FAST POWER BREEDER REACTOR PROGRAM

As a part of the power demonstration program of the AFC in the 1950s, the Enrico Fermi fast breeder reactor (Fermi-1) was built near Detroit by a consortium of companies led by Detroit Edison. Fermi-1 used enriched uranium as fuel and sodium as coolant, and produced 61 MWe. It suffered a partial fuel melting accident in 1966 as the result of a blockage of core coolant flow by a metal plate. The reactor was repaired but shut down permanently in November 1972 because of lack of binding. Valuable experience was gained from its operation, however (58). 

The Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) was designed as a 62.5 MWt, metal fueled, pool reactor with a conventional 19 MWe power plant. The productive life of the EBR-II began with first operations in 1964. Demonstration of the fast reactor fuel cycle, serving as an irradiation facility, demonstration of fast reactor passive safety and lastly, was well on its way to close the fast breeder fuel cycle for the second time when the Integral Fast Reactor program was prematurely ended in October 1994 with the shutdown of the EBR-II. 

Originally, the idea for creating fast breeder reactors came in the post-WWII era and was intended to ensure the sufficient supply of uranium (U) for the rapidly expanding nuclear program of the USSR. Alexander Leypunsky was one of the initial proponents of the idea and received government support in 1949. By 1955, the USSR constructed its first fast reactor Bystryi Reactor or Fast Reactor (BR)-l at the Instimte of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE) in Obninsk, Russia. This essentially was a critical assembly with a weapons Pu core and a U blanket. It had no coolant and essentially zero power. After the BR-1, a series of experimental sodium-cooled fast reactors, including BR-2, 5, and 10, was rapidly built (Pshakin, 2010). 

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