Commercial fast reactor

Current efforts with regard to LMFRs in the Russian Federation are directed towards improving safety margins and economics. While these efforts will take some time, an immediate use is foreseen for fast reactors for energy production, as well as Pu and minor actinide utilization. In Russia, detailed design of commercial fast reactor BN-800 was completed, and license was issued for its construction on Yuzno-Uralskya and Beloyarskaya NPP sites. 

Holmes J.A.G. "Developments in UK commercial fast reactor design." Nuclear Energy, Vol 20 no.l. February 1981. 

The feedback of experience from the operating plants is invaluable in providing assurance that commercial fast reactors can be successfully operated. This has been done and is always an important pan of an ongoing activity which has been agreed with EFRUG. 

Considerable experience has been gained with the commercial fast reactor BN-600 in Russia. The present paper presents some performance results and gives an overview of the experience gained from the BN-600 reactor operation and maintenance in 1994. The status of R D is stated in this paper. Special attention is given to plutonium and minor actinide burning. 

MITENKOV, F.M., KIRYUSHIN, A.I., Advanced Commercial Fast Reactor, paper presented in the Inti. Conf. on Design and Safety of Advanced NPP, October 1992, Tokyo, Japan. 

Small fast reactors of long refuelling interval decrease core power density and specific power compared to projected commercial fast reactors, thereby increasing fissionable specific inventory. 

With further improvement the commercial fast reactor plant is ready for deployment. 

Since the middle of the 60s it appears that the scientific demonstration of fast reactors has been completed. Based on economic consideration for commercial fast reactors, fuel bumup is the most important factor in decreasing the fuel cycle cost and it is evident that the development of fuels and materials needs a fast neutron flux facility. In fact, almost all subsequent experimental fast reactors have had the same purposes ... 

According to design studies in Europe and Japan, the fuel bum-up target for commercial fast reactors should be 200,000 MWd/t and the irradiation dose target for cladding and wrapper materials should not be less than 180 dpa. The relevant experience obtained so far from experimental fast reactors is shown in Table 9.10. 

We will assume that construction of commercial fast reactor units in Italy starts in I985. In that year, the Installed nuclear capacity should be around... 

With a purpose of probing a commercially feasible fast reactor system, a feasibility study on commercialized fast reactor cycle systems (FS) was initiated in 1999 (Aizawa, 2001). In the FS, survey studies were made to identify the most promising concept among various systems such as sodium-cooled fast reactors, gas-cooled fast reactors, heavy metal-cooled fast reactors (lead-cooled fast reactors and lead-bismuth cooled fast reactors), and water-cooled fast reactors with various fuels types such as oxide, nitride, and metal fuels. The FS concluded to select an advanced loop-type SFR with mixed oxide fuel named Japan sodium-cooled fast reactor (JSFR Kotake et al., 2005). 

The experimental fast breeder reactor was considered to be something of a potential hazard, and a remote site was needed in case of accident As mentioned above, the site chosen was Dounreay, on the northern coast of Caithness, in the Scottish Highlands. Two fast reactors would be built there one which would be known as the Dounreay fast reactor (DFR), and the other being the prototype fast reactor (PFR). In a sense the DFR was the prototype the second reactor was intended as a prototype for a commercial fast reactor which never materialised. 

Soon after the completion of the DFR, the Consortia (Atomic Power Projects, The Nuclear Power Group, and the United Power Company Limited) made a study of the possibilities of a commercial fast reactor (CFR), and in June 1963, produced a... 

Figure 7.5. A sketch of a possible commercial fast reactor (CFR).

By 1988, construction of Sizewell B had already begun. Not only were no commercial fast reactors ever built no further power reactors were ever built in the UK after Sizewell. The PFR was finally closed in March 1994. 

TNA PRO AB 43/371. The Nuclear Power Group Commercial Fast Reactor (CFR) design work. CFR 1 Design Status Report October 1974. ... 

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