Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project

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The Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant (CRBRP) Project was a joint effort of the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) and the U.S. electric power industry to design and construct a sodium-cooled fast-neutron nuclear reactor. The project was intended as a prototype and demonstration for building a class of such reactors, called Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactors (LMFBR), in the U.S. It would have been built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

[edit] Location

The Clinch River Breeder Reactor would have been built on a 1364-acre site in Roane County, Tennessee owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on the Clinch River. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with a population of about 30,000, is located about 12 miles northeast of the site, in Anderson County. Most of the population resides at least 10 miles from the site.

[edit] Reactor Design

The reactor would have been rated at 1000 Megawatts (MW) of thermal output, with a net plant output of 375 MW (electrical).

The reactor core was designed to contain 198 hexagonal Fuel Assemblies, arranged to form a cylindrical geometry with two enrichment zones. The inner core would have contained 18% plutonium and would have consisted of 108 assemblies. It would have been surrounded by the outer zone, which would have consisted of 90 assemblies of 24% plutonium to promote more uniform heat generation.

The active fuel would have been surrounded by a radial blanket consisting of 150 assemblies of similar, but not identical, design containing depleted uranium oxide; outside of the blanket would have been 324 radial shield assemblies of the same overall hexagonal geometry.

The primary (green) and secondary (gold) control rod systems would have provided overall plant shutdown reliability. Each system would have contained boron carbide. The secondary rods were to be used only for SCRAM, and would have been required to be fully withdrawn before startup could be initiated.

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