NATS 1945 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Breeder Reactor, Spent Nuclear Fuel, Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor
1 Nov 2017
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Some countries reuse pu-239 in breeder reactors (reactors which produce additional fuel from nuclear waste) The danger: need fast neutrons to compensate for lower energy output of pu-239. While ca(cid:374)ada a(cid:374)d the u. s. do(cid:374)"t re(cid:272)(cid:455)(cid:272)le the pu produ(cid:272)ed, there are so(cid:373)e nu(cid:272)lear fairing countries that do. And what they use to accomplish this is called breeder reactors. Breeder reactor: a reactor that recycles its nuclear waste so that some of it can be used as additional fuel. They are called breeders because in the process of consuming. Enriched u is sent into a standard u reactor, the waste of that reactor contains a mixture of pu-239, u-238, and the fission fragments. This waste is then sent to a recycling plant where the pu-239 and u-238 is extracted from the spent fuel rod and is fed back into the reactor, while the fission fragments are placed in a storage facility.
