The Accelerator Breeder, a Viable Option for the Production of Nuclear Fuels

Abstract

Despite the growing pains of the US Nuclear Power Industry, the dependence of the United States on nuclear energy for the production of electricity and, possibly, process heat is likely to increase dramatically over the next few decades. This paper dismisses fusion as being entirely too speculative to be practical within that time frame. Presently, between the years 2000 and 2050, fissile materials will be in short supply, whether to fuel existing inefficient LWR's or to provide initial fuel inventories for FBR's. The accelerator breeder could produce the fuel shortfall predicted to occur during the first half of the next century. The accelerator breeder offers the only practical means today of producing, or breeding, large quantities of fissile fuels from fertile materials, albeit at high cost. Studies performed over the last few years at Chalk River Laboratory and at Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated that the accelerator breeder is practical, technically feasible with state-of-the-art technology, and can be made to be economically competitive with any other proposed synthetic means of fissile fuel production. This paper gives the parameters of a nearly optimized accelerator-breeder system, then discusses the developmental needs and the economics and institutional problems which this breeding concept faces.