My recent posts have been about breeder reactors which generate more fissile material than they consume. There is renewed global interest in breeder reactors for the production of nuclear fuel and the destruction of nuclear waste. I have been covering the history of United States breeder reactor research and development in the past several posts. Today I am going to briefly review the history and current status of breeder reactors in the United Kingdom.
Around 1950, the British were seriously talking about breeder reactors because uranium was scarce and expensive. Early on, researchers were skeptical about the feasibility of creating full scale breeder reactors but work did begin in 1955 on an experimental breeder reactor at Dounreay (DFR) on the coast of Scotland under the new Atomic Energy Authority (AEA). The reactor started operation at the end of 1959. The reactor utilized a molten sodium-potassium alloy for cooling which resulted in many problems. They did actually manage to supply power from the reactor to the national grid in 1962.
With the successful operation of the DFR, there were enthusiastic projections for the creation of gigawatt fast breeder reactors by 1975. There were estimates that the cost of such reactors would be similar to the cost of conventional nuclear power reactors. Design work was carried out for a demonstration project called the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR). In 1968, the AEA said that it wanted to have at least fifteen gigawatts of breeder reactor power generation online by 1986. Although they were still having problems with the DFR, in 1970, the AEA said that they were confident that a commercial fast breeder reactor with more than a gigawatt of capacity could be online by 1974. Work on the PFR kept falling farther behind schedule and the optimistic 1974 date for commercial power generation had to be abandoned.
In 1973, the AEA, undaunted by the problems at the DFR and the delay in the PFR, predicted commercial breeder reactors would begin construction around 1976 with the first coming online in 1981. This was thought by some to be too optimistic with only a five year construction schedule but the AEA was confident with their new plan. Just before hosting an international conference on fast breeder reactors in March 1974, the AEA finally managed to turn on the PRF for the first time. At the conference, a paper from the Central Electricity Generation Board was skeptical about the AEA plans. The paper pointed out that safety and reliability were important and fast breeder research had shown many design difficulties. Cost savings were anticipated to be small for a fast implementation of fast breeder power generation. The paper concluded that no fast breeder reactors would be ordered before 1978. Later in 1974, the PFR was only operating at ten percent of full capacity and was having a variety of problems with the cooling system. As of 1976, the PRF was still not up to full capacity and a number of components had to be replaced. in 1977, the PRF was turned off permanently. Even with all the problems the AEA still pushed for a commercial breeder reactor to be built by 1986.
Dounreay AEA facility in 2006:
