What is a reactor? What is a fast breeder reactor?
Reactor is a vessel which houses the fuel bundles and moderator and control system and where nuclear reaction takes place by splitting Uranium fuel. In a fast breeder reactor, firstly, fast neutrons are used for producing fission, as against slow (or thermal) neutrons in a conventional or thermal reactor. A thermal reactor neutron is so slow that its motion is entirely depend on heat or temperature: it has no additional kinetic energy. In breeder reactor neutrons are at a high energy and high speed. It is called a breeder reactor because it actually produces more nuclear fuel than it consumes. For example, in the fast breeder reactors currently in use, the fuel used is Plutonium-239 (Pu239) and there is a blanket of U238 around it. Pu239 undergoes fission and produces energy. At the same time U238 around it gets converted into Pu239 on irradiation with neutrons. The amount of Plutonium-239 produced is more than the amount consumed. The rationale for a fast breeder reactor is that our r
