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Burnup is an important factor in determining the types and abundances of isotopes produced by a fission reactor. Breeder reactors by design have high burnup compared to a conventional reactor, as breeder reactors produce more of their waste in the form of fission products, while most or all of the actinides are meant to be fissioned and destroyed.
Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) is a decommissioned research reactor and U.S. National Historic Landmark located in the desert about 18 miles (29 km) southeast of Arco, Idaho. It was the world's first breeder reactor . [ 3 ]
The plutonium created could be used to fuel the breeder core, with enough left over to run other reactors. A breeder potentially generates not only electricity, but also income through fuel sales. The first power-producing reactor was a breeder, the Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) at what became the Idaho National Laboratory. On December ...
The Experimental Breeder Reactor II. Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) was a sodium-cooled fast reactor designed, built and operated by Argonne National Laboratory at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. It was shut down in 1994. Custody of the reactor was transferred to Idaho National Laboratory after its founding in 2005.
A subcritical reactor —regardless of neutron spectrum— can also "breed" fissile nuclides from fertile material, allowing in principle the consumption of very low grade actinides (e.g. Spent MOX fuel whose plutonium-240 content is too high for use in current critical thermal reactors) without the need for highly enriched material as used in ...
In addition the fission products need to be removed. This type of reactor is called a breeder reactor. If it breeds just as much new fissile from fertile to keep operating indefinitely, it is called a break-even breeder or isobreeder. A LFTR is usually designed as a breeder reactor: thorium goes in, fissile products come out.
Additional fissile material or another neutron source is necessary to initiate the fuel cycle. In a thorium-fuelled reactor, 232 Th absorbs neutrons to produce 233 U. This parallels the process in uranium breeder reactors whereby fertile 238 U absorbs neutrons to form fissile 239 Pu. Depending on the design of the reactor and fuel cycle, the ...
The Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project was a nuclear reactor project that aimed to build the USA's first large-scale demonstration breeder reactor plant. [2] It was led by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (and a successor agency, the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), and subsequently the U.S. Department of Energy).