LMFR, design study

In the field of fast reactor design and operational data, the last reference document published by the IAEA was the 1996 Fast Reactor Database (IAEA-TECDOC-866). Since its publication, quite a lot has happened the construction of two new reactors has been laimched, and conceptual/design studies were initiated for various fast reactors, e.g. the Japanese JSFR-1500 and the Russian BN-1800 (both cooled by sodium), as well as for a wholly new line of LMFR concepts — modular reactors cooled by sodium and by lead-bismuth alloy, and prototype and demonstration conunercial size fast reactors cooled by lead. 

Using a method developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL-CFl-56-4-183) for homogeneous systems, the Babcock Wilcox Company has studied the stability of the LMFR against small oscillations. The results show that the LMFR models under study are stable up to power densities 100 to 1000 times greater than the nominal design level. 

The fuel for the LMFR is still under extensive study. At present, most of the major information for the design of an LMFR experiment is at hand. This information is primarily solubility data and other fuel information, presented in the following pages. 

The choice of fuel for the first full-.scale IjMFR will depend upon the availability of which is much more attractive tlian becau.se of better neutron economy, and a sufficient quantity for fueling an LMFR may be avail/iblc in 10 to 15 yr. In the early stage.s of this study, however, f - was arbitrarily cho.sen as the fuel for the parametric study. 1 he s< lection of the reference design should be valid for either fuel. 

Economic considerations were essential to the optimization studies required to establish the reference designs pre.sented in Sections 24-2 and 24-4. An important objective of this study is the economic comparison of energy costs for the single-fluid and the two-fluid externally cooled LMFR. A brief summary of energy costs for the optimum design in each concept is presented in Table 24-12. 

---