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Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
Alvin Radkowsky, Alex Galperin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 124 | Number 3 | December 1998 | Pages 215-222
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2921
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The nonproliferative light water thorium technology, also known as RTF (Radkowsky thorium fuel), provides a new approach to light water reactor core design. An RTF core is completely nonproliferative for all practical purposes, provides major reductions in radwaste, reduces fuel cycle cost and consumption of natural uranium, does not require soluble boron control during operation, and is once-through (i.e., does not require reprocessing). The core is made up of multiple seed-blanket units with uranium-zirconium alloy in the seed regions and thorium oxide with ~10% uranium oxide in the blanket regions. A key advantage is that an RTF core has exactly the same control drives and support plates. An RTF core with plutonium substituted for uranium is also optimum for incinerating either weapons- or reactor-grade plutonium, burning at three times the rate obtainable with mixed oxide (MOX). Use of MOX also requires considerable core modifications and produces 60% new plutonium, while RTF core produces none.