The Traveling Wave Reactor Gets Two New Friends

The Traveling Wave Reactor Gets Two New Friends


An obscure concept in nuclear fission recently got a boost. Bill Gates (yes, that Bill Gates) signed on as a partner to help commercialize the traveling wave reactor.

The traveling wave reactor (TWR) has only a central core of high-grade fuel. The balance is so-called “spent fuel” or “nuclear waste.” The terms are not totally correct because only a faction of the potential fission energy has been used from the fuel, and the material would not be waste if there were a reactor that could use it.

The TWR might be such a device. In theory, the high-grade fuel sends enough neutrons into the lower-grade fuel that it breeds a layer of plutonium and various other radioactive species. These materials, in turn, generate neutrons to cause the active zone to travel further into the lower-grade material.

The process might deliver byproduct heat for decades with no switching of fuel rods. Such a process might be harnessed for reactors that could be relatively small and cheaper because the bulk of the fuel would be waste material from conventional reactors.

The concept is actually one that was proposed in the 1950s (Edward Teller was one of the co-authors of a paper in the 1990), and Wikipedia has an article about the concept (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_wave_reactor). However, development funds were never available, first because other development paths were taken and then because fission power went into eclipse after Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

Now, that seems to be changing. Bill Gates’ TerraPower, LLC has considerable new computing power for design of virtual TWRs, and there have been negotiations with Toshiba, to which Westinghouse Nuclear is a subsidiary. Together, the partners may touch off an explosion … of new nuclear technology. A recent Wall Street Journal internet article on February 28 was definitely convinced. (See the February 28, 2011, Robert A. Guth article at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704409004576146061231899264.html?KEYWORDS=ROBERT+A+GUTH )

The article drew comments about a number of other competing concepts.

Meanwhile, the skeptical side came from a March Kennedy Maize in a March 25, 2011 Powerblog (http://www.powermag.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/27/traveling-wave-reactors-wave-goodbye/ ). Maize had some caustic comments about estimates regarding reactor designs that are only theoretical and about the use of liquid sodium.

My suspicion is that the small active area of the reactor may seriously reduce reactor energy per unit mass. Consequently, designers are pushed toward use of liquid sodium to get more usable power out, but it comes at the cost of risks from liquid sodium fire if there is a leak.

Time will tell.

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