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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.
Reactors that use lead or lead-bismuth eutectic can be designed in a large range of power ratings. The Soviet union was able to operate the Alfa-class submarines with a lead-bismuth cooled intermediate-spectrum reactor moderated with beryllium from the 1960s to 1998, which had approximately 30 MW of mechanical output for 155 MW thermal power (see below).
Some reactor poisons are deliberately inserted into fission reactor cores to control the reaction; boron or cadmium control rods are the best example. Many reactor poisons are produced by the fission process itself, and buildup of neutron-absorbing fission products affects both the fuel economics and the controllability of nuclear reactors.
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 ...
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 prototypes for the development of the BN-350 reactor were the experimental reactor BR-5, built in 1959 on the territory of the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE, Obninsk, Kaluga region), and the research reactor BOR-60, [4] introduced at RIAR in 1969. (Melekess, now Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region). The development of all ...
The Argonne Fast Source Reactor was a tool used to calibrate instruments and to study fast reactor physics, augmenting the Zero Power Plutonium Reactor (ZPPR) research program. Located at Argonne-West, this low-power reactor—designed to operate at a power of only one kilowatt—contributed to an improvement in the techniques and instruments ...
Fast breeder reactors do not use moderators, since they run on fast neutrons, but the coolant (often lead or sodium) may serve as a neutron absorber and reflector. For this reason they have a positive void coefficient. Magnox reactors, advanced gas-cooled reactors and pebble bed reactors are gas-cooled and so void coefficients are not an issue ...