US returns to fast reactor R&D World Nuclear Association Weekly Newsletter February 23, 2018 A bipartisan bill passed unanimously by the US House of Representatives has authorized the construction of a “versatile reactor-based fast neutron source, which shall operate as a national user facility” by 2026, and allocated almost $2 billion for it. This will be a research reactor for “development of advanced reactor designs, materials and nuclear fuels,” and is reported to be at least 300 MWt. There is a world shortage of fast reactor research capacity, especially for fast neutron materials testing for Generation IV reactor developments. At present the only fast neutron research reactor is BOR-60 in Russia, at Dimitrovgrad, which is also being used by French researchers. A new one – MBIR - with four times the irradiation capacity, is under construction there as the centrepiece of an International Research Centre. Through to 1985 the US Department of Energy invested heavily in fast reactor R&D, and five fast neutron reactors were operated, with several more designed. The flagship unit was the EBR-II, a 62.5 MW thermal demonstration reactor which typically operated at 19 MWe, providing heat and over 2 TWh of power to the Idaho laboratory over 1963-94. Having demonstrated a complete sodium-cooled breeder reactor power plant with on-site reprocessing of metallic fuel, the emphasis then shifted to testing materials and fuels (metal and ceramic oxides, carbides and nitrides of U & Pu) for larger fast reactors. Finally it became the prototype for an Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) using metallic alloy U-Pu-Zr fuels. IFR program goals included demonstrating inherent safety apart from engineered controls, improved management of high-level nuclear wastes by recycling all actinides so that only fission products remained as high-level waste, and more fully using the energy potential of uranium. These were demonstrated, though the whole program was aborted in 1994 by the Clinton administration. IFR fuel first used in 1986 reached 19% burnup (compared with 3-4% for conventional reactors), and 22% was targeted. WNN 16/2/18. Russia NFC, US NFC
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