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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.
The concept is generally very similar to sodium-cooled fast reactor, and most liquid-metal fast reactors have used sodium instead of lead. Few lead-cooled reactors have been constructed, except for some Soviet nuclear submarine reactors in the 1970s, but a number of proposed and one in construction new nuclear reactor designs are lead-cooled.
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 ...
Pool type sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) A sodium-cooled fast reactor is a fast neutron reactor cooled by liquid sodium.. The initials SFR in particular refer to two Generation IV reactor proposals, one based on existing liquid metal cooled reactor (LMFR) technology using mixed oxide fuel (MOX), and one based on the metal-fueled integral fast reactor.
The integral fast reactor (IFR), originally the advanced liquid-metal reactor (ALMR), is a design for a nuclear reactor using fast neutrons and no neutron moderator (a "fast" reactor). IFRs can breed more fuel and are distinguished by a nuclear fuel cycle that uses reprocessing via electrorefining at the reactor site.
The BN-350 and U.S. EBR-II nuclear power plants were sodium cooled. EBR-I used a liquid metal alloy, NaK, for cooling. NaK is liquid at room temperature. Liquid metal cooling is also used in most fast neutron reactors including fast breeder reactors such as the Integral Fast Reactor. Many Generation IV reactors studied are liquid metal cooled:
Chinese Experimental Fast Reactor (65 MW, 20 MWe, sodium cooled fast-spectrum neutron reactor). Located at CIAE Beijing, construction started May 2000, first criticality July 2010. MNSR-SZ Shenzhen: Mnsr Operational 30 1988-11-01 SPR IAE Beijing: Pool Operational 3,500 1964-12-20 CMRR (China Mianyang Research Reactor) Mianyang: Pool Operational ...
A fast reactor uses no moderator but relies on fission produced by unmoderated fast neutrons to sustain the chain reaction. In some fast reactor designs, up to 20% of fissions can come from direct fast neutron fission of uranium-238, an isotope which is not fissile at all with thermal neutrons.