Fast Breeder Reactors: An Engineering Introduction

Fast Breeder Reactors: An Engineering Introduction is an introductory text to fast breeder reactors and covers topics ranging from reactor physics and design to engineering and safety considerations. Reactor fuels, coolant circuits, steam plants, and control systems are also discussed. This book is comprised of five chapters and opens with a brief summary of the history of fast reactors, with emphasis on international and the prospect of making accessible enormous reserves of energy. The next chapter deals with the physics of fast reactors and considers calculation methods, flux distribution, breeding, control rods, shielding, and reactivity coefficients. The chemistry of fast reactor fuels is also considered, along with the engineering of the core of a power-producing fast reactor and of coolant circuits and steam plants. The final chapter examines aspects of reactor safety that are peculiar to sodium-cooled oxide-fueled fast reactors and describes the inherent features of such a reactor that make for safety, followed by an analysis of risks and some of the protective systems that can be used. This monograph will be of interest to nuclear scientists, physicists, and engineers.