Conception of a thermal breeder reactor

Automatic translation: At present, the light water reactors are the only industrially mature reactor system in the Federal Republic Germany. Their use for power generation increased the demand for natural uranium to 20,000 tons by 1980 and the further annual increase in demand is for the Federal Republic Germany stated with 1000 t /1/. If one observes the price development on the uranium market and also considers that the world demand for fuel for the light water reactors would soon exhaust the recoverable uranium reserves ( cf. Fig. 1.1 ), it becomes clear that in the long term a reactor system will be required which requires significantly less fresh uranium to be supplied annually. In addition to influencing the development of electricity prices, such a reactor concept could also achieve the long-term goal of independence in terms of energy policy.