Boiling Water Reactor

The BWR uses ordinary water (light water) as both its coolant and its moderator. In the BWR
the water in the reactor core is permitted to boil under a pressure of 75 atmospheres, raising
the boiling point to 285°C and the steam generated is used directly to drive a steam turbine.
This steam is then condensed and recycled back to the reactor core. A schematic of a BWR is
shown in Figure 17.1. Because the steam is exposed to the core, there is some radioactive
contamination of the turbines but this is short-lived and turbines can normally be accessed
soon after shutdown.

The BWR represents probably the simplest possible configuration for a nuclear reactor
because no additional heat exchangers or steam generators are required. However, the internal
systems within a BWR are complex. Steam pressure and temperature are low compared to a
modern coal-fired power plant and the steam turbine is generally very large. BWRs have
capacities of up to 1400 MW and an efficiency of around 33%.
The BWR uses enriched uranium as its fuel. This fuel is placed into the reactor in the form
of uranium oxide pellets in zirconium alloy tubes. There may be as much as 140 tonnes of fuel
in 75,000 fuel rods. Refuelling a BWR involves removing the top of the reactor. The core itself
is kept under water, the water shielding operators from radioactivity. Boron control rods enter
the core from beneath the reactor.
In common with all reactors, the fuel rods removed from a BWR reactor core are extremely
radioactive and continue to produce energy for some years. They are normally kept in a
carefully controlled storage pool at the plant before, in principle at least, being shipped for
either reprocessing or final storage.

Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor

A pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) is a nuclear power reactor, commonly using
unenriched natural uranium as its fuel, that uses heavy water (deuterium oxide D 2O) as its
coolant and moderator. The heavy water coolant is kept under pressure, allowing it to be heated
to higher temperatures without boiling, much as in a typical pressurized water reactor. While
heavy water is significantly more expensive than ordinary light water, it yields greatly
enhanced neutron economy, allowing the reactor to operate without fuel enrichment facilities
(mitigating the additional capital cost of the heavy water) and generally enhancing the ability
of the reactor to efficiently make use of alternate fuel cycles.

Below is a diagram of a typical Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor:

 Fast breeder reactors

All large power plants using fast breeder reactors employed liquid-metal fast breeder reactors,
which convert uranium-238 into the fissionable isotope plutonium-239 by means of artificial
radioactive decay. The plutonium-239 is then bombarded with high-speed neutrons. When a
plutonium nucleus absorbs one such free neutron, it splits into two fission fragments. This
fissioning releases heat as well as neutrons, which in turn split other plutonium nuclei, freeing
still more neutrons. As this process is repeated again and again, it becomes a self-sustaining
chain reaction, yielding a steady source of energy, chiefly in the form of heat, which is
transported from the reactor core by a liquid sodium coolant to a system of heat exchangers.
This system utilizes the heat to produce steam for a turbine that drives an electric generator.

Proposed fast breeders include gas-cooled fast reactors, which are cooled with helium, and
sodium-cooled and lead-cooled fast reactors. Additionally, a supercritical water fast reactor
has been proposed that would operate at a supercritical pressure to utilize fluid water that is
neither steam nor liquid.

How do fast breeder reactors differ from regular nuclear power plants?

Nuclear reactors generate energy through fission, the process by which an atomic nucleus
splits into two or more smaller nuclei. During fission, a small amount of mass is converted
into energy, which can be used to power a generator to create electricity. In order to harness
this energy, a controlled chain reaction is required for fission to take place. When a uranium
nucleus in a reactor splits, it produces two or more neutrons that can then be absorbed by other
nuclei, causing them to undergo fission as well. More neutrons are released in turn and
continuous fission is achieved.

Neutrons produced by fission have high energies and move extremely quickly. These so-called
fast neutrons do not cause fission as efficiently as slower-moving ones so they are slowed
down in most reactors by the process of moderation. A liquid or gas moderator, commonly
water or helium, cools the neutrons to optimum energies for causing fission. These slower
neutrons are also called thermal neutrons because they are brought to the same temperature
as the surrounding coolant.
In contrast to most normal nuclear reactors, however, a fast reactor uses a coolant that is not
an efficient moderator, such as liquid sodium, so its neutrons remain high-energy. Although
these fast neutrons are not as good at causing fission, they are readily captured by an isotope
of uranium (U238), which then becomes plutonium (Pu239). This plutonium isotope can be
reprocessed and used as more reactor fuel or in the production of nuclear weapons. Reactors
can be designed to maximize plutonium production, and in some cases, they actually produce
more fuel than they consume. These reactors are called breeder reactors.
Breeder reactors are possible because of the proportion of uranium isotopes that exist in nature.
Natural uranium consists primarily of U238, which does not fission readily, and U235, which
does. Natural uranium is unsuitable for use in a nuclear reactor, however, because it is only
0.72 percent U235, which is not enough to sustain a chain reaction. Commercial nuclear reactors
normally use uranium fuel that has had its U235 content enriched to somewhere between 3 and
8 percent by weight. Although the U235 does most of the fissioning, more than 90 percent of
the atoms in the fuel are U238--potential neutron capture targets and future plutonium atoms.
Pu239, which is created when U238 captures a neutron, forms U239 and then undergoes two beta
decays, happens to be even better at fissioning than U235. Pu239 is formed in every reactor and
also fissions as the reactor operates. In fact, a nuclear reactor can derive a significant amount
of energy from such plutonium fission. But because this plutonium fissions, it reduces the
amount that is left in the fuel. To maximize plutonium production, therefore, a reactor must
create as much plutonium as possible while minimizing the amount that splits.

This is why many breeder reactors are also fast reactors. Fast neutrons are ideal for plutonium
production because they are easily absorbed by U238 to create Pu239, and they cause less fission
than thermal neutrons. Some fast breeder reactors can generate up to 30 percent more fuel than
they use.

Creating extra fuel in nuclear reactors, however, is not without its concerns: One is that the
plutonium produced can be removed and used in nuclear weapons. Another is that, to extract
the plutonium, the fuel must be reprocessed, creating radioactive waste and potentially high
radiation exposures.