However, the current nuclear fuel cycle has some attributes that make it challenging to expand on a global scale. The traveling wave reactor, first conceived in 1958, has been intensively investigated only since about 2006. The mechanism can be used for constructing a reactor for long operation duration with high fuel utilization, which. He is now retired from argonne national laboratory after a career. Shanghai first published in may 2011 at the 22nd esact meeting in vienna, austria. Some of the fastspectrum neutrons produced by fission are absorbed by neutron capture in adjacent fertile fuel i. A private company called terrapower which is funded by bill gates among others has supposedly completed a design and is looking to actually build the first reactor.
Terrapowers traveling wave reactor twr incorporates inherent safety features and reduces the risk for proliferation in the nuclear energy supply chain. Maple code is presented which performs this procedure automatically to obtain the speci c. China is becoming the testing ground for a new breed of nuclear power stations designed to be safer and cheaper, as scientists from the u. In 1958, feinberg feinberg, 1958 first proposed that nuclear breedingburning waves can selfsustain and propagate in fissile material.
Current issue copyright 2015 china engineering science press. The traveling wave reactor twr is a proposed reactor design that belongs to a set known as generation iv designs that are different in a number of respects than the current commercial designs which use water to cool the reactor and slow down moderate the neutrons that sustain the chain reaction. Terrapowers travelling wave reactor why not use an ifr. This reactor does not implement a slow traveling solitonlike wave of neutronnuclear burning mode.
A truly sustainable and fullscale resource for global energy needs pdf. Traveling wave reactor wikipedia republished wiki 2. Nonlinear stability of periodic traveling waves of the bbm system hakkaev, sevdzhan, communications in mathematical analysis, 20. The basic design of the fast uraniumplutonium nuclear travelingwave reactor with a soft ened neutron spectrum is developed, which solves. And while government researchers intermittently bring out new reactor designs, the travelingwave reactor is noteworthy for having come from something that barely exists in the nuclear industry. The traveling wave reactor design also operates at atmospheric pressure, which removes the possibility of a pressurerelated destabilizing event. Travelingwave reactors twrs are advanced nuclear reactors that are capable of eventually running forever given only depleted uranium fuel. The steady state operating reactor current equals 1932 amps, with the capacitor banks in service simultaneously. The traveling wave reactor twr is a proposed reactor design that belongs to. China isnt building a traveling wave nuclear plant yet. September 20 institute for energy and environmental research.
The most practical embodiments of the twr involve moving the fuel while keeping the nuclear reactions in one place. High yield antibody production in a disposable wave. Terrapowers traveling wave reactor twr is designed to be a liquid sodium cooled fast reactor that uses depleted uranium as fuel. The constant coefficient telegraphers equations form. Some have operated well, while others have done poorly. Terrapowers nuclear reactor could power the 21st century. Sustainability of a twr economy 235 the main difference between thermal reactors and fast reactors is the degree to which uranium can be burned. Travelingwave reactor twr technology, being developed by terrapower, llc, represents a potential solution to these limitations by offering a nuclear energy. A wave reactor on fast neutrons in selfregulating neutronnuclear mode of the second kind is known. It will be capable of utilizing fuel made from depleted uranium a waste byproduct of the uranium enrichment process allowing it to gradually convert the fuel through a nuclear reaction without. Travelling waves 1 introduction one of the cornerstones in the study of both linear and nonlinear pdes is the wave propagation.
The company is exploring proposed reactor designs such as the traveling wave reactor and the molten salt reactor to find one that would be more costcompetitive and less accidentprone than past. In 2006, terrapower launched an effort to develop the first practical engineering embodiment of a breedand burn fast reactor, producing a design concept known as a travelingwave reactor twr. A travelingwave reactor twr is a proposed type of nuclear fission reactor that can convert fertile material into usable fuel through nuclear transmutation, in tandem with the burnup of fissile material. The travelling wave reactor concept is for a novel, fast neutron spectrum reactor that would use insitu breeding of its nuclear fuel essentially, the creation of the fuel within the reactor to. We also have plans for a 1,000 mw electric reactor. This breedandburn reactor concept caught the attention of dr.
The travelingwave reactor, in concept, would use depleted uranium to produce vast amounts of energy without the need for enrichment plants and reprocessing facilities, which is why billionaire bill gates is interested in developing it. From the principle of fourier analysis, an anharmonic traveling wave can be decomposed into a sum of traveling harmonic wave components, i. In a wave that moves through the core at only a centimeter per year, this. Bill gates and china partner on worldfirst nuclear technology. George is is a nuclear reactor physicist, part of the team that developed the integral fast reactor. Bill gates on the wrong path with travelling wave reactors. Terrapowers traveling wave reactor twr is designed to be a liquid sodiumcooled fast reactor that uses depleted uranium as fuel. The most recent commercial demonstration reactors belong.
Unlike todays reactors, a travelingwave reactor requires very little enriched uranium, reducing the risk of weapons proliferation. It is a sodiumcooled fast reactor design in which neutrons are not slowed down and the heat created by fission is carried away by liquid sodium, which is used to boil water. A wave is a recognizable signal which is transferred from one part of the medium to another part with a recognizable speed of propagation. The bifurcations of traveling wave solutions of the kundu equation yi, yating and liu. Transmission line protection based on travelling waves. The wave doesnt actually move at all, but this is the easiest way. Terrapower expects a typical 1,200megawatt traveling wave reactor to produce 5 metric tons of waste per gigawatt year, not 5 metric megatons. Travelingwave reactors only need one batch of matches before they can run on wax depleted uranium for a very long time. The concept works on the basis that breedburn waves and the fuel move relative to one another. The word is that terrapower, a company backed by bill gates thats developing a new kind of nuclear power plant, is going to develop the reactor in cooperation with the chinese government. The reactor is fueled primarily by depleted uranium, but requires a small amount of enriched uranium or other fissile fuel to initiate fission. The reactor uses depleteduranium fuel packed inside hundreds of hexagonal pillars shown in black and green.
Our plans call for a 500 mw electric demonstration reactor. The travelling wave analysis consists of finding solutions of the telegraphers equations, bearing in mind the characteristics of the transmission lines, the equipment to which they will be connected and the nature of the signals likely to be experienced in power system transient situations. A travelingwave reactor could use widely available depleted uranium and operate for 60 years without refueling. Sodiumcooled fast reactors have a checkered history. High yield antibody production in a disposable wave bioreactor process intensification using perfusion culture christian kaisermayer1, jianjun yang2 1 ge healthcare europe gmbh, vienna, austria christian. Comments on terrapowers travelling wave reactor printable pdf version here by dr george s. The basic design of the fast uraniumplutonium nuclear travelingwave reactor with a softened neutron spectrum is. A travelingwave reactor twr is a type of nuclear fission reactor that can convert fertile material into usable fuel through nuclear transmutation, in tandem with the burnup of fissile material. Bill gates terrapower project and the traveling wave reactor answers with joe duration. The traveling wave reactor twr is a oncethrough reactor that uses in situ breeding to greatly reduce the need for enrichment and reprocessing. Traveling wave solutions of a diffusive seir epidemic model with nonlinear incidence rate zhao, lin, zhang, liang, and huo, haifeng, taiwanese journal of mathematics, 2019. Likewise, a typical reactor today produces 21 metric. Energy is often transferred as the wave propagates, but matter may not be.
The department of energy definition for a small reactor is a reactor that produces 300 mw electric or lower. On the basis of the condition for nuclear burning wave existence in the neutronmultiplying media upu and thu cycles we show the possibility of surmounting the socalled dpaparameter problem and suggest an algorithm of the optimal nuclear burning wave mode adjustment, which is supposed to yield the wave parameters fluenceneutron flux, width and speed of nuclear burning wave that. A spinoff from a bill gates backed company called terrapower is working with the design, but its really nothing new. Traveling wave analysis of partial di erential equations. The traveling wave that the reactors name references moves through the units core at a rate of only one centimeter per year. Breeding converts incoming subcritical reload fuel into new critical fuel, allowing a breedburn wave to propagate. The sodium coolant is also standard for this type of reactor. Lately there has been some press on the traveling wave reactor twr. First it was presented in papers 5,6 and its advanced implementation was patented in 14. Pdf the traveling wave reactor twr is a oncethrough reactor that uses in situ breeding to greatly reduce the need for enrichment and. On some fundamental peculiarities of the traveling wave.
Stable salt reactor technology introduction duration. These reactors reach sustainability levels attainable by typical fast reactors, but do so without requiring the reprocessing plants that were the main concern when politicians effectively abandoned the us fast reactor. Twrs differ from other kinds of fastneutron and breeder reactors in their ability to use fuel efficiently without uranium enrichment or reprocessing, instead directly using depleted uranium. In addition, the tanh and exp methods, as outlined in the main appendix, are used to obtain traveling wave solutions to the single equation form of the fn equations. It is possible both to increase the speed, the thermal power and the nal uence as well as decrease them. As a function of time, the latest design represents a standing wave or a soliton, rather than a traveling wave. Study of traveling wave reactor twr and candle strategy. By breeding and using its own fuel in place as it operates, a traveling wave reactor can obtain burnups that approach 50%, well beyond the current base of knowledge and experience.
It doesnt necessarily lend itself better to one or the other. A travelingwave reactor twr is a proposed type of nuclear fission reactor that can convert. The concept of the traveling wave reactor twr was first proposed in 1958 at a international atomic energy meeting. The traveling wave reactor, twr constitutes a reformulation of the liquid metal fast reactor, lmfbr and the coupled cores concepts and a reformulation of battery reactors based on naval propulsion reactors designs.
Hence using the above equations, forward and backward. In purely nuclear terms, it is a fastneutron breeder reactor using the u238 to plutonium fuel cycle, which dates back to the 1950s and was used in many experimental reactors. Nuclear experts head to china to test experimental reactors. Contribute to sswelmkspinterstellarextended development by creating an account on github. The twr has been studied since the late 1950s and there are several articles in the literature that describe the theory of the units. Shunt reactor switching transients at high compensation levels. Twrs differ from other kinds of fastneutron and breeder reactors in their ability to use fuel efficiently without uranium enrichment or reprocessing, instead directly using depleted uranium, natural. The traveling wave reactor twr is a oncethrough reactor that uses in situ breeding to greatly. The basic design of the fast uraniumplutonium nuclear travelingwave reactor with a softened neutron spectrum is developed, which solves the problem of. The accident took hours or days because it took time to boil off the coolant sitting in the reactor and going to a smaller design may help since you would expect heat generation to scale with volume while heat transfer to scale with surface area but.