Energy, had been in financial trouble in 2004.
The primary purpose for the largest reactors (located at the Hanford Site in Washington), was the mass production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. Fermi and Szilard applied for a patent on reactors on 19 December 1944. Its issuance was delayed for 10 years because of wartime secrecy.Enrico, Fermi and Leo, Szilard "Neutronic Reactor" issued 17 May 1955 "World's first nuclear power plant" is the claim made by signs at the site of the EBR-I, which is now a museum near Arco, Idaho. Originally called "Chicago Pile-4", it was carried out under the direction of Walter Zinn for Argonne National Laboratory. This experimental LMFBR operated by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission produced 0.8 kW in a test on 20 December 1951Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 factsheet, Idaho National Laboratory and 100 kW (electrical) the following day, having a design output of 200 kW (electrical).
The reprocessed uranium, which constitutes the bulk of the spent fuel material, can in principle also be re-used as fuel, but that is only economic when uranium prices are high or disposal is expensive. Finally, the breeder reactor can employ not only the recycled plutonium and uranium in spent fuel, but all the actinides, closing the nuclear fuel cycle and potentially multiplying the energy extracted from natural uranium by more than 60 times. Nuclear reprocessing reduces the volume of high-level waste, but by itself does not reduce radioactivity or heat generation and therefore does not eliminate the need for a geological waste repository. Reprocessing has been politically controversial because of the potential to contribute to nuclear proliferation, the potential vulnerability to nuclear terrorism, the political challenges of repository siting (a problem that applies equally to direct disposal of spent fuel), and because of its high cost compared to the once-through fuel cycle.
After graduating from North Carolina State University (NCSU) in 1953, Khan found employment with Allis-Chalmers in Wisconsin before joining the Commonwealth Edison company in Illinois. At both engineering firms, Khan worked on power generation equipment such as generators and mechanical pumps and participated in a federal contract awarded to Commonwealth Edison to design and construct the Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) which built up his interests in practical applications of physics that led him to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, and to attend the training program in nuclear engineering offered by NCSU.Munir Ahmad Khan Interview with Urdu Digest, October 1981. In 1957, Khan served as a Resident Research Associate in the Nuclear Engineering Division at the Argonne National Laboratory where he was trained as a nuclear reactor physicist and worked on design modifications of the Chicago Pile-5 (CP-5) reactor before working for a brief time at American Machine and Foundry as a consultant until 1958.
The relative economics of reprocessing- waste disposal and interim storage-direct disposal was the focus of much debate over the first decade of the 2000s. Studies have modeled the total fuel cycle costs of a reprocessing-recycling system based on one-time recycling of plutonium in existing thermal reactors (as opposed to the proposed breeder reactor cycle) and compare this to the total costs of an open fuel cycle with direct disposal. The range of results produced by these studies is very wide, but all are agreed that under current (2005) economic conditions the reprocessing-recycle option is the more costly. If reprocessing is undertaken only to reduce the radioactivity level of spent fuel it should be taken into account that spent nuclear fuel becomes less radioactive over time. After 40 years its radioactivity drops by 99.9%, though it still takes over a thousand years for the level of radioactivity to approach that of natural uranium.
According to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, there was no abnormal radioactivity released into the environment.NRC "Fermi, Unit 1", NRC Website, 3 February 2011, accessed 17 March 2011. Fermi 1 was a liquid metal (sodium) cooled fast breeder reactor design. It was capable of producing 200 megawatts thermal (MWt) power or 69 MW electrical power with 26% enriched metallic uranium fuel. The enriched uranium section of the reactor (core) was a 30 inch in diameter cylinder by 30 inches high and contained 92 fuel assemblies. The core was surrounded by 548 additional assemblies containing depleted uranium. These assemblies were about 2.5 inches square by about 8 feet tall. Only the core section contained the enriched uranium while depleted uranium was placed above and below within the assemblies. The core also contained 2 control rods and 8 safety rods. The plant was designed for 430 MWt and 125 MWe using a newer uranium oxide fuel, but the plant was closed before the fuel was ever ordered.
During this eventful two- year period, Ferguson traveled extensively to manage and implement President Jimmy Carter's Nonproliferation Alternative Systems Assessment Program (NASAP) and the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Study (INFCE), which was jointly operated with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as well as bilateral technical exchanges with England, France, Italy, West Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union regarding nuclear energy. Ferguson spent much of his early time at DOE in technology exchange meetings with foreign countries explaining President Carter's non-proliferation policy, which stopped indefinitely the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel out of concerns that it presented a serious threat of nuclear weapons proliferation. The U.S. had entered into multi-lateral and bi-lateral agreements with other nations for the exchange of fission energy technology following President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace Initiative in 1953. Robert L. Ferguson delivering President Carter's disappointing nuclear policy message about stopping the breeder reactor program and discontinuing nuclear fuel reprocessing at the Second Pacific Basin Conference in September 1978 in Tokyo, Japan.
Knights of Pendragon vol. 1 #14-15 Chapman would later wake at Avalon, resurrected with the other Pendragons, where the Pendragons battle and finally stopped the Bane.Knights of Pendragon vol. 1 #17-18 Later, while making a public appearance at Stark's Questworld, Chapman had no choice but to battle malfunctioning robotsKnights of Pendragon vol. 2 #1 where he received a new armorKnights of Pendragon vol. 2 #2 which would later evolve into a new stronger mystical armour.Knights of Pendragon vol. 2 #5 Life as a Pendragon didn't get any easier as he fought Magpie,Knights of Pendragon vol. 2 #3 tried to stop the Cape Wrath Breeder Reactor from overloadingKnights of Pendragon vol. 2 #4 and traveled to Arakne where he met and fought with Spider-Man and the Warheads.Knights of Pendragon vol. 2 #9 When the villainous company Mys-Tech revived his enemy Baron Blood, Chapman infiltrated the company and once again destroyed his foe,Knights of Pendragon vol. 2 #11 inadvertently starting the Mys-Tech wars.Knights of Pendragon vol.
Calder Hall power station was first connected to the national power grid on 27 August 1956 Nuclear capacity (red) as a proportion of total generating capacity, 1955–2016 The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) was established in 1954 as a statutory corporation to oversee and pioneer the development of nuclear energy within the United Kingdom. The first station to be connected to the grid, on 27 August 1956, was Calder Hall, although the production of weapons-grade plutonium was the main reason behind this power station. Calder Hall was the world's first nuclear power station to deliver electricity in commercial quantities (although the 5 MW "semi-experimental" reactor at Obninsk in the Soviet Union was connected to the public supply in 1954). In February 1966 it was announced that the first prototype fast breeder reactor in the United Kingdom would be constructed in Dounreay, Scotland, at a cost of £30 million. British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) was established in February 1971 from the demerger of the production division of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). In 1984 BNFL became a public limited company, British Nuclear Fuels plc, wholly owned by the UK government.
To address these issues, Massey reorganized the governance of the laboratory in the early 1980s, instituting what D. Allen Bromley, President George H.W. Bush's assistant for science and technology, referred to as "participatory democracy" among its scientists. At the same time, Massey responded to the lack of outside connections by helping form the Argonne National Laboratory-University of Chicago Development Corporation (ARCH), an organization that expedited the transfer of technologies created in the laboratory to industry and the marketplace. Other initiatives Massey undertook at Argonne include generating support for its nuclear energy programs in a time of drastic cutbacks and providing support and leadership for the funding of major research facilities at the laboratory, including the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS), the Experimental Breeder Reactor 2 (EBR2), and the initial funding for the Advanced Photon Source (APS) While at Argonne and the University of Chicago, Massey also continued his work as an advocate on behalf of science education and awareness. In 1982, he headed the Chicago Mayoral Task Force on High-Technology Development and was the founding chair of the Chicago High-Tech Association.

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