Comments on terrapowers travelling wave reactor printable pdf version here by dr george s. The advanced fuel qualification methodology report will be developed for metallic fuel in a sodium fast reactor sfr environment. The traveling wave reactor twr is a oncethrough reactor that uses in situ breeding to greatly reduce the need for enrichment and reprocessing. The first wave front is the arrival of the wave at the nearest terminal, and the second wave front is the arrival of the wave at the.
The traveling wave reactor twr is a proposed reactor design that belongs to a set known as generation iv designs that are different in a number of respects than the current commercial designs which use water to cool the reactor and slow down moderate the neutrons that sustain the chain reaction. On some essential peculiarities of the traveling wave. Pdf terrapower, llc traveling wave reactor development. As a function of time, the latest design represents a standing wave or a soliton, rather than a traveling wave. A new report from the nonprofit institute for energy and environmental research ieer think tank finds that the traveling wave reactor twr concept championed by terrapower, in which bill. Icrf wave physics notes conclusions resonant ring combline preliminary design of a traveling wave antenna based on the combline structure for low coupling condition as expected in a future fusion reactor device. The reactor itself can be a traditional pressurized sodium fast breeder, or it could be a sodiumcooled pooltype reactor. From the principle of fourier analysis, an anharmonic traveling wave can be decomposed into a sum of traveling harmonic wave components, i. A travelingwave reactor twr is a type of nuclear fission reactor that can convert fertile material into usable fuel through nuclear transmutation, in tandem with the burnup of fissile material. A private company called terrapower which is funded by bill gates among others has supposedly completed a design and is looking to actually build the first reactor. Status of lead cooled fast reactors and innovative design concepts 0. The traveling reactor the potential to approach the ideal system burning will propagate through fertile indefinitely defthrough core pu239 the wave fissions the bred pu239 as well as some of the u238 directly wast e a viable fuel sufficient for tens of thousands of. The more complete burnup of the fuel rod meant less waste would be produced as fewer rods were needed, and the decadeslong fuel cycle meant far fewer.
It is a sodiumcooled fast reactor design in which neutrons are not slowed down and the heat created by fission is carried away by liquid sodium, which is used to boil water. Bill gates on the wrong path with travelling wave reactors. Small modular reactors smrs are a type of nuclear fission reactor which are smaller than conventional reactors, and manufactured at a plant and brought to a site to be assembled. Nuclear experts head to china to test experimental reactors. The sel411l and selt400l relays can record travelingwave data in order to provide a highly accurate fault location. Chapter 2 travelling wave tube operation in order to design a helixtype traveling wave tube amplifier twta, it is necessary to understand the operating physics of a travelling wave tube twt. Likewise, a typical reactor today produces 21 metric. The reactor uses depleteduranium fuel packed inside hundreds of hexagonal pillars shown in black and green.
A wave reactor on fast neutrons in selfregulating neutronnuclear mode of the second kind is known. The traveling wave reactor, first conceived in 1958, has been intensively investigated only since about 2006. The fuel used in these reactors must attain peak burnups that are 50% higher and fluences that are more than twice those previously experienced. What are competitions and alternatives to terrapower. Simulations using mcnpx have been carried out to analyze the space and time evolution of flux in a traveling wave reactor under constant thermal power condition. This reactor does not implement a slow traveling solitonlike wave of neutronnuclear burning mode. Could the traveling wave reaction be adapted as a particlebed reactor design, to allow it to serve the higher power demands and variable power demands of aerospace propulsion applications. Director of the program on science, technology, and public policy. In 1958, feinberg feinberg, 1958 first proposed that nuclear breedingburning waves can selfsustain and propagate in fissile material. First it was presented in papers 5,6 and its advanced implementation was patented in 14. On some fundamental peculiarities of the traveling wave. Twr, sstar, and similar proposals differ from previous fast breeders by putting a.
Unlike todays reactors, a travelingwave reactor requires very little enriched uranium, reducing the risk of weapons proliferation. Walter, jon mcwhirter, charles ahlfeld, thomas burke, ash. Solve the boundary values problem by means of fourier expansion of. Some have operated well, while others have done poorly. A comparison of advanced nuclear technologies 2 center on global energy policy columbia sipa acknowledgments the author wishes to thank nicola deblasio, richard nephew, phil sharp, sue tierny, matt robinson, tim frazier. The two superimposed wave forms give the information we need to determine fault location. The traveling wave that the reactors name references moves through the units core at a rate of only one centimeter per year. Some of the new designs, including terrapowers traveling wave unit, are breeder reactors that produce more atomic fuel than they consume, reducing. The traveling wave reactor is a liquidmetalcooled, fastneutron breeder reactor, with many of the same advantages and disadvantages as other fast breeder reactors. For example, could it be used to power a launch vehicle for the 20minutes it might take to get to orbit. Eighth joint iaea gif technical meetingworkshop on the. It is possible both to increase the speed, the thermal power and the nal uence as well as decrease them. The powerpoint presentation shows a traveling wave reactor design with a core life of 100 years without reloading or reprocessing. Terrapower expects a typical 1,200megawatt traveling wave reactor to produce 5 metric tons of waste per gigawatt year, not 5 metric megatons.
The integral fast reactor ifr, originally advanced liquidmetal reactor is a design for a nuclear reactor using fast neutrons and no neutron moderator a fast reactor. A truly sustainable and fullscale resource for global energy needs tyler ellis, robert petroski, pavel hejzlar, george zimmerman, david mcalees, charles whitmer, nicholas touran, jonatan hejzlar, kevan weaver, joshua c. He is now retired from argonne national laboratory after a career. The licensees of nuclear facilities have primary responsibility for planning and. Our vision is to be a world leader in new nuclear technologies that bring the world sustainable, affordable, and safe energy and create high benefit products. A traveling wave reactor twr is a proposed type of nuclear fission reactor that can convert fertile material into usable fuel through nuclear transmutation, in tandem with the burnup of fissile material. The traveling wave reactor twr represents a new class of nuclear reactor. Stanford reactor physicist, retired september, 2010 we hear from time to time about the traveling wave reactor that is being developed by terrapower, an organization sponsored by bill gates.
Current status of lfr development mr alessandro alemberti, gifitaly 0. Comments on terrapowers travelling wave reactor george s. Terrapower, llc traveling wave reactor development program overview article pdf available in nuclear engineering and technology 456 november 20 with 473 reads how we measure reads. On the basis of conditions for existence of nuclear burning wave in neutronmultiplicating media upu and thu cycles we show the possibility of surmounting. Traveling wave reactor wikipedia republished wiki 2. Fast travelingwave reactor of the channel type vitaliy d. The traveling wave reactor, twr constitutes a reformulation of the liquid metal fast reactor, lmfbr and the coupled cores concepts and a reformulation of battery reactors based on naval propulsion reactors designs. Contribute to sswelmksp interstellarextended development by creating an account on github. Traveling wave reactors ahmed sharif march 21, 2011 submitted as coursework for physics 241, stanford university, winter 2011 history and current status. Sodiumcooled fast reactors have a checkered history. U238 for aerospace propulsion traveling wave reactor. Terrapowers travelling wave reactor why not use an ifr. Terrapowers nuclear reactor could power the 21st century. Twrs differ from other kinds of fastneutron and breeder reactors in their ability to use fuel efficiently without uranium enrichment or reprocessing, instead directly using depleted uranium, natural.
George is is a nuclear reactor physicist, part of the team that developed the integral fast reactor. The concept of the traveling wave reactor twr was first proposed in 1958 at a international atomic energy meeting. For the analyses of flux shape, a 3d boxshaped model of the reactor is developed. The most recent commercial demonstration reactors belong.
The wave doesnt actually move at all, but this is the easiest way. Kennedy and aris showed the existence of traveling waves for the case v 0 and 0 and conjectured the existence. Ifr would breed more fuel and is distinguished by a nuclear fuel cycle that uses reprocessing via electrorefining at the reactor site ifr development began in 1984 and the u. Pantak 1department of theoretical and experimental nuclear physics, odessa national polytechnic university, odessa, ukraine 2state ecological academy for postgraduate education, kiev, ukraine. Modular reactors allow for less onsite construction, increased containment efficiency, and heightened nuclear materials security. Travelingwave fault locating schweitzer engineering. Terrapowers traveling wave reactor twr incorporates inherent safety features and reduces the risk for proliferation in the nuclear energy supply chain. In a wave that moves through the core at only a centimeter per year, this. The mechanism can be used for constructing a reactor for long operation duration with high fuel utilization, which.
Breeding converts incoming subcritical reload fuel into new critical fuel, allowing a breedburn wave to propagate. Terrapowers traveling wave reactor twr extends the safety and efficiency of nuclear energy while making it more affordable. Study of traveling wave reactor twr and candle strategy. Travelingwave reactors twrs are advanced nuclear reactors that are capable of eventually running forever given only depleted uranium fuel. The developers are k eeping many of the tec hnical details to them selv es.
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