Abstract
The contemporary development of nuclear power technologies in Russia made it possible to create projects of economic and safe fast reactors of new generation. These reactors will be a basis of the large-scale nuclear power engineering in the middle and end of the 21st century. Fast reactors of inherent safety (BREST), in which heavy emergencies are deterministically excluded [1,2], are of most interest among such projects. However, the limits of domestic power engineering implemented in BREST projects are not completely reached; there are reserves for further bettering of the safety and, probably, efficiency of new generation reactors. There are 1 to 2 decades left for improving technologies of fast reactors of inherent safety. One of the BREST concept reserves—the usage of fuel-rod shells with tungsten spraying—is the idea unattractive and unrealistic at first sight due to the tungsten’s high cost and the large cross section of fast-neutron absorption. However, the performed analysis and the calculation studies make it possible to draw a conclusion on the potential possibility of using the tungsten coatings of fuel rods for further improvement of reliability and safety of BREST-type reactors without deterioration (and probably with improvement) of economical characteristics of nuclear power plants with these reactors.
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Original Russian Text © V.S. Okunev, 2011, published in Izvestiya RAN. Energetika.
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Okunev, V.S. Substantiation of the feasibility of using fuel rods with tungsten spraying in power fast reactors of new generation. Therm. Eng. 58, 1167–1171 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0040601511140060
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0040601511140060