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Conference Article: The Gulf General Atomic gas-cooled fast breeder reactor system

Abstract

The basically important features of helium as a medium for fast reactor cooling and their influence on reactor design are first discussed. The essential conclusion is that helium can indeed provide cooling adequate to achieve the highest useful fuel ratings; furthermore, with helium, the serious thermal-shock problems associated with the extreme heat-transfer properties of liquid metals are avoided. Other favorable features of helium that particularly influence safety, maintenance, and capital cost are also enumerated. Following a statement of ground rules and objectives, the design of a 300~MW(e) GCFR Demonstration Plant is summarized and then the principal features of this design that particularly characterize it, and the reasons for their being selected, are discussed. Tables listing the performance of the GCFR demonstration plant and that of a projected lOOO-MW(e) prototype are included. On the comparative basis of operation only at hot-spot temperatures presently projected for LMFBR fuel (700°C), a fuel rating of 1 MW(t)/kg of fissile material is obtained as well as a conversion ratio of 1.45. The conclusion is that even with no allowance for eventual higher temperature operation, a gas coolant can provide all the cooling a fast breeder reactor needs, and in so doing, it also uniquely provides a very high breeding gain. Furthermore, many practical engineering problems associated with liquid metal systems, particularly in the areas of safety and maintenance, are considerably eased with a gas-cooled system.

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Reference:

Proceedings of the IAEA study group meeting sponsored by the USSR State Committee on the Utilization of Atomic Energy, held at the Institute of Nuclear Energy of the Byelorussian Academy of Sciences Minsk, 24-28 July 1972.

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

IAEA-TECDOC--154, pp:62-77