Table of Contents
What is the difference between a breeder reactor and power reactor?
Whereas a conventional nuclear reactor can use only the readily fissionable but more scarce isotope uranium-235 for fuel, a breeder reactor employs either uranium-238 or thorium, of which sizable quantities are available. In breeders, approximately 70 percent of this isotope can be utilized for power production.
What is the difference in a breeder reactor and a light water reactor?
Breeder reactor waste is mostly fission products, while light-water reactor waste has a large quantity of transuranics. After spent nuclear fuel has been removed from a light-water reactor for longer than 100,000 years, these transuranics would be the main source of radioactivity.
What is Fast Breeder Reactor?
A Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) is a nuclear reactor that uses fast neutron to generate more nuclear fuels than they consume while generating power, dramatically enhancing the efficiency of the use of resources. Nuclear fission by fast neutron causes the increase in neutrons generated.
Why do we not use breeder reactors?
Another is that, to extract the plutonium, the fuel must be reprocessed, creating radioactive waste and potentially high radiation exposures. For these reasons, in the U.S., President Carter halted such spent fuel reprocessing, making the use of breeder reactors problematic.
What do breeder reactors do?
Breeder reactors are designed to generate nuclear fuel at the same time as producing energy for electricity production. This is possible because a small number of isotopes will capture neutrons produced in a reactor, starting a reaction that leads to a new, heavy fissile isotope.
Why don’t we use breeder reactors?
In fact, a nuclear reactor can derive a significant amount of energy from such plutonium fission. But because this plutonium fissions, it reduces the amount that is left in the fuel. For these reasons, in the U.S., President Carter halted such spent fuel reprocessing, making the use of breeder reactors problematic.
What is the advantage of fast breeder reactor?
Fast breeder reactors can convert more fertile material to fissile material and therefore, net fuel consumption is much less. As a matter of fact more fissile material could be produced than would be consumed by it (fast breeder reactor).
Why do fast breeder reactors explode?
(Unlike water moderated reactors, sodium-cooled fast breeders can explode due to an accidental nuclear criticality.) Fueling a fast breeder reactor with plutonium would require routine operation of a reprocessing plant that could handle large amounts of spent fuel with high plutonium concentrations.
What is a fast breeder reactor?
A Fast Breeder Reactor is a reactor that uses fast (high energy) neutrons to fission its fuel and to convert some non fissile materials in the fuel into fissile materials (these are know as fertile materials). This requires very careful neutron conservation since you can’t afford to waste any.
What are the characteristics of fast reactors?
The main characteristic of fast reactors is that they do not use a neutron moderator and that, therefore, most nuclear fissions are produced by fast neutrons. The core of this type of nuclear reactor consists of a fissile zone, surrounded by a fertile zone in which natural uranium is transformed into plutonium.
How does nuclear breeding take place in a thermal reactor?
Nuclear breeding does not take place in thermal reactors. Nuclear breeding occurs in fast breeder reactors (FBR), where a portion of fertile material gets converted into fissile materials (and thus produce more fuel). This can reduce dependency on inadequately available U-235.
What is a heavy water nuclear reactor?
The heavy water nuclear reactor is a type of nuclear reactor developed mainly in Canada. A variant of this reactor is the CANDU nuclear reactor , very popular in Canada. The fuel used to obtain nuclear energy is natural uranium, in the form of oxide, which is introduced into alloyed zirconium tubes.