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. Today's post is going to be a summary of the history and current status of breeder reactors.
After World War II, the nuclear powers took great interest in the idea of breeder reactors. After all, the idea that you could burn nuclear fuel and wind up with more fuel than you put into the reactor was very attractive. Especially in view of uncertainty about the amount of naturally occurring uranium that could be mined economically. Another attractive aspect of the fast breeder reactors was that they produced plutonium that could be extracted for use in nuclear weapons production. As the arms race of the Cold War took off, this possible source of weapon-grade plutonium was researched around the planet.
Designs were developed, prototype reactors were build and extensive tests were run. Using molten sodium for a coolant was very popular because of its heat transfer properties and it was employed in many test reactors. These research reactors often developed leaks of molten sodium which were very difficult to deal with. In spite of these problems, optimistic projections of construction costs similar to conventional light water reactors were published and it was claimed that the fast-breeders would be a competitive source of electricity. Scientists, engineers, businessmen and citizens were skeptical of the promise of fast breeder reactors. Despite these reservations, national governments of nuclear nations were generally positive about fast breeder reactors and continued to pour millions of dollars into the research programs.
The winding down of the Cold War at the end of the 1980s removed one of the main drivers of fast breeder technology . With warheads being dismantled and stockpiles of plutonium on hand, the need to produce more plutonium declined. Also, during the decades following World War II, more and more uranium reserves were discovered all over the world and new mines came online to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. The need to breed fissile materials for fuel declined. The experience of the various research programs indicated that molten sodium although an excellent coolant was difficult to control. The truth was accepted that the cost of building and operating a fast breeder reactor was always going to be more than the cost of building and operating conventional light water nuclear power reactors. This effectively removed fast breeder reactors from the competition for an economical source of power. Global interest declined and funding for R & D fell.
Now, more than sixty years after the first burst of enthusiasm for fast breeder reactors, interest is once again rising. A great deal of the most accessible uranium has been mined and some analysts say that we reached the peak of natural uranium production this year. Considering all the reactors in operation and under construction, there are predictions that in five years, as uranium production declines, there will not be enough uranium fuel being produced to supply all of them. Suddenly, the ability to produce nuclear fuel in a fast breeder reactor is once again attractive. In addition, the spent nuclear fuel pools are rapidly filling up at reactors all over the world. Without any sort of permanent geological repositories for nuclear waste, the ability of a fast breeder reactor to burn waste and reduce the long-lived and really hot constituents in spent nuclear fuel is also becoming more attractive.
The International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation, based on the earlier Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, has 31 member nations cooperating on creating a global system of nuclear fuel supply and waste processing involving supplier nations and user nations.
Russia is moving most aggressively to make use of fast breeder reactors for fuel production and waste treatment. China is also very interested in fast breeders for power generation, fuel production and waste treatment. India is working on what are called thermal neutron breeder reactors in the hope of utilizing the vast amounts of thorium that India possesses for energy production.
With all the work being done on breeder reactors today, we will soon have an opportunity to see if they really can be operated economically and safely to provide the benefits that have been promised.
