What is the difference between a nuclear reactor and 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. In breeders, approximately 70 percent of this isotope can be utilized for power production.

What is a fast breeder nuclear reactor?

A Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) is a nuclear reactor that uses fast neutron to generate more nuclear fuels than they consume while generating power, dramatically enhancing the efficiency of the use of resources. Nuclear fission by fast neutron causes the increase in neutrons generated.

What is the difference between thermal reactor and fast reactor?

In thermal reactors, the fission chain reaction is sustained by the thermal neutrons that have energy of 0.025eV and velocity of 2.2km/s. In fast reactors, the chain reaction is sustained by fast neutrons that have energy of 1 – 10MeV and velocity of around 50,000km/s.

What are the fast nuclear reactors?

Fast reactors are nuclear reactors that are designed to maintain their neutrons at high energies. Fast neutrons can unlock the energy in the dominant isotope of uranium (U238) and thus extend known fuel resources by many orders of magnitude, enabling nuclear power to achieve long term sustainability.

Why is it called a breeder reactor?

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.

What are fast breeder reactor examples?

Fast breeder reactor

• Gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR) cooled by helium.
• Sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) based on the existing liquid-metal FBR (LMFBR) and integral fast reactor designs.
• Lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) based on Soviet naval propulsion units.

What is the thermal reactor What is the fast reactor?

A fast-neutron reactor (FNR) or simply a fast reactor is a category of nuclear reactor in which the fission chain reaction is sustained by fast neutrons (carrying energies above 0.5 MeV or greater, on average), as opposed to thermal neutrons used in thermal-neutron reactors.