Review and prospect of advanced thermal reactor development

Japanese advanced thermal reactor ''Fugen'', deuterium moderating, boiling light water cooling type, has been under construction with the aim of attaining criticality by the end of Oct. 1976. The Fugen reactor is composed of the following systems; reactor main body and primary coolant system, reactor auxiliary system, fuel and fuel handling system, plant instrumentation and control system, and turbine-generator unit. Many research and development programs have been performed, and some are now in progress, to pursue reliable know-how of plant equipment design, fabrication and operational experiences, nuclear safety and so on. Items of R and D programs are categorized into design, nuclear physics, heat transfer and fluid flow, safety, fuel and material, and trial manufacture and development of components and equipments. Most parts of these R and D programs have been performed at Oarai Engineering Center of Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation. Advanced thermal reactors utilize relatively small amount of natural uranium, therefore many problems on nuclear fuel will come to suitable solution in near future. (Iwase, T.)