Safety characteristics of the multipurpose fast reactor (MPFR)

The safety characteristics of a long-life multipurpose nuclear reactor (MPF R) with selfsustained liquid metallic fuel and lead coolant, which is propo sed to meet the requirements for the energy production in the future, were investigated. The application of liquid plutonium-uranium metallic alloys u sed as a nuclear fuel demonstrated high potential to reach excellent reacto r shutdown characteristics against anticipated transients without scram suc h as unprotected loss-of-flow and unprotected transient overpower. The calc ulations indicated that the thermal expansion of liquid fuels would cause t he negative reactivity insertion that would be larger in magnitude than any other thermally induced reactivity changes. This created the reactivity ba lance for the passive shutdown and power stabilization capabilities of the MPFR core. It was found that MPFR satisfies such design characteristics to be a potential candidate providing the replacement of fossil fuels by alter native energy sources in the next century. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.