Advanced Traveling-Wave Reactors

A Path to Carbon-Free,Proliferation-Resistant, Energy Security

American Association for the Advancement of Science

21 February 2010

LLC

Renewables are Great,But They Face Interesting

Challenges• Low capacity factors for wind and

solar• Need for spinning reserve increases

cost, complexity• Little prospect for large increases to

hydropower• Large increases to biomass-fueled

electricity will compete for cropland with biofuels, human food, and animal feed

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Nuclea

r

Geothe

rmal

Biomass

Fossil

fuels

Hydroe

lectric Wind So

lar0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Capacity Factors

Source: EIA 2009 Annual Outlook

Goal: 25% Electricity from Renewables by 2025

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Solar: 2

Biomass: 60

Geothermal: 17

Wind: 53

Hydro: 262

2008Renewable sources

394 TWh (9.5%)

Solar: 195

Biomass: 232

Geothermal:122

Wind: 366

Hydro: 300

2025Renewable sourcesElectricity generation

from renewables:1,219 TWh (25%)

Required growth in nameplate capacity:

410%616%

9,462%285%

Sources: EIA 2009 Annual Outlook, TerraPower

4Sources: EIA 2009 Annual Outlook, TerraPower

Major Grid and Siting Challenges

Solar: 195

Biomass: 232

Geothermal:122

Wind: 366

Hydro: 300

2025Renewable sourcesElectricity generation

from renewables:1,219 TWh (25%)

10,085 km2

new wind farms

18,586 km2

new solar farms

Sources: NREL wind, solar area calculators

OHIO

Major Grid and Siting Challenges

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10,085 km2

new wind farms

MINNESOTA

18,586 km2new solar farms

Nuclear Faces Challenges As Well

Nuclear Infrastructure Today is Complex and Expensive

Uranium mining and

milling

Conversion to uranium

hexafluoride

Uranium enrichment

Fuel fabrication

Nuclear power generation

Depleted uranium storage

Reprocessing Spent fuel storage

Actinide fuel fabrication

Long-term geologic

repository

Use Unenriched Uranium as Fuel

Many Steps Then Become Unnecessary

Uranium mining and

milling

Conversion to uranium

hexafluoride

Uranium enrichment

Fuel fabrication

Nuclear power generation

Depleted uranium storage

Reprocessing Spent fuel storage

Actinide fuel fabrication

Long-term geologic

repository

A Simpler, More Secure and Economical Nuclear Energy

System

Fuel fabrication Nuclear power generation (with

half-century refueling)

Depleted uranium storage

Spent fuel storage

(with greatly reduced waste

volumes)

Long-term geologic repository (with greatly reduced waste volumes)

A More Sustainable and SecureFuel Supply

Each 14-ton canister of depleted uranium

can generate 60 million megawatt-

hours of electricity…

…enough to power six million

households at current U.S. rates of consumption for a

year.

A More Sustainable and SecureFuel Supply

The existing U.S. stockpile of 700,000

metric tonsrepresents a national energy reserve that could last for many

centuries.

TWRs can convert these 38,000

cylinders of “waste” to about

$100 trillion worthof electricity.

The TerraPower TeamDistinguished and Growing

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Physics ModelingChuck Whitmer (Microsoft)

Ehud Greenspan, UC Berkeley Pavel Hejzlar (MIT)

Rod Hyde (LLNL)*John Nuckolls, Director Emeritus of LLNL

Robert Petroski, MITNick Touran, (UM)

*Thomas Weaver, LLNL*Lowell Wood (LLNL)

*George Zimmerman, LLNL

* Winners of DOE’sE.O. Lawrence Award

Materials/Fuels Development

Kevan Weaver (INL)Ken Czerwinski, UNLV

Sean McDeavitt, TAMURon Klueh (ORNL)

Ning Li (LANL)Jacopo Buongiorno, MITand other collaborators

Engineering and Design

Charles Ahlfeld (Savannah River Site)Tom Burke (FFTF)

Bill Bowen, CBCG (FFTF)Tyler Ellis (MIT)

Mike Grygiel, CBCG (FFTF)David Lucoff (FFTF, Texas A&M, INEEL)

Jon McWhirter, (U.S.N., UT)Ash Odedra (ITER)

William Stokes, President of CBCGAlan Waltar (TAMU, FFTF, PNNL)

Josh Walter (Purdue)James Waldo, CBCG (EBR-II, FFTF)

and 20+ other collaborators

(former affiliation)

The TerraPower TeamBusiness and Technology• Bill Gates• Nathan Myhrvold

Founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures, former CTO of Microsoft

• John GillelandFormerly VP at Bechtel, Director of ITER, and Sr. VP at General Atomics

• David McAleesFormer co-chair of Siemens Nuclear Division

• Roger ReynoldsFormer CTO of Framatome ANP/AREVA

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The First TerraPower Reactors

• Fueled mainly by depleted uranium, a byproduct of uranium enrichment• Small amount of enriched uranium is used to start

the reaction• Just one fuel load lasts for decades• No reprocessing• Reactor is sealed and below grade• Near zero proliferation risk

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AdvancedTraveling-Wave Reactors

Making Fuel and Burning Itin One Pass, in One Place

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The Traveling-Wave Reactor (TWR)

• Waves make, and then burn, fissionable material as they travel across the core.

• Waves are launched with a kernel of enriched uranium, but sustained solely by fuel made from depleted uranium or natural uranium

• Operates with well-developed technologies

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Familiar Breeder Reactor Physics, With a Twist

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Prismatic CoreWave Moves Through the Fuel

Fission begins

Breeding waveBurning wave

At steady state, the power density is similar to that in a conventional

fast-neutron reactor

Cylindrical Standing-

Wave Reactor

• Fuel is moved to the wave, instead of the wave moving through the fuel

• After startup, the power density is typical of a conventional fast reactor

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TWRs can also run on Spent Fuel from Light Water

Reactors• Existing nuclear plants in the U.S. are now storing about 60,000 metric tons of “spent” fuel• Enough fuel to power 100 TWRs—each generating

1.2 GWe—for a century

• No separation of uranium or plutonium required• China plans to have ~100 GWe of nuclear power

by 2020• These new reactors will expel similar amounts

of “spent” fuel by mid-century

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TWRs Large and Small

• Small, modular reactors for factory production, flexible for applications and markets• Gigawatt-scale TWR that

fits well within existing plant designs

Different designs for different markets:

1,150 MWe

CTWR

100s of MWe

Modular TWR

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One-Gigawatt TWR• High temperature, so high

efficiency• 1.2 Gwe net from 3 GWt

• No spent fuel pool• Physics forces a shutdown if the

temperature gets too high• Most components will be familiar

to the NRC

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Next Step: Build a Demo Reactor

• Traveling waves are feasible and stable• Confirmed by high-fidelity computer simulations

of the nuclear physics

• Nearly all pieces of the candidate design have been validated by previous fast reactors• EBR-II, Phénix, JOYO, FFTF, BN series and others

• But we need a full-core demonstration• Demo will verify traveling-wave behavior and

demonstrate fuel limits

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The First TWR: TP-1• To begin operations in 2020, producing electricity for the grid• 350–500 MWe capacity (900–1,250 MWt)

• No refueling needed for 40 years• Mainly fueled with depleted uranium, with U235 as starter fuel• Designed to accommodate advances in fuels or materials• Also could be operated as a “standard” fast reactor• TP-1 core may be compatible with existing or planned sodium-

cooled fast reactors• International cooperation will be needed to construct and

operate TP-1

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TerraPower Reactors Approach The Ideal

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• SustainablePhases out miningBurns existing and future DU

and other waste as fuelKnown fuel supplies are

sufficient for many centuries• Safe

Uses latest safety features• Affordable

Needs no reprocessing, and eventually no enrichment

• Sustainable• Minimizes its environmental

footprint• Burns waste• Meets global energy needs

indefinitely• Safe• Meets the highest safety

standards• Affordable• Competes with—or beats—

existing nuclear systems

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The design provides “ the simplest possible fuel cycle,”

says Charles W. Forsberg, executive director of the

Nuclear Fuel Cycle Project at MIT, “the and it requires only one uranium

enrichment plant per planet.” TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, MARCH/APRIL 2009

For More Details• “Novel Reactor Designs to Burn Non-Fissile Fuels,” International Congress

on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants 2008 (ICAPP ‘08), paper 8319• “A First Generation Traveling Wave Reactor,” ANS Transactions 2008, Vol.

98, p. 738• “High Burn-Up Fuels for Fast Reactors: Past Experience and Novel

Applications,” International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants 2009 (ICAPP ‘09), paper 9178

• “A Once-Through Fuel Cycle for Fast Reactors,” 17th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-17), paper ICONE17-75381

• “Extending the Nuclear Fuel Cycle with Traveling-Wave Reactors,” GLOBAL 2009, paper 9294

• Article in press at the Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power• http://intellectualventureslab.com and TerraPowerInfo@intven.com

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