Dual fluid reactor

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The dual-fluid reactor (DFR) is a nuclear reactor concept with the aim of combining the advantages of the molten salt reactor and the metal- cooled reactors ( sodium-cooled reactor , lead-cooled reactor ). In this way, the sustainability, safety and profitability goals of the so-called "Generation IV" are to be achieved.

concept

The designed reactor has a liquid core (nuclear fuel and breeding material chlorine salts or liquid actinide metal ) and lead cooling. It should have a hard neutron spectrum and use fractional distillation / rectification for combined high temperature reprocessing. The Institute for Solid-State Nuclear Physics (IFK) advertises it with outstanding safety properties, extremely low costs and the ability to treat actinoids such as B. to destroy plutonium or spent fuel from light water reactors in short periods of time. The remaining waste is only fission products , which fade to a radiotoxicity below that of natural uranium within 300 years (see StandAG, Physical Background ), so that a geological repository is not necessary. Due to the high thermal conductivity of the liquid metals, the decay heat can be completely passively dissipated with the DFR , which means a very high inherent safety in this regard. In operation, the performance stability should be ensured by a strongly negative reactivity coefficient .

As a breeder reactor to the DFR, unlike the conventional light water reactors (LWR), not only uranium and uranium-238 utilize -235 (0.7% of natural uranium), but. If a complete conversion of the entire uranium into transuranium elements with subsequent fission succeeds, such a reactor could generate a thermal output of 1 gigawatt for about 2.5 years from the unused uranium-238 of a typical spent LWR fuel element (approx. 1 ton). The DFR should also be able to use thorium for this purpose. This would make the earth's nuclear fuel resources sufficient for thousands of years.

Development history

The concept was developed at the private Institute for Solid State Nuclear Physics (IFK) in Berlin . The functionality of the concept in terms of neutron physics was checked and validated by employees of the Technical University of Munich and E.ON Kernkraft (now PreussenElektra ).

A patent application was submitted in 2012 for the DFR concept. The grant of patents has been accepted in the United States, Canada, the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization . On the basis of this application, the European patent EP 2 758 965 was granted in 2017 and nationalized in Germany, among others. The corresponding German patent has the number DE 50 2012 010 710.

There is currently (as of December 2019) no prototype.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A. Huke, G. Ruprecht, D. Weißbach a. a .: The Dual Fluid Reactor - A novel concept for a fast nuclear reactor of high efficiency. (PDF; 1.7 MB). In: Annals of Nuclear Energy. Vol. 80 (2015), pp. 225-235, doi: 10.1016 / j.anucene.2015.02.016 .
  2. ↑ IFK: As with schnapps distilling - the PPU. Retrieved August 18, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Is the DFR the solution to our energy problems? In: Energy 2.0. Edition 8, 2013, p. 16.
  4. ↑ A new concept for a nuclear reactor dual fluid reactor. A novel concept for a nuclear reactor. In: science-skeptical.de. May 30, 2013, accessed January 30, 2015 .
  5. ^ X. Wang: Analysis and Evaluation of the Dual Fluid Reactor Concept. Dissertation from 2017
  6. ↑ Patent WO2013041085 : Dual Reactor fluid. Registered on September 21, 2012 , published on May 30, 2013 , inventors: Armin Huke, Götz Ruprecht, Ahmed Hussein, Konrad Czerski, Stephan Gottlieb. ‌
  7. ↑ Kai Stoppel: Will nuclear power save us from climate collapse? In: n-tv.de. September 19, 2019, accessed December 15, 2019 .