Future of the Nuclear Security Environment in 2015 Proceedings of a Russian-U.S. Workshop (2009) / Chapter Skim
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NUCLEAR POWER OF FAST REACTORS: A NEW START
NUCLEAR POWER OF FAST REACTORS: A NEW START
Pages 125-134
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From page 125... ...
Nuclear power entered the 21st century in a state of stagnation, with uncertain prospects for the future.165 With oil and gas prices rising, many states are now cautiously returning to electricity based on a new generation of thermal reactors: the United States and Europe, Russia have announced a large VVER construction program, and India and China are actively assimilating the above technologies in their ambitious nuclear programs)
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From page 126... ...
This could be done by simple estimation, but it would be improper and inconclusive without referring first to the greatest primary source–Fermi.168 THE ORIGIN OF THE FAST BREEDER STEREOTYPE In April 1944, the separation plant at Oak Ridge was not yet in operation, and in his first outline for fast reactor-based nuclear power Fermi decided against the energy-consuming and expensive separation of uranium isotopes. Fast reactors would not run on natural uranium, so he started with a parent graphite or heavy-water-moderated thermal reactor, which would rapidly consume uranium and produce little Pu.
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From page 127... ...
As with thermal reactors, the present-day fast neutron machines are also potentially prone to severe accidents, involving a prompt criticality excursion, loss of coolant with the additional hazards of Na exposure to air and water, and positive void effect in the event of rapid Na boiling. Moreover, the problems of waste and proliferation remain unresolved, and the FRs cost even more than the expensive thermal reactor facilities.
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From page 128... ...
The Russian Corporation TVEL notes that "(t) he closed nuclear cycle envisages transportation of irradiated fuel assemblies to radiochemical plants to extract unburned uranium rather than transportation to disposal site.
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From page 129... ...
does not involve very deep purification, which can be done by coarse physical extraction methods of light-mass fusion products to avoid separation of mass-like U, Pu, and minor actinides. This makes it possible to exclude the most hazardous technologies of plutonium separation and uranium enrichment to maintain non-proliferation and to adopt a comprehensive ban on and the elimination of nuclear weapons by the states party to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.177 CLOSED NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE OF FAST REACTORS The enrichment, burnup and, hence, the activity of FR fuel, which are much higher than in TRs, make the aqueous process developed for extraction of weapons-grade Pu (that most suitable for thermal reactors)
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From page 130... ...
Given low О and С concentrations, nitride shows insignificant swelling and releases far less gas than oxides; besides, a sufficient gap in the fuel relieves the cladding of mechanical loads and contributes to higher burn-up.178 The Bochvar All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Inorganic Materials developed a process and built a line for BREST fuel rod fabrication, and if this work had not been nearly stopped six years ago, experts in Russia would have approached completion of the tests in BOR60 and BN-600 today. Yet, the BREST fuel tests in the BOR-60 (with the burnup so far as low as 3 percent)
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From page 131... ...
If not for this interruption, the BREST-300 would already be under construction and Russia would have been building the nuclear power industry on a truly new technological basis. CONCLUSION In the 1940s, it was hard to avoid mistakes, then firmly fixed in a stereotype of fast breeder reactors started with Pu from thermal reactors.
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From page 132... ...
(new refuelling system) • adaptation of NPP design rules and regulations to the requirements of natural safety for full use of the economic advantages offered by FRs • future provision of fast reactors with a Th blanket to supply Th-U233 fuel to TRs, which may be preferable in remote regions and smaller countries • utilization of NPP heat and radionuclides for domestic, industrial, agricultural and medical purposes • configuration of nuclear power complexes with FRs, a closed fuel cycle, facilities for radioactive waste treatment, radionuclide and heat utilization, and physical protection systems • radiation-equivalent disposal of waste from the equilibrium NFC of fast reactors in naturally radioactive formations of former uranium mining sites • scientific and political aspects of transition to nuclear power based on FRs in an equilibrium closed and equilibrated NFC, which offers the prospects of independent energy development to large countries If ensured of such prospects, nations may be willing, in the common interests of nonproliferation, to resort to the services of nuclear states or international centers for uranium enrichment, reprocessing of TR fuel, and fabrication of the first FR cores during the transition period.
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From page 133... ...
This would allow more from political palliatives to radical and legal resolution of the problem of a comprehensive ban on elimination of nuclear weapons, with effective measures taken to control and suppress illegal nuclear activities by joint efforts, without nuclear or nonnuclear classification of nations.
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