Foreword by Wolf Hafele to the book ‘Fast Breeder Reactors’ by Waltar & Renolds, Pergamon Press, 1980.

FOREWORD

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It was as early as the 1940s that the special nature and the special role of Fast Breeder Reactors was recognized. While it is widely understood that nuclear energy is a qualitatively new dimension when compared with conventional energy sources, it is only through breeding that such a new dimension can become really operational. An easy way to point to a new dimension of nuclear energy is to consider the ratio of the energy content of 1 g of fissionable material to 1 g of carbon. It is close to 3 x 10⁶, indeed a staggering number. But in normal reactors which essentially burn the fissile material, only about half a percent of the mined natural uranium can be used in this manner. And if eventually low grade ores are to be used when nuclear power is engaged at a globally significant scale, resources come into sight that might contain, for example, only 70 ppm of uranium. the effect is that this dilutes the factor 3 x 10⁶ back to one:

3 x 10⁶ x5 x 10 ^-3 x 7 x 10 ^-5 ~1.

Nuclear energy thereby becomes degenerated to something that our century knows – fossil fuels. One might allude to it by calling such uses of uranium “yellow coal.” It is only through breeding that this can be avoided. Not half a percent but something like 60 % of the mined natural uranium thereby becomes accessible and this in turn also prevents falling back to low grade uranium ores, at least for the next thousand years of so. Or in other words, when engaged on a truly significant scale, nuclear energy becomes nuclear energy only through the breeder.

Appreciating such relations requires a long range and strategic view. One must be open minded to the future. Developing the breeder is a long term task; it turns out to be outside of the field of normal market forces. The importance of the ability to supply energy virtually on an infinite basis is only visible when viewed from a global, long-term perspective. The worldwide international Fast Breeder community has always had that in mind and this was and is what makes it an enthusiastic community. But not all quarters in the nations of the world have this perspective. And this has sometimes made the Fast Breeder development so advanced that it became isolated. Indeed, it goes without question that the development of the Fast Breeder can only be pursued when put on the sound basis and experience of the first generation of nuclear power plants, that of burner reactors and most notably here, the Light Water Reactor. For this first generation of nuclear power plants, the issue was not so much the long-range strategic view, but the near term necessity to demonstrate a cheap, competitive, and reliable production of electricity. This turned out to be a more complex and time-consuming task than originally anticipated. So, sometimes not much capacity and attention has been left for the development of the Fast Breeder.

A second item becomes apparent when Fast Breeders are being developed: It then becomes necessary to close the nuclear fuel cycle, while in the case of the first generation of nuclear power plants this can in principle be delayed for a decade or two. In this respect as well, nuclear energy becomes nuclear energy through the breeder. The meticulousness which is required when a nuclear fuel cycle is to be operated is the price for the infinite supply of energy. The most general observation also applies in the case of the breeder: there is no such thing as a free lunch.

The next decade will force all of us to take a global and long range view of the energy problem. Considering that, today, a major share of the world’s energy supply already comes from one single place on the globe, the Persian Gulf, then the global view is visibly forced upon all of us. There is no doubt that such a revelation of the dimensions of the energy problem will bring the breeder to its natural place. This might not happen at all places at the same time. The situation for Western Europe or japan is much more precarious than that of the United States or the Soviet Union. But after the year 2000, breeding at a globally significant scale will be a worldwide necessity. And this requires demonstation and testing. Doing this during the 1980s is rather too late than too soon.

It is therefore very important that Alan E. Waltar and Albert B. Reynolds have accepted the task to write this book. It fills a long-standing gap as it collects and reviews otherwise wide-spread information about the Fast Breeder, thereby helping to identify and expand this body of knowledge. This will undoubtedly be of great help for teaching at universities. What must also be observed is the worldwide scope of the book. This is truly consistent with the wide-open international character of the Fast Breeder development work. So the book will also be used worldwide.

May it serve its purpose and may it fulfill its badly needed function.

Wolf Hafele, Deputy Director* Vienna, September 1980

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Schloss Laxenburg, Austria.

*Current Position: Director

Kernforschungsanlage Julich

Julich, Federal Republic of Germany