Most nuclear power plants – both in Russia and abroad – operate in
bottom reactors in which the thermal energy of a nuclear fission reaction
transferred to water. Other countries also have nuclear power units,
where the coolant is heavy water (D 2 O) or carbon dioxide. But
it is in our country that a technology has been implemented that can become
the foundation for the nuclear energy of the future. This is a reactor
pax on fast neutrons. Do not use water in them, as
water is a moderator. The option that was chosen by the domestic
scientists – to run into the circuit as a coolant melted
ny sodium (!).
Sodium, an alkali metal, very active element – it is energetic
interacts with water (even with its vapors in the air), ignites
with low heat. However, it was decided to use
call it in the reactor. It was undoubtedly a risky move, but the risk
justified by the following considerations:
• firstly, in nuclear reactors using thermal neutrons it uses
There is only 235 U. Its content in natural uranium is only 0.7%. Basic
the same isotope in the natural mixture is 238 U (more than 99%). But his
cannot be used in thermal reactors (which are the majority in the world)
as fuel, because it is not capable of fission into thermal
neutrons. And in a fast neutron reactor 238 U can effectively
use for the production of another fissile isotope – 239 Pu;
• secondly (and this is the main advantage of fast reactors
thrones), they can get more nuclear fuel than was loaded. As mentioned in the chapter “Scientific Foundations of Nuclear Power
goetics “, when interacting with neutrons from 238 U, iso-
top plutonium – 239 Pu. This plutonium can be used not only for
making a nuclear bomb, but also as fuel for a reactor
on fast neutrons. It turns out that we burn 100 kg of fissile
isotope and we get 120-140 kg of fresh nuclear fuel – i.e.
more than used up. Because of this feature, reactors are
strong neutrons are called breeders (from the English breeder), which means
“Breeders”.
Breeders allow you to get away from the need to extract uranium from earth
subsoil (the reserves of this element are still limited), to purify and enrich
his. With such reactors we get an almost inexhaustible
source of nuclear fuel.
BR-5 – the first sodium-cooled fast reactor – was
launched in 1959. In 1968, BOR-60 was launched, and in 1973, BN-
350. In 1980, he earned (and has been successfully operating up to today
day) power unit with the BN-600 reactor (electric power
600 MW) – the world’s first large nuclear installation with a reactor
a breeder (see Fig.4.24). Other states – USA, Great Britain
Tania, France, Germany – tried to learn from our experience, but none
of foreign fast reactor projects has not been crowned with success. By-
this BN-600 still (2009) remains the only large-scale
a large-scale installation with a fast neutron reactor.
Figure 4.24 – Diagram of a power unit with a BN-600 reactor