About FAST BREEDER REACTOR

1. Fast Breeder Reactor

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 !!