3 ms·

True. China did build a new fast test reactor last year: http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectionCode=132&storyCode=2056921 http://www.neimagazine.com/stor

• PaulHoule 16y ago
  I'd love to see some more details about that. I get the impression that sodium cooled reactors with water as a working fluid in the turbines are a non-starter today. There's not only the reactivity problem, but also the fact that the steam turbines are H-U-G-E. I think commercially workable sodium cooled reactors will use something like supercritical CO2 as the working fluid, which can produce something that's simultaneously safer and much much cheaper.
  • uvdiv 16y ago
    Not an engineer, but I don't think the sodium/water heat exchangers are a fatal setback -- for one thing, there's an intermediate sodium loop between the core sodium coolant and the turbine loop, so any sodium/water interaction* isn't near the reactor core. I'm pretty sure all SFRs to date have had steam turbines. * euphemism >but also the fact that the steam turbines are H-U-G-E. That's not enough of a setback to stop most power plants in the world from using the Rankine cycle. You should ask an engineer why this is, I am not one.