Better and faster
26 likes2,657 views
Fast breeder reactors can breed more fissile material than they consume, improving fuel utilization. They use liquid metal like sodium for cooling instead of water as moderators are not needed. India's first commercial fast breeder reactor, the 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, is under construction and will go critical in 2014. Fast breeders and reprocessing of spent fuel can help reduce nuclear waste and allow uranium resources to last much longer than current light water reactors.
Better and faster
- 2. Outline Introduction : Fission & Fusion Nuclear Reactor : Fast Breeder Reactor Faster and Better ?? How?? Liquid Metal coolant How is it Different? Fact Check + India’s Pride & Uses Nuclear Waste : Best From waste References
- 3. Fusion It is a nuclear reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei collide at very high speed and join to form a new type of atomic nucleus . During this process Mass is not conserved because “The loss in Mass is the gain in fusion energy”. “E=Mc2”
- 4. Fission It is either a Nuclear reaction or a radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of a particle splits into smaller parts . The fission process often produce free neutrons and photons in the form of gamma rays , and also release a very large amount of energy.
- 5. Nuclear Reactor Nuclear Reactor generate energy through the “controlled” fission. Atomic nucleus split in to two or more smaller nuclei. A small amount of mass is converted in to energy , which can be used to power a generator to create electricity.
- 6. Fast Breeder Reactor In normal Nuclear reactors , moderators are used to control speed of neutrons ( i.e., energy), so that fission can occur efficiently . Thermal neutrons or slow moving neutrons have the same temperature as coolant. In FBR , neutrons remain High energetic as it contains coolant which is not an efficient moderator, such as liquid sodium . Although these fast neutrons obtained from U- 235, are not as good at causing fission, they are readily captured by an isotope U-238,which then becomes Pu-239. Better and faster ??? How??
- 7. This Plutonium isotope can be reprocessed and used as more reactor fuel. In this, we can achieve a situation where more fissile plutonium nuclei are produced in a unit time than the number of fissile nuclei which undergo fission ,which leads to chain reaction . Hence these are called Breeder Reactors.
- 8. Schematic of the reaction
- 9. 1 Fuel (fissile material) 2 Fuel (breeder material) 3 Control rods 4 Primary Na pump 5 Primary Na coolant 6 Reactor vessel 7 Protective vessel 8 Reactor cover 9 Cover 10 Na/Na heat exchanger 11 Secondary Na 12 Secondary Na pump 13 Steam generator 14 Fresh steam 15 Feedwater pre-heater 16 Feedwater pump 17 Condenser 18 Cooling water 19 Cooling water pump 20 High pressure turbine 21 Low pressure turbine 22 Generator 23 Reactor building
- 10. The core of fast breeder reactor consist of two parts : the fuel rods which contain a mixture of uranium dioxide and Plutonium dioxide , are found in the inner part. Hence fission reaction dominate ,while in outer part ,the predominant process is conversion of U-238 to Pu-239. In FBR, there must not be any moderator which implies that water is not at all suitable as coolant . instead some liquid metal,usually sodium is applied.
- 11. Liquid Metal Coolant Typical metal used is sodium Some reactors use lead, lead-bismuth alloy, or sodium fluoride salt Advantages of sodium Low melting temperature (98°C) High boiling temperature (892°C) High heat capacity System can run at low pressure Risks of sodium Burns when it comes in contact with air or water Poisonous fumes
- 12. FAST BREEDER REACTOR Vs pressurized water reactors FBR Fuel is enriched to 15-20% Moderator: none Heat transfer by liquid metal or metal alloys Typically sodium Reactor under low pressure ~1.2 fissile atoms produced per fission PWR Fuel is enriched to 3-5% Moderator: water Heat transfer by water Reactor under high pressure Fissile material is only consumed
- 13. Fact Check !! The largest nuclear power plant with a fast breeder reactor is the Superphenix in France, which started operation in 1986. • Idaho National laboratory (U.S)- experimental Breeder reactor in 1951 became the first plant to produce electricity. There will be six of me in India !! I breed faster Let me focus on world domination!!
- 14. INDIA’s PRIDE India’s first commercial fast breeder reactor — the 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) — is at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu. The reactor will go critical in september 2014. Electricity generated from the PFBR would be sold to the State Electricity Boards at Rs. 4.44 a unit. BHAVINI builds the breeder reactors in India. (Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd. Is a government owned corporation of India established in 2004 in Chennai).
- 15. uses Production of electricity in a large scale . Heat from nuclear reactors can be used for direct heating, as process heat for industry or for desalination plants , used to make clean drinkable water from seawater. Another important use for reactors is the utilization of their high neutron fluxes for studying the structure and properties of materials. Heat generated by radioactive decay can be converted into electricity through thermoelectric effect in semiconductor materials and thereby produce Atomic Batteries.
- 16. Nuclear Waste
- 17. Best from waste !! If developed sensibly, nuclear power could be truly sustainable and essentially inexhaustible and could operate without contributing to climate change. The key to recycling of nuclear fuel is the electrorefining procedure. This process removes the true waste, the fission products, from the uranium, plutonium and the other actinides (heavy radioactive elements) in the spent fuel. The actinides are kept mixed with the plutonium so it cannot be used directly in weapons.
- 18. Spent fuel from today’s reactors (uranium and plutonium oxide) would first undergo oxide reduction to convert it to metal, whereas spent metallic uranium and plutonium fuel from fast reactors would go straight to the electrorefiner. Electrorefining resembles electroplating: spent fuel attached to an anode would be suspended in a chemical bath; then electric current would plate out uranium and other actinides on the cathode. The extracted elements would next be sent to the cathode processor to remove residual salts and cadmium from refining. Finally, the remaining uranium and actinides would be cast into fresh fuel rods, and the salts and cadmium would be recycled.
- 20. REFERENCE SMARTER USE OF NUCLEAR WASTE : -By William H. Hannum, Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford 2005 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA ONLINE. NUCLEAR PHYSICS : -By Kenneth Crain
- 21. Is it the end or the beginning for me !! Thank you !!