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The whole magic of breeder reactors is that they can turn U238 into Plutonium 239 for energy
by acidburnNSA 2y ago
The whole magic of breeder reactors is that they can turn U238 into Plutonium 239 for energy
- Retric 2y agoAll reactors do that. Breeder reactors operating on spent fuel can only utilize the U238 that wasn’t discarded in the initial enrichment process. That’s what happened to the vast majority of U238 in natural uranium used to make fuel. Roughly speaking to make 100kg of 5% enriched uranium fuel you need to throw away 1,000kg of U238 + ~3kg of U235 as 1,003 kg of depleted uranium.
- acidburnNSA 2y agoBreeder reactors are defined as ones that turn more u238 into pu than the u235 they consume. The breeding ratio is greater than one in that case. So the net fissile material increases during operation.
- Retric 2y agoWhich again sounds nice, but simply isn’t useful right now. Understanding why really comes down to following each step of the progression from natural uranium ore > natural uranium > etc. But basically U238 is really cheap, and nothing else in the process is.