Fast breeder

FBRs have been built and operated in the USA, the UK, France, the former USSR, India and Japan. One of the plants in the USSR was also previously used for desalination in addition to power generation. As of 2004, a prototype FBR was under construction in China, while another experimental FBR in Germany was built but never operated. On December 20, 1951, the fast reactor EBR-I (Experimental Breeder Reactor-1) at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho produced enough electricity to power four l ...

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Fast breeder, Fast breeder - Technical, Fast breeder - FBR generating plants, Fast breeder - Future plants, Fast breeder - Economics, Fast breeder - Proliferation, Fast breeder - Associated reactor types

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Alternative fuel is any method of powering an engine that do not involve petroleum (oil). Some alternative fuels are electricity, hythane, hydrogen, natural gas, wood, and vegetable oil. The need for the development of Alternative fuel sources, has been growing because of concerns that the reserves of oil are finite and will one day run out completly. See Oil depletion. The relative difficulty in obtaining oil which is a major cause of conflict, especialy in areas like the Middle East, has caused the price of oil to slowly rise ...

Including:

• Alternative fuel - Alternatives to oil
• Alternative fuel - Non-conventional oil
• Alternative fuel - Other fossil fuels and the Fischer-Tropsch process
• Alternative fuel - Nuclear power
• Alternative fuel - Fusion power
• Alternative fuel - Hydrogen

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What happens when a reactor core melts is the subject of conjecture and some actual experience (see below). Before the core of a nuclear reactor can melt, a number of events/failures must already have happened. Once the core melts, it will almost certainly destroy the fuel bundles and internal structures of the reactor vessel (although it may not penetrate the reactor vessel). [Note that the core at Three Mile Island did melt nearly completely but stayed within the reactor vessel.] If the melt drops into a pool of water (for example, ...

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Nuclear meltdown, Nuclear meltdown - Causes, Nuclear meltdown - Sequence of events, Nuclear meltdown - Effects, Nuclear meltdown - Reactor design, Nuclear meltdown - Popular awareness, Nuclear meltdown - Meltdowns, Nuclear meltdown - Reference, Nuclear meltdown - External link

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Alternative fuel - Non-conventional oil. Non-conventional oil is another source of oil separate from conventional or traditional oil. Non-conventional sources include: tar sands, oil shale and bitumen. Potentially significant deposits of non-conventional oil include the Athabasca Oil Sands site in northwestern Canada and the Venezuelan Orinoco tar sands. Oil companies estimate that the Athabasca and Orinoco sites (both of similar size) have as much as two-thirds of total global oil deposits, but they are not yet ...

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Alternative fuel, Alternative fuel - Alternatives to oil, Alternative fuel - Non-conventional oil, Alternative fuel - Other fossil fuels and the Fischer-Tropsch process, Alternative fuel - Nuclear power, Alternative fuel - Fusion power, Alternative fuel - Hydrogen

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A number of Russian nuclear submarines have experienced nuclear meltdowns. The only known large scale nuclear meltdowns at civilian nuclear power plants were in the Chernobyl accident at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986, and Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, USA, in 1979 although there have been several partial core meltdowns, including accidents at: NRX, Ontario, Canada, in 1952 EBR-I, Idaho, USA, in 1955 Windscale, Sellafield, England, in 1957 Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Simi Hills, California, in 1959 Enrico Fermi Nuclear Gen ...

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Nuclear meltdown, Nuclear meltdown - Causes, Nuclear meltdown - Sequence of events, Nuclear meltdown - Effects, Nuclear meltdown - Reactor design, Nuclear meltdown - Popular awareness, Nuclear meltdown - Meltdowns, Nuclear meltdown - Reference, Nuclear meltdown - External link

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Although pressurized water reactors are more susceptible to nuclear meltdown in the absence of active safety measures, this is not a universal feature of civilian nuclear reactors. Much of the research in civilian nuclear reactors is for designs with passive safety features that would be much less susceptible to meltdown, even if all emergency systems failed. For example, pebble bed reactors are designed so that complete loss of coolant for an indefinite period does not result in the reactor overheating. The General Electric ESBWR and Westingho ...

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Nuclear meltdown, Nuclear meltdown - Causes, Nuclear meltdown - Sequence of events, Nuclear meltdown - Effects, Nuclear meltdown - Reactor design, Nuclear meltdown - Popular awareness, Nuclear meltdown - Meltdowns, Nuclear meltdown - Reference, Nuclear meltdown - External link

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In pressurized water reactors, boiling water reactors, RBMKs, and breeder reactors, the core can melt as a result of a loss of coolant accident (in which all emergency core cooling systems have failed). A similar circumstance is created should the steam generator secondary dry-out together with emergency system failure. A rapid loss of water from the reactor system naturally stops the chain reaction. Borated water is injected by the emergency systems and thus in the large-break accidents, control rod insertion is not needed to stop the fissi ...

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Nuclear meltdown, Nuclear meltdown - Causes, Nuclear meltdown - Sequence of events, Nuclear meltdown - Effects, Nuclear meltdown - Reactor design, Nuclear meltdown - Popular awareness, Nuclear meltdown - Meltdowns, Nuclear meltdown - Reference, Nuclear meltdown - External link

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The effects of a nuclear meltdown depend on the safety features designed into a reactor. A modern reactor is designed both to make a meltdown exceedingly unlikely, and to contain one should it occur. In a modern reactor, a nuclear meltdown, whether partial or total, will be contained inside the reactor's containment structure. Thus (in the unlikely event that no other disasters occur) while the meltdown will severely damage the reactor itself, possibly contaminating the whole structure with highly-radioactive material, a meltdown alone will generally not lead to significant radiation release or danger to the public. The effects ...

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Nuclear meltdown, Nuclear meltdown - Causes, Nuclear meltdown - Sequence of events, Nuclear meltdown - Effects, Nuclear meltdown - Reactor design, Nuclear meltdown - Popular awareness, Nuclear meltdown - Meltdowns, Nuclear meltdown - Reference, Nuclear meltdown - External link

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It is generally agreed that—if designed incorrectly—the FBR poses a greater risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons than light water-moderated reactors. Water-moderated reactors must shutdown and refuel every four months or less to produce weapons grade plutonium, relatively pure Pu-239, because the level of Pu-240 in the fuel increases over time. Pu-240 undergoes spontaneous fission at a relatively high rate and is unsuitable for nuclear weapons production. An FBR can more easily produce weapons grade material, depending on its design. ...

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Fast breeder, Fast breeder - Technical, Fast breeder - FBR generating plants, Fast breeder - Future plants, Fast breeder - Economics, Fast breeder - Proliferation, Fast breeder - Associated reactor types

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One design of fast neutron reactor, specifically designed to address the waste disposal and plutonium issues, was the Integral Fast Reactor (a.k.a. Integral Fast Breeder Reactor, although the original reactor was designed to not breed a net surplus of fissile material) [2] [3]. To solve the waste disposal problem, the IFR had an on-site electrowinning fuel reprocessing unit that recycled the uranium and all the transuranics (not just plutonium) via electroplating, leaving just short half-life fission products in the wast ...

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Fast breeder, Fast breeder - Technical, Fast breeder - FBR generating plants, Fast breeder - Future plants, Fast breeder - Economics, Fast breeder - Proliferation, Fast breeder - Associated reactor types

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It is generally agreed that—if designed incorrectly—the FBR poses a greater risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons than the PWR. Unlike a PWR, an FBR can in theory produce weapons grade material. However, to date all known weapons programs have used far more easily built thermal reactors to produce plutonium, and there are some designs such as the SSTAR which avoid proliferation risks by both producing low amounts of plutonium at any given time from the U-238, and by producing three different isotopes of plutonium (Pu-239, Pu-240, and ...

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Fast breeder, Fast breeder - Technical, Fast breeder - FBR generating plants, Fast breeder - Future plants, Fast breeder - Economics, Fast breeder - Proliferation, Fast breeder - Associated reactor types

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FBRs usually use a mixed oxide fuel core of up to 20% plutonium dioxide (PuO2) and at least 80% uranium dioxide (UO2). The plutonium used can be from reprocessed civil or dismantled nuclear weapons sources. Surrounding the reactor core is a blanket of tubes containing non-fissile uranium-238 which, by capturing fast neutrons from the reaction in the core, is partially converted to fissile plutonium 239 (as is some of the uranium in the core), which can then be reprocessed for use as nuclear fuel. There is no moderator as this would slow the neutrons leaving the core. Early FBRs used metallic fuel, ei ...

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Fast breeder, Fast breeder - Technical, Fast breeder - FBR generating plants, Fast breeder - Future plants, Fast breeder - Economics, Fast breeder - Proliferation, Fast breeder - Associated reactor types

Read more here: » Fast breeder: Encyclopedia II - Fast breeder - Technical