Do breeder reactors violate the principle of energy conservation?
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Do breeder reactors violate the principle of energy conservation?
Fast breeder reactor does not produce more fuel than it is is provided initially. So conservation of energy principle is not violated. Fast breeder reactor are designed to create or breed new fissile material, while producing useful electric power.
How can a breeder reactor produce more fuel than it consumes?
Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile material, such as uranium-238 or thorium-232, that is loaded into the reactor along with fissile fuel.
Which fuel is used in fast breeder reactor?
uranium-238
Fast reactors more deliberately use the uranium-238 as well as the fissile U-235 isotope used in most reactors. If they are designed to produce more plutonium than the uranium and plutonium they consume, they are called fast breeder reactors (FBRs).
What is the main function of breeder reactor?
Breeder reactors are designed to generate nuclear fuel at the same time as producing energy for electricity production. This is possible because a small number of isotopes will capture neutrons produced in a reactor, starting a reaction that leads to a new, heavy fissile isotope.
Which fuel is used in a fast breeder reactor?
What are breeder reactor used for?
What nuclear fuel is produced in a breeder reactor?
Whereas a conventional nuclear reactor can use only the readily fissionable but more scarce isotope uranium-235 for fuel, a breeder reactor employs either uranium-238 or thorium, of which sizable quantities are available. Uranium-238, for example, accounts for more than 99 percent of all naturally occurring uranium.
What is the advantage of fast breeder reactor Programme in India?
Advantages of Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR): Fast Breeder Reactors are safe and efficient apart from the benefits from environmental considerations. Electricity generated by FBR would be a source of green energy as the waste from the first stage nuclear programme is reprocessed and used as fuel in FBR.