20-11-2012, 06:11 PM
Nuclear Technology for the Future
1Nuclear Technology.pdf (Size: 2.74 MB / Downloads: 58)
Key Elements of this Vision
• Living standards
– Water
– Food
– Medical
• Environment
– Air
– Water
– Land
• Security
– Reduce gap between “haves and have nots”
– Control weapons of mass destruction
The Common Thread is Energy
• Underlies living standards
– Life expectancy is ~43 years for people
without access to electricity
• Impacts the environment
– Global warming
– Nuclear waste
• An important cause of conflicts between nations
– Conflicts over increasingly scarce resources
Will need a lot of energy in the future. The question is what is
sustainable while meeting the demand?
Technology Options for Fission
• Thermal spectrum reactors produce power cheaply
• Fast-spectrum reactors destroy the waste that thermal-spectrum reactors produce
• Fast-spectrum reactors stabilize fuel supply
Fast-Spectrum Reactors
• The Experimental Breeder Reactor II Successfully addressed two important issues
– Safety
– Closed fuel cycle
• In addition, the reliability and operabilility of sodium-cooled fastreactors was demonstrated
Summary of Basic Safety Characteristics
• In both tests, inherent feedbacks enabled the reactor to
respond to the abnormal events and return to safe, coolable
state
• No reliance was placed on operator intervention or on
the operation of active, engineered components
• The properties of metallic fuel (high thermal conductivity)
and the pool configuration of the reactor (large thermal
inertia) are key to achieving passive shutdown
Recycle of Fuel: Key Goals
• Efficient recovery of plutonium, uranium, and minor
actinide elements from irradiated core and blanket fuels
(>99.9% recovery)
• Immobilization of fission product wastes in suitable form
for deep geologic disposal
• Minimization of waste volume; elimination of EPA
hazardous materials from wastes
• Maximized recycling of reagents
Conclusion for fast-spectrum reactors
• The technology exists to support a major
expansion of nuclear power: sodium-cooled fast
reactors are a proven technology
• Fast-spectrum rectors with a closed fuel cycle
will be a necessary element of that expansion,
consistent with plans for the Global Nuclear
energy Partnership (GNEP)