Breeder Reactor Controversy
Like many aspects of nuclear power, fast breeder reactors have been subject to much controversy over the years. Since the end of the cold war, uranium has been much cheaper and more abundant than early designers expected, making the economics of breeder reactors uncompetitive in the energy markets. The capital costs are at least 25% more than water cooled reactors. This has stymied their deployment and lent credence to calls for their abandonment. This situation is likely to remain until the demand for uranium exceeds the supply enough to drive prices much higher than they have been during the latter years of the 20th and early years of the 21st centuries. Secondly, safety issues are cited as a concern with fast reactors that use a sodium coolant - a leak could lead to a sodium fire. Thirdly, since plutonium breeding reactors produce plutonium from U238, they could pose potential proliferation risks.
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Famous quotes containing the words breeder and/or controversy:
“Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)