Fast Reactors: A Solution to Fight Against Global Warming

By Joel Guidez

Fast Reactors: A Solution to Fight Against Global Warming presents the current status of fast-reactor nuclear generation technology, with a focus on ecology and sustainability benefits for the future. Author Joel Guidez analyzes past failures and limited deployment reasons to help drive this power generation method forward to a cleaner and more sustainable energy environment. The book covers safety aspects, short-life waste management, multirecycling, and biodiversity preservation to provide a well-rounded reference on the topic.

• Analyzes reasons for past failures and presents the advantages of fast reactors
• Reviews the status of fast-reactor technology, for sodium fast reactors and molten salt reactors with liquid fuel
• Presents ways in which fast nuclear reactors can help fight climate change and promote sustainability for the future

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Sep 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9780128219423

Joel Guidez

Joel Guidez is the CEA, Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission based in Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Book preview

Introduction

Joel Guidez

For the serious reader, there are today two categories of books: those that focus on the content and aim to communicate a particular knowledge, and those that focus on the structures and modes in which facts are organized.

The first two books I wrote on the subject of fast sodium-cooled reactors clearly fell into the former category. Their titles Phénix Experience Feedback and Superphénix Technical and Scientific Achievements clearly show a desire to capitalize on knowledge in this sector of fast sodium-cooled reactors and to transfer this knowledge to the reader.

This third book falls into the latter category. It also informs on this sector of fast reactors, but less to communicate knowledge than to try to understand why this technology, which has the potential to solve the energy problems of the planet while addressing the ecological challenges that await humanity in this field, is currently in a situation of near failure, with very low development.

A historical assessment of these reactors indeed shows a situation of abandonments, shutdowns, and postponed projects. An analysis of the reasons for this failure is then carried out, reasons that are linked largely to modes of societal organization and to structural reasons specific to each country. Although this analysis reveals obstacles, some difficult to remove, the book continues with a review of the current state of knowledge on these fast reactors and offers some proposals for the future.

One chapter outlines the status of sodium-cooled fast reactor development in Europe with the ESFR-SMART project.

In addition, developments are proposed on molten salt reactors, which offer very interesting new potential for the future of these fast reactors.

We were a small group of French engineers who, in the 1970s, understood the potential of a technology capable of producing energy for thousands of years with waste already available and stored—energy that does not produce CO2, does not produce dust, does not need a uranium mine, and works with waste already available and transforms it into waste that has a reduced duration of radiotoxicity and is therefore manageable.

We are sorry for the successive abandonments, the messes, and the extent of media lies on this subject. I hope this book will restore some truth and hope in this sustainable clean energy.

Dream or reality? The reader will remain the sole judge.

Chapter 1: Where do Homo sapiens get their energy?

Abstract

After outlining how humanity’s energy needs have evolved historically, we explain the main consequences of the recent and massive use of fossil energies, that is, global warming, linked to CO2 emissions.

Some short-term consequences of the current global warming are summarized, including the rise in sea levels, the disappearance of the poles, climate change, desertification, the acidification of the oceans, the increase in extreme climatic events, etc.

There is therefore an urgent need to reduce the use of fossil fuels. However, these currently provide around 85% of the world’s energy. Moreover, prospective studies show that, despite efforts to save energy, energy consumption will continue to grow owing to several factors: population increase, catch-up of populations in poor countries, and new needs related to digital technology or new technologies (e.g., electric cars, hydrogen).

The only current and operational alternatives that do not produce CO2 and can replace these fossil fuels are nuclear power and renewable energies: mainly solar, wind, and hydroelectric. One can mention many current research projects investigating the use of fusion, geothermal energy, CO2 capture, the tides, etc. However, these energies are not operational today and perhaps never will be, and therefore will not be useful for the development of the necessary short-term response.

The limits of renewable energies are outlined. In particular, solar and wind power cannot be controlled. As we do not know how to store large quantities of electricity, they cannot alone meet the electrical needs of a network. In addition, they are diffuse energies, requiring large surfaces, which poses other ecological problems. The example of Germany is given, which experienced difficulties with its nuclear exit policy despite massive use of renewable energies.

Only nuclear power can provide the essential and carbon-free complement to these renewable energies.

But the energy needs are immense and far exceed, even granting a large share to renewables, the possibilities of current nuclear power. In addition, certain problems must then be solved, such as the supply of uranium and the management of waste.

It is therefore necessary to analyze the possibilities of new types of reactors, capable of solving these problems and ensuring long-term clean, carbon-free, and quasirenewable energy for Homo sapiens.

Keywords

Energy; Global warming; Fossil energy; Renewable; Nuclear

Some history

Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago. It was then certainly a radioactive broth, with all the constituents of Mendeleev’s periodic table. However, the half-life of the radioactive elements being what it is, even the long-lived elements with a half-life on the order of 80 million years, like plutonium-244, have almost disappeared. (It is estimated that in a flowerpot with a kilo of soil there are about 10 becquerel of plutonium left.) Uranium would also have long since disappeared if two of its isotopes, uranium-238 and uranium-235, had not survived on Earth to the present day owing to their exceptionally long lifespans. The half-life of uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years. That of uranium-235, which disappears faster, is only 700 million years. While the abundance of the two isotopes was initially similar, natural uranium today consists of 99.3% uranium-238, compared with 0.70% uranium-235. The nuclei of uranium-235 and uranium-238 are, with those of thorium-232, the heaviest existing in nature. They were formed a very long time ago, during the explosion of very large stars called supernovae. Uranium-235 therefore remains the only fissile isotope available in nature to cross paths with Homo sapiens, who arrived much later, and today this isotope enables us to produce nuclear energy, the subject of this book.

Homo sapiens indeed appeared a very short time ago, around 150,000 years. Within a few tens of thousands of years, they succeeded in pushing the other human species to extinction and then colonized the entire planet from Africa to Europe, from Bering Strait to Tierra del Fuego, and from Asia to Australia. As a source of energy, besides the heat of the sun and the force of the wind in their sails, they could count only on their muscular strength and on the combustion of wood. This source of energy remains today a very important resource for many populations.

Sedentarization by agricultural transition was initiated in Mesopotamia around 9000 years before our era. It spread, creating larger and larger agglomerations, more and more complex societies, and new energy needs. The use of animal energy and slavery spread to provide additional energy that became necessary, at an economically affordable