Minimization of an initial fast reactor uranium–plutonium load by using enriched lead-208 as a coolant Original Research Article

Long-term scenarios of nuclear energy evolution over the world scale predict deployment of fast reactors (FRs) from 2020 to 2030 and achievement on 2050 the world installed capacity equal to 1500 GWe with essential increasing the FRs number. For several countries (i.e. Russia, Japan) whose policies are based on a sharp increase of nuclear production, at the stage near 2030–2040 when plutonium, Pu, from the PWR spent nuclear fuel is consumed, the Pu lack will stimulate minimization of its load in FRs. The period of Pu deficiency will be prolonged till the years when breeding gain (BG) equal to 0.2–0.3 in fast breeding reactors (FBRs) is obtained which corresponds to Pu inventory doubling time of 44–24 years.