It's time to give up on breeder reactors

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Volumn 66, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 50-56

  Cochran, Thomas B ^a   Feiveson, Harold A ^b   Mian, Zia ^b   Ramana, M V ^b   Schneider, Mycle ^c   Von Hippel, Frank N ^b,c  

^a NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL   (United States)

^b PRINCETON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c Princeton University's Program in Science Technology and Environmental Policy ^*

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77958151196     PISSN: 00963402     EISSN: 19383282     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2968/066003007     Document Type: Article

References (7)

1. Thomas B. Cochran, Harold A. Feiveson, Walt Patterson, Gennadi Pshakin, M.V. Ramana, Mycle Schneider, Tatsujiro Suzuki, and Frank von Hippel, "Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: History and Status," International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) Research Report no. 8, February 2010. Available at http://www. ipfmlibrary.org/rr08.pdf.
2. These projections were discussed in Mycle Schneider, Steve Thomas, Antony Froggatt, and Doug Koplow, "2009 World Nuclear Industry Status Report," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, November/December 2009, vol. 65, no. 6, pp. 1-19.
3. For a full technical analysis of how much the cost of uranium factors into the cost of electricity generated at a nuclear power plant, see Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Future of Nuclear Power, An MIT Interdisciplinary Study (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), app. 5A.
4. This would be a capital cost difference on the order of $1,000 per kilowatt of generating capacity compared to a conventional reactor. With a 10 percent capital charge and a 90 percent average capacity factor (where the reactor operated 90 percent of the time), it would translate to a cost difference of about 1.3 cents per kilowatt hour.
5. Matthew Bunn, Steve Fetter, John Holdren, and Bob van der Zwaan, "The Economics of Reprocessing Versus Direct Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel," Nuclear Technology , vol. 150 (June 2005), p. 209.
6. Klaus Janberg & Frank von Hippel, "Dry-Cask Storage: How Germany Led the Way," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September/October 2009, vol. 65, no. 5, p. 29.
7. IPFM, Global Fissile Material Report 2009: The Path to Nuclear Disarmament. Available at www.fissilematerials.org/ipfm/site-down/gfmr09.pdf.