1. With regards to liquid metal cooled reactors:
a. What are the key advantages and disadvantages of using a liquid metal as a coolant in a nuclear reactor? Briefly explain.
b. Describe and draw diagrams for the two typical configurations that can be used for a liquid metal cooled reactor.
c. Describe the typical fuel assembly configurations in a liquid metal cooled reactor. Use a sketch if needed to illustrate your explanation.
2. In sodium cooled reactors, does the sodium coolant become radioactive as it goes through the core?Please discuss in detail.
3. When do we say that a nuclear reactor is a breeder reactor? Discuss in detail.
4. A very large fast breeder reactor is fueled only with U-235. The average neutron flux is 1015 neutrons/second/cm2 and the core contains 70% of the total fuel inventory of the plant. List and explain any reasonable assumptions you may make to solve this problem.
a. Calculate the compound doubling time in years.
b. Calculate the gain.
5. Estimate the compound doubling time in years of a very large gas-cooled fast-breeder reactor that is fueled only with Pu239. The average neutron flux is 1015 and the core contains 80 percent of the total fuel inventory of the plant. Make and state any reasonable assumptions you may need.
6. A fast reactor with a soft neutron spectrum uses a Pu239 - U238 fuel mix. Average neutron flux is 2 x 1015. The number of neutrons lost in nonfission and nonbreeding reactions only are 0.03 per neutron born in fission.
Because of the soft spectrum, fission in Um may be ignored. Using data from Table 9-1 for simplicity, determine (a) reactor simple doubling time and (b) nonfission and nonbreeding reaction losses that would render the reactor a nonbreeder. Take P = 0.95.