ipl-logo

• Does The Efficiency Of Fast Breeder Reactors Out Way The Negative Impacts They Can Have?

696 Words3 Pages

Does the efficiency of fast breeder reactors out way the negative impacts they can have?
Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR) are a type of nuclear reactor that uses nuclear fission. Fast breeder reactors differ from normal nuclear reactors because they don’t have an as affective moderator so the neutrons that are produced during fission don’t lose too much energy, these faster moving neutrons are not as good at causing fission they are regularly captured by the uranium isotope U238 which then becomes Plutonium P239. The plutonium is made more regularly than it is used in FBR’s, it can be used as more fuel for nuclear reactors but it can also be made into Nuclear weapons, this is where the problem with FBR’s is. (Karam, 2006)
The advantages of using FBR’s are; they create 30% more fuel then they use, they can generate much more energy than traditional coal power plants. Even 3 g of uranium, on undergoing fission, can release ten times the energy produced by a ton of coal, U235 which is used in traditional nuclear reactors is rare on earth and is likely to run out within 100 years but U238 which is used in FBR’s is a common as tin and likely to last at least 1000 years, because they reuse …show more content…

(Chavan, 2016). The area that would be affected if this did happen would not be inhabitable for a very long time because the half-life for the plutonium that would be released is 24000 years, this plutonium is very toxic and will cause cancer if only a tiny bit is inhaled. The cost of making a FBR is very high so the reactor would have to be operating for a very long time to make as much money as they take to build. The plutonium can also be made into nuclear weapons so they could be sabotaged by terrorist’s and used as

Open Document