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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.
Yigal Ronen, Menashe Aboudy, Dror Regev
Nuclear Technology | Volume 129 | Number 3 | March 2000 | Pages 407-417
Technical Note | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3071
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A novel system for energy production is presented. This system has a modular composition of homogeneous reactors with H2O and 242mAm as a fuel. These reactors are spheres of 0.11-m radius and 1-MW(thermal) power and with a critical mass of 0.0201 kg of 242mAm.The advantages of homogeneous reactors are constant fuel reprocessing and constant refueling. As a result, there is a reduction of fission products, which improves the ratio of natural cooling to heat production with respect to a loss-of-control accident (LOCA) and other safety aspects. Homogeneous reactors also have a large negative temperature coefficient and small inherent excess reactivity during operation.The reactor concept we have presented for a very small, homogeneous reactor, further enhances the safety aspects in the case of a LOCA, because of a large surface-to-volume ratio.The improved safety, the simplicity, and the small volume should compensate for the use of an unconventional nuclear fuel.