Q Does Terrapower's Natrium reactor produce extra plutonium 239 that needs to be extracted and properly disposed off? It is very hard to get this information about traveling wave reactors.
Andy Dawson
BSc Nuclear engineering from University of Manchester (Graduated 1982)Author has 2.6K answers and 2.5M answer views2y
It'll be quite happy to burn its own Pu - something not often realised is that about 20–30% of the power produced by even thermal spectrum reactors is produced by Pu bred “in situ”.
Natrium is based on the “PRISM” fast reactor design developed by GE-Hitachi. PRISM was designed to be able to be operated in a several modes - (1) running as a Pu burner with no 238U in the core, hence zero Pu production; (2) sub-breakeven breeding where in situ breeding would extend file life but there would be some residual Pu in spent fuel; (3) breakeven or better breeding where a 238U “fertile” blanket traps leakingbfast neutrons and breeds as much Pu as is burned or more.
For (2) and particularly (3) an actinide extraction plant would be required. PRISM was to have been the reactor component of the IFR project where it would be combined with an on-site “pyro processing” plant. That's basically an electrolyte process that separates U, Pu, Am and so on for fabrication into fuel. The fact that PRISM used metal fuel enabled that.
Natrium doesn't, in the firm proposed for Kemperer include a fertile blanket or pyroprocessing plant, so is presumably run on (1) or (2).
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)