Economics fast reactors

If development goes as smoothly as projected, the integral fast reactor may be providing safe, economical power early in the twenty-first century, while adding no carbon dioxide or other pollutants to the atmosphere. ... 

Catalyst activity typically declines with time. Decay may be a matter of seconds or years. It is fast in hydrocarbon cracking, and slow primarily in reactions of organic chemistry under relatively mild conditions. Catalyst deactivation is an important factor in process economics and reactor design. Design may have to allow for the fact that the reactor attains a steady or quasi-stationary state only if decay is slow compared with the catalyzed reaction. 

Plutonium-239 can serve as the fissile material in both thermal and fast reactors. In thermal reactors, the plutonium-239 produced from uranium-238 can provide a partial replacement for uranium-235. The use of plutonium-239 in fast reactors is much more economical, because breeding takes place, which results in the production of more plutonium-239 than is consumed by fission. 

The paramount fundamental problem to resolve is that of the central worth discrepancy. It is important not only for its academic interest or for reassuring the reactor physicist in the adequacy of the calculational methods and nuclear data he u.ses, but also for practical reasons. Safety factors that account for the CWD must be included in the design of fast reactors an economic penalty is associated with these safety factors. Related to the question of the CWD is the more general problem of the multigroup calculation of bilinear functionals. The questions arising here are (I) for which applications, and under what conditions, are spectral fine structure effects non-negligible (2) how can these fine structure effects be taken into account in the multigroup formulation. 

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. 

The fast reactor, which can generate electricity and breed additional fissile material for future fuel stocks, is a resource that will be needed when economic uranium supplies for the advanced water cooled reactors or other thermal-spectrum options diminish. 

Brazil. Fast reactor activities in Brazil are mostly research-oriented and have the objective of establishing a consistent knowledge base which can serve as a support for a future transition to the activities more directly related to design, construction and operation of an experimental fast reactor. Due to the present economic difficulties and uncertainties, the programme is modest, with a potential... 

The objective of KALIMER Program is to develop an economically competitive, inherently safe, environmentally friendly, and proliferation-resistant fast reactor concept. Efforts of the KALIMER Program will be concentrated on the establishment of an advanced design concept in order to contribute to the worldwide R D and commercialization of the LMR. 

In parallel with the work done in collaboration with the European partners BNFL has conducted studies of the potential role of fast reactors in the UK and elsewhere. It is important to consider the fuel cycle as a whole and to make use of fast reactors in the optimum way to maximise safety and economic advantage while minimising environmental impact and proliferation risks. To this end accelerator-based systems as alternatives to critical reactors, and the thorium cycle as an alternative to the uranium-plutonium cycle, have been examined with particular reference to the implications for fuel fabrication, reprocessing and waste disposal. This work continues but the initial conclusion is that the critical Pu-fuelled fast reactor, properly integrated with reactors of other types, and with optimised arrangements for Pu recycling, has many attractive advantages. 

The economic incentive for the oxide-fueled fast reactor for near-term commitment is still considerable, even if less than may later be expected. 

More than 40 years of fast reactor research and development, design and operating experience have paved the road towards economic fast reaaors, giving confidence that competitiveness can be reached. 

In order to provide a firm basis for the economic assessment of EFR and to confirm the favourable trend deduced from the comparison of economic indicators, the EFR Associates launched a comprehensive cost enquiry campaign which involved expoienced component manufacturers in Europe. The manufacturers were asked to provide quotations against specific Cost Enquiry Specifications for a number of components typical of fast reactors. 

The period of the end of 80-ies and the early 90-ies is characterized by the reduction of oil prices and some rise in the NPP costs. In addition, the problem of uranium deficiency has been shifted to the beginning of the next century. In this connection, fast reactors development in the nuclear power system will depend significantly on their economical competitiveness (unless environmental and nonproliferation problems will become first and foremost to be solved using FRs). 

Forecast evaluations show the world trend of bringing fast reactor economical characteristics nearer to those of thermal reactors when shifting to the reactor series construction and optimization of FR technical approaches. 

It is worth-while to note that there are some features of fast reactor economics in Russia. On one hand, in Russia the BN-800 design development has been completed, its construction has been already started, and studies have been made on the improved (with respect to technical and economic parameters) BN-600M reactor. On the other hand, intensive works are under way on designing of thermal reactors of improved safety (NP-500 and VPBER-600 designs). 

Fast reactor inculcation upon the nuclear power for only purpose of electricity production is also low probable in the near-term perspective, since there is sufficiently developed technology for light water reactors, and, besides, fast reactors in general still have worse economical characteristics. 

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