3 ms·

AFAIK most fast-neutron reactors can be used as both burners and breeders depending on loaded blanket. The same neutron flux can be used to split actinides and

by fuoqi 5y ago

AFAIK most fast-neutron reactors can be used as both burners and breeders depending on loaded blanket. The same neutron flux can be used to split actinides and transform U238. The planned BREST reactor is a good example here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BREST_(reactor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BREST_(reactor)

jhgb 5y ago
But you can't end up simultaneously with less and more actinides at the same time. That alone is mathematical impossibility.
- fuoqi 5y ago
  What? Different blankets simply produce different results. Load blanket with mostly U238, irradiate it with fast neutron flux for a bit, and finally radio-chemically process the result to extract useful fission elements for new fuel rods to be used in thermal-neutron reactors. Load blanket with waste (stuff which you got after removing Uranium and Plutonium from spent fuel rods) and keep under fast neutron flux for some time and in addition to a bit of energy you will get radioactive, but relatively short-lived waste since almost all actinides will be destroyed.
  - jhgb 5y ago
    Then you're reconfiguring a breeder into a burner. You don't have both at the same time. But I have to say that the part where you concentrate a substantial mass of an unholy mix of medium-lived actinides to be burned into a fairly large structure seems kind of scary. I'm not sure I'd like to work in that part of a nuclear fuel processing plant. Fortunately it's almost certainly an academic question because the probability of this coming into fruition is very low nowadays.
    - fuoqi 5y ago
      >Then you're reconfiguring a breeder into a burner. You don't have both at the same time. My point was what the same fast reactor can be used as both breeder and burner without specifying "at the same time". And I am pretty sure (though not 100% confident) that you can mix both breeder and burner rods, thus changing breeder/burner ratio at will. >the part where you concentrate a substantial mass of an unholy mix of medium-lived actinides to be burned into a fairly large structure seems kind of scary Yeah, fuel and waste handling is probably the most difficult part of a breeder/burner system, not the reactor itself.

by fuoqi 5y ago

jhgb 5y ago

But you can't end up simultaneously with less and more actinides at the same time. That alone is mathematical impossibility.

fuoqi 5y ago
What? Different blankets simply produce different results. Load blanket with mostly U238, irradiate it with fast neutron flux for a bit, and finally radio-chemically process the result to extract useful fission elements for new fuel rods to be used in thermal-neutron reactors. Load blanket with waste (stuff which you got after removing Uranium and Plutonium from spent fuel rods) and keep under fast neutron flux for some time and in addition to a bit of energy you will get radioactive, but relatively short-lived waste since almost all actinides will be destroyed.
- jhgb 5y ago
  Then you're reconfiguring a breeder into a burner. You don't have both at the same time. But I have to say that the part where you concentrate a substantial mass of an unholy mix of medium-lived actinides to be burned into a fairly large structure seems kind of scary. I'm not sure I'd like to work in that part of a nuclear fuel processing plant. Fortunately it's almost certainly an academic question because the probability of this coming into fruition is very low nowadays.
  - fuoqi 5y ago
    >Then you're reconfiguring a breeder into a burner. You don't have both at the same time. My point was what the same fast reactor can be used as both breeder and burner without specifying "at the same time". And I am pretty sure (though not 100% confident) that you can mix both breeder and burner rods, thus changing breeder/burner ratio at will. >the part where you concentrate a substantial mass of an unholy mix of medium-lived actinides to be burned into a fairly large structure seems kind of scary Yeah, fuel and waste handling is probably the most difficult part of a breeder/burner system, not the reactor itself.