Reactor, breeder hydrogenous

Although, at the end of the twentieth century, the accident at Chernobyl has made the use of fission reactors (eventually breeders) politically unacceptable, it must be recalled that our society can be run on electricity from nuclear reactors, with hydrogen as the storage medium and fuel for transportation. Fail-safe reactor schemes have been described in the literature. The eventual choice between nuclear energy and renewables will be one of cost. 

Y. Oka and T. Jevremovic, Negative Void Reactivity in Large Fast Breeder Reactors with Hydrogeneous Moderator Layer, AnnaA of Nuclear Energy, Vol. 23, 1105-1115 (1996)... 

Y. Oka, T. Jevremovic and S. Koshizuka, Negative Void Reactivity in a Large Liquid-Metal Fast Breeder Reactor with Hydrogeneous Moderator (ZrHl.7) Layers, Nuclear Technology, Vol. 107, 15-22 (1994)... 

In the light of the projected growth of demand for energy services, particularly electricity, there is a renewed interest in the extension of nuclear power in some countries. With uranium being a finite resource as well, Chapter 4 focuses primarily on the question of a future expansion of nuclear power in the context of the availability of nuclear fuels. Moreover, the evolution of the next generation of nuclear reactors, such as breeder reactors or reactors suitable for hydrogen production, is addressed. 

The unusual interaction of hydrogen with palladium-based membrane materials opens up the possibility of oxidative hydrogen pump for tritium recovery from breeder blankets. The feasibility for this potential commercial application hinges on the hot-fusion and cold-fusion technology under development [Saracco and Specchia, 1994]. At first, Yoshida et al. [1983] suggested membrane separation of this radioactive isotope of hydrogen followed by its oxidation to form water. Subsequently, Hsu and Bauxbaum [1986] and Drioli et al. [1990] successfully tested the concept of combining the separation and reaction steps into a membrane reactor operation. 

Another emerging application of the membrane assisted WGS concept (WGS-MR) is a process to recover tritium from tritiated water from breeder-blanket fluids in fusion reactor systems. A conceptual process model to accomplish this has been proposed by Violante et al. [2.435]. It uses two membrane reactor units. The first membrane reactor unit removes the hydrogen isotopes from the purge gas (He) via oxidation. The second unit uses the tritiated water to recover tritium using the WGS reaction. In a companion... 

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries computer code CHAMPAGNE is a multi-phase, multi-component thermodynamics model originally created for the assessment of severe accidents in fast breeder nuclear power reactors. It was recently modified to also treat the formation and spreading of hydrogen gas clouds. CHAMPAGNE has been successfully applied both as a 2D and 3D version to the NASA LH2 spill tests from 1980 (Fig. 8-9) [30]. 

X 10 kJ/mol H (b) The extremely high temperature is required to overcome electrostatic charge repulsions between tbe nuclei so that they can come together to react. 21.63 (a) Boiling water reactor (b) fest breeder reactor (c) gas-cooled reactor 21.65 Hydrogen abstraction ... 

Sodium occurs widely as NaCl in seawater and as deposits of halite in dried-up lakes etc. (2.6% of the Earth s crust). The element is obtained commercially via the Downs process by electrolysis of NaCl melts in which the melting point is reduced by the addition of calcium chloride sodium is produced at the steel cathode. The metal is extremely reactive, vigorously so with the halogens and also with water, in the latter case to give hydrogen and sodium hydroxide. It is used as a coolant in fast-breeder nuclear reactors. The chemistry of sodium is very similar to that of the other members of group 1. 

Once deployed, each STAR will be fissile self-sufficient. Initially, fuel for STAR-H2 new deployments could come from transuranics recovered from spent LWR fuel. Later, when that source is exhausted, fast breeder reactors could be sited at the regional fuel cycle centres. Their function will be to manufacture excess fissile material so as to fuel the initial working inventories of new STAR deployments in a growing economy. The heat from their operation could be converted to hydrogen for shipment to regional consumers. 

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