Policy Implications of Greenhouse Warming Mitigation, Adaptation, and the Science Base (1992) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
G Nuclear Energy
G Nuclear Energy
Pages 767-774
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 767... ...
emphasis usually guides formulation of the basic reactor concept. The optimized reactor design is usually very similar to current nuclear reactors, but reflects an approximate attempt to maximize either economics or safety, while attempting to improve performance in the other category of goals to at least the minimal extent required by the safety authorities or the economics of competing technologies.
|
From page 768... ...
Sweden · 500-MWe PIUS-POOR (ASEA-Brown Boveri) PROGRAMS EMPHASIZING ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE Europe · Joint European Fast Reactor (France, Germany, United Kingdom)
|
From page 769... ...
NOTE: Abbreviations are as follows: BOOR: Boiling Water Reactor CANDU: Canadian Deuterium Uranium, Heavy Water Reactor HTGR: High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor HWR: Heavy Water Reactor IFR: Integral Fast Reactor LMFBR: Liquid-Metal-Cooled Fast Breeder Reactor (version of LMR LMR: Liquid-Metal-Cooled Reactor LWR: Light Water Reactor PIUS: Process Inherent Ultimately Safe (version of LWR) PRISM: Power Reactor Inherent Safe Modular (version of LMR)
|
From page 770... ...
Mid-sized light water reactors with passive safety features include the advanced passive pressurized water reactor and the simplified boiling water reactor. The large evolutionary light water reactors are the most likely to be implemented in the time frame in the Mitigation Panel's analysis.
|
From page 771... ...
This requirement is claimed to be met in the MGR by limiting the power density and reactor size in such fashion that the hottest location in the reactor core never reaches temperatures capable of damaging the fuel. To achieve this, it is essential both that the reactor possess a temperature coefficient of reactivity sufficiently negative for the chain reaction to be quenched before damaging temperatures are reached, and that the processes of conduction and radiation are sufficient to carry the afterheat of the fission products to the environment without exceeding the design basis temperature.
|
From page 772... ...
All modern gas-cooled reactors are based on microencapsulated fuel in which submillimeter spheres of uranium oxide are surrounded by a series of nested spherical shells of pyrolytic carbon and silicon carbide. This fuel was developed by General Atomic and was brought to its current level of capability in the West German nuclear program, where the concept of the passively safe small-scale modular reactor was first developed.
|
From page 773... ...
In summary, the IFR concept may offer energy and power from nuclear fission while avoiding almost all of the major hazards associated with conventional fission reactors. The reactor breeds its own fresh fuel on site, features high fuel burnup, and burns up the ultra-long-lived radioactive transuranic fission products, leaving a waste product with lower radioactivity.
|
From page 774... ...
The cost of nuclear fusion is expected to be very high in comparison with alternative nuclear reactor designs. On the other hand, nuclear fusion offers additional environmental protection compared to nuclear fission.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.