During the 1960s, when the nuclear industry was in its early stage, it was expected that spent fuel could be shipped out for reprocessing within two years. Sodium and NaK do, however, ignite spontaneously on contact with air and react violently with water, producing hydrogen gas. The water in the secondary loop enters the steam generator at a pressure and temperature slightly below that required to initiate boiling. A reactor of this kind consists of a tank, or calandria vessel, containing a cold heavy water moderator at atmospheric pressure. The Magnox design is replaced by the advanced gas cooled reactor with a similar cooling system but some changes to improve the economic performance. Design [ edit] The use of liquid metal has many advantages because the reactor need not to be kept under pressure and they allow high power density than the conventional coolant. This value is better than modern Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs), with a typical thermal efficiency of about 34%. The core is open on one side, so the elements of fuel can be added or eliminated while the reactor is still running. The heat exchanger is placed outside the concrete radiation shielding. There are two proposals for a sodium cooled Gen IV LMFR, one based on oxide fuel, the other on the metal-fueled integral fast reactor. Like most other first-generation nuclear reactors, the Magnox was designed to produce electrical power and plutonium-239 for the nuclear weapons program in Britain. 43 0 obj <> endobj A few examples include organic liquid-cooled and liquid-moderated reactors that can operate like a pressurized-water reactor but without requiring pressures in the primary circuit to be as high as those in the traditional PWR; sodium-cooled graphite-moderated reactors; and heavy-water reactors built in a pressure-vessel design. Sodium reacts violently with water and air. 0000001435 00000 n In the United States, strict regulation of LWRs following the Three Mile Island accident of 1979, coupled with a decrease in reactor research and development activity, made the competitive nature of new light-water installations problematic for decades. weapons proliferation, The GIF's first action was to select six promising While actually a sub-actinide, it immediately precedes actinium (89) and follows a three-element gap of instability after, This is the heaviest nuclide with a half-life of at least four years before the ", "Fast Neutron Reactors | FBR - World Nuclear Association", "GE Hitachi, TerraPower Team on Nuclear-Storage Hybrid SMR", "PacifiCorp, TerraPower Evaluating Deployment of Up to Five Additional Natrium Advanced Reactors", "Bill Gates' nuclear venture plans reactor to complement solar, wind power boom", Unusual occurrences during LMFR operation, "Neutronic Assessment of Transmutation Target Compositions in Heterogeneous Sodium Fast Reactor Geometries", "Bill Gates's next-gen nuclear plant packs in grid-scale energy storage", "China Fast Reactor 600 to be Launched in 2023, 2026 Draws International Attention | Tech Times", "Three premiers plan to fight climate change by investing in small nuclear reactors", Idaho National Laboratory Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor Fact Sheet, Generation IV International Forum SFR website, "Meet the Man Who Could End Global Warming", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sodium-cooled_fast_reactor&oldid=1135604703. Most LMRs are fueled with uranium dioxide or mixed uranium-plutonium dioxides. The SFR's fast spectrum makes it possible to use available fissile and fertile materials (including depleted uranium) considerably more efficiently than thermal spectrum reactors with once-through fuel cycles. The characteristics and design features of these reactors differ significantly from those of LWRs, stemming from the properties of fast neutrons and the chemical nature of liquid sodium. [7], In addition, sodium's fast and exothermic reaction Sodium is a well-known low-melting-point (97.7C) alkali metal, which has the . In Magnox, the neutrons are moderated in great graphite blocks. A sodium leak could lead to the production of toxic has the potential to become a prominent low-emission supplier. It was succeeded at the same site by PFR, the Prototype Fast Reactor, which operated from 1974 to 1994 and used liquid sodium as its coolant. The main requirement among these was to operate with natural uranium and the need for a coolant with a low neutron cross-section, here carbon dioxide, and an effective neutron moderator, graphite. The calandria is pierced by pressure tubes made of zirconium alloy in which the natural uranium fuel is placed and through which heavy water coolant is circulated. Since both claddings react with water, they may be stored in a spent fuel pool only shortly. Both types were designed and used in their countries of origin to create weapons-grade plutonium, but at the cost of the main interruption to their use for power production despite the preparation of online refueling. Much larger size and weight of reactor per unit power. The arrangement of a sodium graphite reactor (SGR) is shown in Fig. In addition, there may be a secondary shutdown system that involves the injection of nitrogen into the coolant. The AGR prototype was practiced in 1962 at Windscale, but the first commercial AGR did not start working until 1976. Thus, fast neutrons have a smaller chance of being captured by the uranium and plutonium, but when they are captured, have a much bigger chance of causing a fission. 2016. [1] E. Xue, [3] The pool type seems to have some safety advantage in that the large volume of primary sodium heats up only slowly even if no power is extracted; thus, the reactor is effectively isolated from upsets in the balance of the plant. These technologies will take several decades to deploy and are The purpose of shifting fuel at the time of reload is to achieve an optimal reactivity and power distribution for the next cycle of operation. (VT-1 reactors in K-27; BM-40A and OK-550 reactors in others). It is focused on the following subjects: state of the art of liquid metal fast reactor (LMFR) development; design features and operating experience of demonstration and commercial sized nuclear power plants with sodium cooled fast reactors; leadbismuth cooled (LBC) ship reactor operation experience and LBC fast power reactor development; treatment and disposal of spent sodium; decontamination after shutdown of the typical loop type LMFR; and an analysis of advantages and disadvantages of sodium as a coolant, giving due consideration to advances in the technology and design of sodium components. Aside from the Russian experience, Japan, India, China, France and the USA are investing in the technology. [4] Furthermore, a sealed coolant system is needed as The many Member States are interested in working on advanced High-Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors (HTGRs) that employ helium as a coolant. The Soviet November-class submarine K-27 and all seven Alfa-class submarines used reactors cooled by lead-bismuth eutectic and moderated with beryllium as their propulsion plants. The author grants This allows the system to transfer more heat over greater distances. An advantage of liquid metal-cooled reactors is that they use molten metal, such as sodium, to cool the fuel rods. Following plants used low-enriched uraniumoxide fuel with stainless steel cladding. [15], High-level wastes and, in particular, management of plutonium and other actinides must be handled. The heat exchanger is located within the steel-reinforced concrete pressure vessel and radiation shield. 3. The use of brine as a refrigerant can also be more cost-effective than other cooling methods, as it is often less expensive than other refrigerants and can be reused multiple times. All 15 active GCRs are located in the United Kingdom at the end of 2014. The fuel is enriched uranium dioxide pellets, to 2.5-3.5%, in stainless steel tubes. The reactor core in all such systems is a tightly packed bundle of fuel in steel cladding through which the sodium coolant flows to extract the heat. The superheated water vapour is then used as the working fluid to turn the steam turbine. On the other hand, because the BWR operates at lower pressure, its pressure vessel is thinner than the pressure vessel of a PWR. However, the higher Cr and Al concentrations in ferritic alloys could be problematic because of severe embrittlement . The AGR was designed so that the final conditions of steam at the boiler stop valve were equal to that of conventional coal-fired power plants. Some attention is also given to the prospective uses of reactors for space travel and for certain industrial purposes. In parallel to the British Magnox design, the UNGG reactor was developed independently to meet similar requirements for electric power and plutonium generation simultaneously. In all types the heat extracted from the core by primary sodium is transferred to a secondary, nonradioactive sodium loop, which serves as the heat source for a steam generator that heats the water in a tertiary loop to power a turbine. sodium-based systems do not serve as neutron moderators, unlike water, It was graphite-moderated, cooled by CO2, with natural uranium metal fuel. [2], As mentioned above, sodium is highly reactive with Therefore, they are also called supercritical boilers. [3] An However, it increased the cooling gas working temperature to enhance steam conditions. Most LMRs are breeders or are capable of breeding, which is to say that they all produce more fissile material than they consume. [1] Others are in planning or under construction. Innovations can reduce capital cost, such as modular designs, removing a primary loop, integrating the pump and intermediate heat exchanger, and better materials.[16]. However, because of disadvantages including high toxicity, high vapor pressure even at room temperature, low boiling point producing noxious fumes when heated, relatively low thermal conductivity,[2] and a high[3] neutron cross-section, it has fallen out of favor. 0 In this design, to penetrate the moderator and control the reaction, boron control rods are utilized. The name refers especially to the design done in the UK but is sometimes applied generically to any similar reactor. interested in managing their nuclear supply and nuclear waste. Many Generation IV reactors studied are liquid metal cooled: Bunker, Merle E. "Early Reactors From Fermis Water Boiler to Novel Power Prototypes" a chapter in, liquid metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs), http://library.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/getfile?00416628.pdf, "Neutron Scattering Lengths and cross sections", Atmospheric corrosion of tin and tin alloy, Ukraine advises Japan to use tin to cool Fukushima reactor, "40 Curious Nuclear Energy Facts You Should Know", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Liquid_metal_cooled_reactor&oldid=1134133261, This page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 04:17. NaK was used as the coolant in the first breeder reactor prototype, the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1, in 1951. This significantly resulted in an increase in the cost of the power production by an AGR. Thanks to its unique advantages of high power-to-mass ratio, shallow reactivity poisoning and quick response to reactivity control , a liquid metal-cooled space nuclear reactor, which adopts a fast neutron spectrum reactor core cooled by liquid metal or liquid metal alloys, is the preferred solution to provide the necessary high-power supply . Another advantage of liquid sodium coolant is that sodium melts at 371K and boils / vaporizes at 1156K, a difference of 785K between solid / frozen and gas / vapor states. English IAEA-TECDOC-1569 978-92-0-107907-7, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Liquid Metal Cooled Reactors: Experience in Design and Operation, IAEA-TECDOC-1569, IAEA, Vienna (2007), Download to:EndNote BibTeX*use BibTeX for Zotero. To improve cooling with water, most reactor designs are highly pressurized to raise the boiling point, which presents safety and maintenance issues that liquid metal designs lack. . Sodium-Graphite Reactor (SGR) is a typical liquid metal cooled reactor that uses sodium as coolant and graphite as moderator. Lead-Bismuth Fast Reactor: This liquid metal-cooled reactor (LMR) design from the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research in Taiwan . Terms of Use, Governmental, legal and regulatory framework, Security of nuclear and other radioactive material, Radioactive waste and spent fuel management, Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC), International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO), IAEA Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme, Catalogue of review missions and advisory services, Peer review and advisory services calendar, Global Nuclear Safety and Security Network (GNSSN), International Nuclear Information System (INIS), Advanced Reactors Information System (ARIS), Integrated Nuclear Fuel Cycle Information System (iNFCIS), Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Information System (SRIS), Offices Reporting to the Director General, Liquid Metal Cooled Reactors: Experience in Design and Operation. Sodium-cooled fast-neutron-spectrum liquid-metal reactors (LMRs) received much attention during the 1960s and 70s when it appeared that their breeding capabilities would soon be needed to supply fissile material to a rapidly expanding nuclear industry. neutrons, an SFR uses fast neutrons, which are neutrons that have not Graphite moderator can retain its mechanical strength and purity at high temperature. 0000001132 00000 n The hot helium can be used directly as the working fluid in a high-temperature gas turbine, or its heat can be utilized to generate steam for a water cycle. International Forum, August 2009. In comparison, a GCR can run at temperatures up to 800850C and yield a heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency of more than 40% using conventional steam turbine facilities or as high as 50% using a more advanced gas turbine apparatus. The first generation of French nuclear power plants was UNGGs. 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