Article

2008-06-13 India-Pakistan

India to build clusters of Fast Breeder Reactors

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Posted by john frum 2008-06-13 16:32|| || Front Page|| [8 views ] Top

#1 They'll need to import reactor grade Plutonium to provide the initial charge for all those clusters.

The 500 MWe Indian PFBR is loaded with two tons of Plutonium. Its breeder blankets are loaded with Thorium (to produce U233) and Uranium 238 (to produce Pu239)

Posted by john frum 2008-06-13 16:44|| 2008-06-13 16:44|| Front Page Top

#2 first candidate to propose a bunch of these here as the alternative to Yucca Mtn gets my vote.

(three guesses which one would sooner die than do that, and first two don't count)

Posted by Querent 2008-06-13 17:41|| 2008-06-13 17:41|| Front Page Top

#3 The candidate who proposed the poison pill "Obama Amendment" to the India-US Nuclear (Henry Hyde) Act?

Posted by john frum 2008-06-13 17:43|| 2008-06-13 17:43|| Front Page Top

#4 "They'll need to import reactor grade Plutonium to provide the initial charge for all those clusters."

No they won't. They can process spent fuel rods from existing light water reactors to obtain it. This means that India will never have a problem with nuclear waste disposal because a "combined" cycle of having a fast breeder with a conventional light water reactor means that the 90% of the spent fuel can be recycled and that which remains will decay to background radiation levels in only 300 years or less instead of tens of thousands of years.

We had a similar program just starting but the Clinton/Gore administration killed it.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-06-13 18:48|| 2008-06-13 18:48|| Front Page Top

#5 We need to build bunches of these, enouhg to supply a large percentage of the base load.

Why is Congress sitting on its ass again?

Oh its DEMOCRAT party stonewalling.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-06-13 20:29|| 2008-06-13 20:29|| Front Page Top

#6 It is not quite as simple as it may seem. Even fast breeder reactors need to use reprocessed fuel and the reprocessing is dangerous. Parking the spent fuel for a hundred years or so, prior to repossessing is a nice safety feature. Like Arabian oil, there is a lot of Uranium. Let's use it up prior to doing dangerous things.

Posted by rammer">rammer 2008-06-13 22:11|| 2008-06-13 22:11|| Front Page Top

23:17 Chaviter the Wicked aka Broadhead6
23:11 Abdominal Snowman
22:53 OldSpook
22:52 OldSpook
22:48 JosephMendiola
22:41 Frank G
22:39 Frank G
22:35 JosephMendiola
22:35 Frank G
22:33 Frank G
22:32 Redneck Jim
22:26 USN,Ret. (from home)
22:23 JosephMendiola
22:20 Frank G
22:19 USN,Ret. (from home)
22:18 JosephMendiola
22:11 rammer
22:10 Anonymoose
22:09 CrazyFool
22:08 Frank G
22:04 JosephMendiola
22:03 Frank G
22:00 rammer
21:53 Redneck Jim