Difference Between Nuclear And Breeder Nuclear Reactor

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Term Paper - Light Water vs Breeder Nuclear Reactor to Replace Grid

Introduction

One of the most critical global challenges in society is the challenge of energy. The world’s dependence on nonrenewable fossil fuels that power the grid. For a collection of problems associated with fossil fuels, there is a need to adopt alternative energy sources on a wider scale for the sustainability of the world population; a strong alternative is Nuclear energy. Particularly, the process of nuclear fission is the reaction where the nucleus of an atom breaks up into two lighter nuclei. A large quantity of energy is released, radioactive products are formed, and several neutrons are emitted. If they energy in this reaction can be harnessed at a higher efficiency,
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' This set a presentence for other countries such as France using these breeder reactors to produce plutonium for weapons. France used its Phoenix breeder reactor to make weapon-grade plutonium in its blanket. Countries like the America tried proposing international safeguards to which counties rejected. So even with these more efficient reactors, energy production was not the only consequence. (Wolf 2010) The failure of the four assumptions to transpire as predicted, is the chief reason that countries have used the light water nuclear reactor as opposed to the breeder nuclear reactor. The next section will detail an innovative implementation of a fast breeder reactor that could mitigate some …show more content…
Though the BN-800 is more costly than its light water counterparts, during operation, the reactor is known to be safer. The thorium reactor is still cooled with molten salt but has an emergency shutdown where the molten salt can be dumped into a reservoir chamber under the reactor, this allows it to cool down quickly enough to harden thus leaks are no longer a significant problem. Radioactive waste is significantly reduced and it’s possible to produce much greater energy. The reactor was connected to the electricity grid in February 2016 and achieved full power for the first time in August 2016, and (Morris 2016) “In demonstrating the sheer volume of power that can be produced and serving as a global leader while doing it, forced the policy and necessary investment to work towards commercial adoption where commercial power production has now commenced in November 2016. The final sections will bring up important considerations to be aware of before dismissing fast breeder reactors for light

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