3 ms·
France needs to invest - and has already done so - in the development of fast breeder reactors [1] which are used to create ("breed") fissionable fuel from non-
by the_third_wave 4y ago
France needs to invest - and has already done so - in the development of fast breeder reactors [1] which are used to create ("breed") fissionable fuel from non-fissionable material in spent fuel rods. They already developed such reactors (Rhapsodie, Phenix and Superphenix [2]) but currently they do not have a functioning FBR to rework spent fuel rods. Using fast breeder reactors the 60 GTEP (Gigaton equivalent energy from petroleum products) in available fissionable Uranium can be turned into ~7000 GTEP of fissionable fuel. As a comparison, this is 9 times as much energy as is available from coal (420 GTEP), oil (189 GTEP) and gas (160 GTEP) combined (source: [2], page 6).
[1] https://www.nuclear-power.com/breeder-reactor/ https://www.nuclear-power.com/breeder-reactor/
[2] https://www.gen-4.org/gif/upload/docs/application/pdf/2017-12/gifiv_webinar_phenix_superphenix_final_guidez.pdf https://www.gen-4.org/gif/upload/docs/application/pdf/2017-1...