Sodium-cooled 1,000 MWe fast breeder reactor design study (1st cycle)

This is a brief summary of a design study undertaken in the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute on a 1,000 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor. The following conditions were adopted as the design targets: Good breeding ratio in the reactor core; small positive reactivity of sodium void in the central channel of the core; 2-zoned power flattening by optimizing the core material composition, reasonable maximum clad temperature for cladding. PuO₂-UO₂ mixed oxide was chosen as fuel material. A rotating core concept was considered for refueling. A total breeding ratio of 1.44 was obtained. A doubling time of about 9 years is possible with this design. A rough estimate of power cost gives a value of 1.48 yen/kWh. (author)