Terrapower quietly explores new nuclear reactor strategy. Some variants of the possible stability loss due to the socalled blowup modes anomalous nuclear fuel temperature and neutron flow evolution are discussed and are found to possibly become a reason for a trivial violation of the traveling wave reactor internal safety. Travelingwave reactor twr technology, being developed by terrapower, llc, represents a potential solution to. To create the traveling wave reactor twr design, terrapower has put together a team that boasts. A travelingwave reactor twr is a proposed type of nuclear fission reactor that can convert. On some fundamental peculiarities of the traveling. Creep rupture analysis of candidate steels for the. The traveling wave reactor twr is a oncethrough reactor that uses in situ breeding to greatly reduce the. Contribute to sswelmksp interstellarextended development by creating an account on github. Since the three mile island accident, there have been no new reactors built in the us. A new report from the nonprofit institute for energy and environmental research ieer think tank finds that the traveling wave reactor twr concept championed by terrapower, in which bill gates, of microsoft, is a key investor, may end up a commercial failure. On some fundamental peculiarities of the traveling wave.
The traveling wave that the reactors name references moves through the units core at a rate of only. Physical fundamentals of traveling wave reactor are considered. Terrapowers nuclear reactor could power the 21st century. Lately there has been some press on the traveling wave reactor twr. Travelling waves 1 introduction one of the cornerstones in the study of both linear and nonlinear pdes is the wave propagation. Many factors influence the development and deployment of nuclear.
Pantak 1department of theoretical and experimental nuclear physics, odessa national polytechnic university, odessa, ukraine 2state ecological academy for postgraduate education, kiev, ukraine. 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. We show that the condition of existence of nuclear burning solitonlike wave in a neutronmultiplying medium is determined in general by two conditions. Bill gates on the wrong path with travelling wave reactors. Travelingwave reactor we need them badly physics forums. On the basis of the condition for nuclear burning wave existence in the neutronmultiplying media upu and thu cycles we show the. The traveling wave reactor twr is a oncethrough reactor that uses in situ breeding to greatly reduce the need for enrichment and reprocessing. The concept works on the basis that breedburn waves and the fuel move relative to one another. A wave is a recognizable signal which is transferred from one part of the medium to another part with a recognizable speed of propagation. Breeding converts incoming subcritical reload fuel into new critical fuel, allowing a breedburn wave to propagate. Pdf the traveling wave reactor twr is a oncethrough reactor that uses in situ breeding to greatly reduce the. They have previously developed new technologies, built nuclear power plants, and managed. As a function of time, the latest design represents a standing wave or a soliton, rather than a traveling wave.
Unlike todays reactors, a travelingwave reactor requires very little enriched uranium, reducing the risk of weapons proliferation. 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. The bifurcations of traveling wave solutions of the kundu equation yi, yating and liu, zhengrong, journal of applied mathematics, 20. Sodiumcooled fast reactors have a checkered history. Travelingwave reactor twr technology, being developed by terrapower, llc, represents a potential solution to these limitations by offering a nuclear energy. Us20160196883a1 traveling wave nuclear fission reactor. Travelingwave reactors twrs are advanced nuclear reactors that are capable of eventually running forever given only depleted uranium fuel.
Terrapowers traveling wave reactor twr incorporates inherent safety features and reduces the risk for proliferation in the nuclear energy supply chain. A truly sustainable and fullscale resource for global energy needs pdf. September 20 institute for energy and environmental research. Download pdf info publication number us201102839a1. The most recent commercial demonstration reactors belong. Terrapower is a nuclear reactor design company headquartered in bellevue, washington, united states. Terrapower quietly explores new nuclear reactor strategy the startup is exploring a molten chloride reactor concept, but says it remains committed to traveling wave reactors. Bill gates terrapower project and the traveling wave. Travelingwave reactor we need them badly what is the fuel pu239. To create the traveling wave reactor twr design, terrapower has put together a team that boasts unparalleled expertise in nuclear engineering, simulation and modeling, finance, and nuclear project management. Existence of traveling wave solutions in a stage structured cooperative system on higherdimensional lattices li, kun, rocky mountain journal of mathematics, 2019. Us201102839a1 system and method to create a traveling. The traveling wave reactor, first conceived in 1958, has been intensively investigated only since about 2006. Comments on terrapowers travelling wave reactor printable pdf version here.
Energy is often transferred as the wave propagates, but matter may not be. Nuclear reactor technology pdf nuclear reactor technology pdf download. The traveling wave reactor twr is a oncethrough reactor that uses in situin situ. Traveling wave reactor and condition of existence of. The first condition necessary is determined by relationship between the equilibrium concentration and critical concentration of active fissionable isotope that is a. The reactor uses depleteduranium fuel packed inside hundreds of hexagonal pillars shown in black and green.
Terrapower expects a typical 1,200megawatt traveling wave reactor to produce 5 metric tons of waste per gigawatt year, not 5 metric megatons. 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. Bill gates has become one of the most powerful philanthropists in the world through the bill and melinda gates foundation, and one of the projects hes supported is a company called terrapower. The traveling wave reactor is a liquidmetalcooled, fastneutron breeder reactor, with many of the same advantages and disadvantages as other fast breeder reactors. The first condition necessary is determined by relationship between the equilibrium concentration and critical concentration of active fissionable isotope that.
Terrapower has developed sophisticated computational analysis tools to support the design and fabrication of high temperature components to be used in the traveling wave reactor twr. On some essential peculiarities of the traveling wave. Some have operated well, while others have done poorly. One of the key material properties required to predict material damage and remaining lifetime of key inreactor components is the thermal creep rupture time. Fast travelingwave reactor of the channel type vitaliy d. The basic design of the fast uraniumplutonium nuclear travelingwave reactor with a softened neutron spectrum is. The excess reactivity is controlled by a plurality of movable. On some fundamental peculiarities of the traveling wave reactor. 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. Chapter 2 travelling wave tube operation in order to design a helixtype traveling wave tube amplifier twta, it is necessary to understand the operating physics of a travelling wave tube twt. Nuclear experts head to china to test experimental reactors by.
Traveling wave reactor wikipedia republished wiki 2. Energy equivalent of 1 pound of the above 2,000,000 lbs of coal wastecomparatively miniscule currently we have 104 nuclear reactors in operation in the us, which generate about 20% of our electricity. There is no evidence that the traveling wave reactor will overcome any of these. Generalizing the results of a wide range of numerical experiments 523, we can positively affirm that the principal possibility of the main stationary wave parameters control was reliably established within the theory of a selfregulating fast reactor in traveling wave mode, or, in other words, the traveling wave reactor twr.
What are competitions and alternatives to terrapower. On the basis of conditions for existence of nuclear burning wave in neutronmultiplicating media upu and thu cycles we show the possibility of surmounting. Sustainability of a twr economy 235 the main difference between thermal reactors and fast reactors is the degree to which uranium can be burned. We hear from time to time about the traveling wave reactor twr that is being developed by terrapower, an organization sponsored by bill gates. It wasnt until the 1990s, though, that potential designs for the twr started to surface. Likewise, a typical reactor today produces 21 metric. Terrapower is developing a class of nuclear fast reactors called the traveling wave reactor twr the twr concept places a small core of enriched fuel in the center of a much larger mass of nonfissile material, in this case depleted uranium. 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. 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. Twr, sstar, and similar proposals differ from previous fast breeders by putting a. On the basis of the condition for nuclear burning wave existence in the neutron multiplying media upu and thu cycles we show the. Kennedy and aris showed the existence of traveling waves for the case v 0 and 0 and conjectured the existence.
What if there were a new kind of reactor that was safer, cleaner, and used our stockpile of waste as fuel. In a traveling wave nuclear fission reactor, a nuclear fission reactor fuel assembly comprises a plurality of nuclear fission fuel rods that are exposed to a deflagration wave burnfront that, in turn, travels through the fuel rods. Terrapowers travelling wave reactor why not use an ifr. 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. 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. This chapter provides the basic description of the twta structure and its various components. A traveling wave nuclear fission reactor, fuel assembly, and a method of controlling burnup therein. Pdf terrapower, llc traveling wave reactor development. But, when it comes to the traveling wave reactor, his money is not.
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