Reeder construction12/30/2023 Another consideration with the use of sodium as a coolant is the absorption of neutrons to generate the radioactive isotope 24 This latter event occurred in the Monju reactor in Japan in 1995, although sodium burns only gently in air, and the sodium leak did not release any radioactive elements. The fact that the PFBR is cooled by liquid sodium creates additional safety requirements to isolate the coolant from the environment, especially in a loss of coolant accident scenario, since sodium explodes if it comes into contact with water and burns when in contact with air. Further active defenses against the positive feedback possibility include two independent SCRAM shutdown systems, designed to shut the fission reactions down effectively within a second, with the remaining decay heat then needing to be cooled for a number of hours by the 4 independent circuits. The active-safety reactor decay heat removal system consists of four independent coolant circuits of 8MWt capacity each. Similarly, before such a potential positive void condition may form from a complete loss of coolant accident, sufficient coolant flow rates are made possible by the use of conventional pump inertia, alongside multiple inlet-perforations, to prevent the possible accident scenario of a single blockage halting coolant flow. This means that when the reactor overheats (below the boiling point of sodium) the speed of the fission chain reaction decreases, lowering the power level and the temperature. The prototype fast breeder reactor has a negative void coefficient, thus ensuring a high level of passive nuclear safety. AFFF has been responsible for fuel rod manufacturing of various types in the past. AFFF comes under "Nuclear Recycle Board" of Bhabha Atomic Research Center. The Advanced Fuel Fabrication Facility (AFFF), under the direction of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Tarapur is responsible for the fuel rods manufacturing. Designed to generate 500 MWe of electrical power, with an operational life of 40 years, it will burn a mixed uranium-plutonium MOX fuel, a mixture of PuOĢ. The reactor is a pool type LMFBR with 1,750 tonnes of sodium as coolant. The pool-type has greater thermal inertia to changes in temperature, which therefore gives more time to shut down/ SCRAM during a loss of coolant accident situation. Schematic diagram showing the difference between the Loop and Pool designs of a liquid metal fast breeder reactor. The reactor is now expected to be operational by October 2022. Īs of February 2021, around ₹6,840 crore (US$856.60 million) have been spent in the construction and commissioning of the reactor. However in August 2020, it was reported that the reactor might go critical only in December 2021. In July 2017, it was reported that the reactor is in final preparation to go critical. The power island of this project was engineered by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), largest power equipment utility of India. In 2007 the reactor was planned to begin operating in 2010, but as of 2019 it was expected to reach first criticality in 2020. Other four FBR are planned to follow beyond 2030, at sites to be defined. Construction of the first two FBR are planned at Kalpakkam, after a year of successful operation of the PFBR. The design of this reactor was started in the 1980s, as a prototype for a 600 MW FBR. This is of special significance to the Indian nuclear power generation strategy as India has one of the world's largest reserves of thorium, which could provide power for more than 10,000 years, and perhaps as long as 60,000 years. India has the capability to use thorium cycle based processes to extract nuclear fuel. The PFBR is part of the three-stage nuclear power program. The surplus plutonium (or uranium-233 for thorium reactors) from each fast reactor can be used to set up more such reactors and grow the nuclear capacity in tune with India's needs for power. The Kalpakkam PFBR is designed to use uranium-238 to breed plutonium in a sodium-cooled fast reactor design.
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