Liquid metal—cooled fast reactors

On the other hand, liquid metal-cooled fast reactors (LM-FRs), or breeders, have been under development for many years. With breeding capability, fast reactors can extract up to 60 times as much energy from uranium as can thermal reactors. The successful design, construction, and operation of such plants in several countries, notably France and the Russian Federation, has provided more than 200 reactor-years of experience on which to base further improvements. In the future, fast reactors may also be used to burn plutonium and other long-lived transuranic radioisotopes, allowing isolation time for high-level radioactive waste to be reduced. 

Heat Transfer in Liquid-Metal Cooled Fast Reactors Alexander Sesonske... 

A major problem with commercialization of Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactors has been high design and manufacturing costs. Operation with coolant and metal structures temperatures in the creep range, coupled with sodium s high thermal conductivity necessitate use of codes, standards, requirements, and design approaches that have been very costly. 

Design of liquid metal cooled fast reactors (LMFRs) is still in evolution, and only a small number of LMFRs are in operation aroirnd the world. Specialists operating these LMFRs have gained valuable experience from incidents, failures, and other events that took plaee in the reactors. These unusual occurrences, lessons learned and measures to prevent recurrences are often either not reported in literature, or reported only briefly and without sufficient detail. Hence there is a need for specialists designing and operating LMFRs to share their knowledge on unusual occurrences. 

Liquid metal cooled fast reactors are classified as RIs which safety is ensured principally due to their inherent self-protection. It is associated with a number of their internal features. 

The experimental fast reactor JOYO at the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute s Oarai Engineering Center attained initial criticality in April 1977 and was the first liquid metal cooled fast reactor in Japan. From 1983 to 2000, JOYO operated with the MK-II core as an irradiation test bed to develop the fuels and materials for future Japanese fast reactors. Thirty-five duty cycle operations and thirteen special tests with the MK-II core were completed by June 2000 without any fuel pin failures or serious plant trouble. The reactor is currently being upgraded to the MK-III core. This paper provides a review of the operational experiences obtained through the JOYO s operation. 

INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Status of liquid metal cooled fast reactors technology, TECDOC-1083, Vienna (1999). 

LIQUID METAL-COOLED FAST REACTOR B-350 AS A HEAT SOURCE FOR SEAWATER DESALINATION AND ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION... 

This section includes a brief early history of the development of nuclear power, primarily in the United States. Individual chapters cover the pressurized water reactor (PVVR), boiling water reactor (BWR), and the CANDU Reactor. These three reactor types are used in nuclear power stations in North America, and represent more than 90% of reactors worldwide. Further, this section includes a chapter describing the gas cooled reactor, liquid metal cooled fast reactor, the molten salt reactor, and small modular reactors, and concludes with a discussion of the next generation of reactors, known as "Gen IV."... 

There are however advantages to attaining a harder neutron spectrum, such as potentially higher conversion ratios and more compact reactors. With fluoride salts, both elastic and inelastic collisions in fluorine result in spectrums that are not nearly hard as those seen in liquid metal-cooled fast reactors but are still hard enough for a large improvement in conversion ratios. This is partly due to a decrease in the absorption cross section of most fission products. 

The second edition of this handbook contains some new and updated information including chapters on liquid metal cooled fast reactors, liquid fueled molten salt reactors, and small modular reactors that have been added to the first section on reactors. In the second section, a new chapter on fuel cycles has been added that presents fuel cycle material generally and from specific reactor types. In addition, the material in the remaining chapters has been reviewed and updated as necessary. The material in the third section has also been revised and updated as required with new material in the thermodynamics chapter and economics chapters, and also includes a chapter on the health effects of low level radiation. 

KNK-II was built and has been operated to serve as the nation s first fast flux irradiation facility, to gain operating experience with a liquid metal cooled fast reactor system and to conduct an extensive test programme in fast reactor environment. 

Liquid metal cooled fast reactors for electricity production with optional desalination or heating bottoming cycles, including ... 

XXn-10] MOISSEYTSEV, A., SIENICKI, J.J., WADE, DC., Cycle analysis of supercritical carbon dioxide gas turbine Brayton cycle power conversion system for liquid metal-cooled fast reactors, ICONE-11 (11 Int. Conf. on Nuclear Engineering, Tokyo, April 20-23, 2003), Paper ICONE 11-36023. 

Status of liquid metal cooled fast reactor technology... 

STATUS OF LIQUID METAL COOLED FAST REACTOR TECHNOLOGY... 

Passive safety systems and plant designs from liquid metal cooled fast reactors. 

INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENY, Status of Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactor Technology, IAEA-TECDOC-1083, Vienna (1999). Safety of Beloyarsk NPP operation, (Collection of scientific proceedings), Ekaterinburg UrO RAN, ISBN 5-7691-0469-4 (1994). 

PEACER (Proliferation-resistant Environment-friendly Accident-tolerant Continuable-energy Economical Reactor) is a liquid metal cooled fast reactor for power production and waste transmutation. 

Historical GFR concepts as weU as the Generation IV GFRs represent an alternative to liquid metal—cooled fast reactors (LMFRs). The use of gases leads to a harder neutron spectrum compared with the fast reactor cores of sodium- and lead-cooled fast reactors... 

Liquid metal-cooled fast reactor (LMFR) safety (Class L) Single-phase, high-enthalpy... 

IAEA, 1985. Status of Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactors. Technical Report Series No. 246. IAEA, Vieima, Austria. 

LMFR Liquid metal-cooled fast reactor... 

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