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The BN-350 fast-neutron reactor at Aktau, Kazakhstan.It operated between 1973 and 1994. A fast-neutron reactor (FNR) or fast-spectrum reactor or simply a fast reactor is a category of nuclear reactor in which the fission chain reaction is sustained by fast neutrons (carrying energies above 1 MeV, on average), as opposed to slow thermal neutrons used in thermal-neutron reactors.
A fast reactor is therefore more efficient than a thermal reactor for using plutonium and higher actinides as fuel. These fast reactors are better suited for the transmutation of other actinides than thermal reactors. Because thermal reactors use slow or moderated neutrons, the actinides that are not fissionable with thermal neutrons tend to ...
A thermal-neutron reactor is a nuclear reactor that uses slow or thermal neutrons.. ("Thermal" does not mean hot in an absolute sense, but means in thermal equilibrium with the medium it is interacting with, the reactor's fuel, moderator and structure, which is much lower energy than the fast neutrons initially produced by fission.)
The projected increase in uranium price did not materialize, but if uranium demand increases in the future, then there may be renewed interest in fast reactors. The GFR base design is a fast reactor, but in other ways similar to a high temperature gas-cooled reactor. It differs from the HTGR design in that the core has a higher fissile fuel ...
Consequently, reactor operators are faced with the so-called optimal fuel reloading problem, which consists of optimizing the rearrangement of all the assemblies, the old and fresh ones, while still maximizing the reactivity of the reactor core so as to maximise fuel burn-up and minimise fuel-cycle costs.
This is especially the case for companies studying fast neutron reactors of 4th generation (molten salts reactors, metal-cooled reactors (sodium-cooled fast reactor, or lead-cooled fast reactor). Fast breeder reactors "burn" 235 U (0.7% of natural uranium), but also convert fertile materials such as 238 U (99.3% of natural uranium) into fissile 239
The 35-megawatt thermal reactor will test the concept of using molten salt as a coolant and test the type of nuclear fuel, the NRC said. ... a two-unit demonstration plant, also at Oak Ridge. ...
It can utilize an estimated 97% of unused fuel that current reactors leave behind as waste. Spent fuel rods from conventional nuclear reactors are put into storage and considered to be nuclear waste, by the nuclear industry and the general public. [9] Nuclear waste from light water reactors retains more than 95% of its original energy because ...