Dual fluid reactor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Dual Fluid Reactor is a reactor concept of the Canadian company Dual Fluid Energy Inc. It combines techniques from molten salt reactors (MSR) and liquid metal cooled reactors. In contrast to classical molten salt reactor designs, the Dual Fluid Reactor employs a liquid metallic actinide mixture fuel, while the coolant is provided by a separate liquid metal loop, typically using molten lead. It is intended to reach the criteria for reactors of the Generation IV International Forum. The Dual Fluid Reactor is classified by its developers as the first Generation V nuclear reactor, characterized by the physical separation of liquid metallic fuel and coolant and by the provision for continuous fuel processing beyond Generation IV reactor concepts.[1]
The fuel can be a molten solution of actinide chloride salts, or it can be pure liquid actinide metal. Cooling is provided by molten lead in a separate loop. It is a fast breeder reactor, and can use both uranium and thorium to breed fissile material, as well as recycle processed high-level waste and plutonium.
The reactor is inherently safe, because decay heat can be removed passively. This takes advantage of the high thermal conductivity of the molten metal.
U-238 of a spent nuclear fuel element of a light water reactor can be dissolved in Chlorine-salt, including long-living transuranic isotopes. Breeding and fission could power a 300MW electrical Dual Fluid Reactor for about 25 years. The initial fuel would be completely converted into fission products with radiotoxicity reduced from a hundreds of thousands of years to a few hundred years.[2] This essentially eliminates the need for problematic long term storage.
For the DF-300 (300 MW) design variant, projected levelized electricity costs of approximately 2.7 US cents per kilowatt-hour are reported by the developer, based on modelling assumptions including high fuel utilisation and simplified plant design. [3]
