The Fast Breeder Reactor: Need? Cost? Risk?

227 Pages·1980·21.182 MB·English

by  Colin Sweet (eds.)

The Fast Breeder
Reactor
Need? Cost? Risk?
Edited by
Colin Sweet
M
©The contributors 1980
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1980978-0-333-27973-1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, without permission
First published 1980 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in Delhi Dublin
Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos Melbourne
New York Singapore and Tokyo
Typeset by
Reproduction Drawings Ltd, Sutton, Surrey
British Library Cataloguing-in Publication Data
The fast breeder reactor.
1. Fast reactors-Economic aspects-Congresses
2. Fast reactors-Social aspects-Congresses
I. Sweet, Colin
338.4'7'6214834 HD9698.AQ
ISBN 978-1-349-81393-3 ISBN 978-1-349-81391-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-81391-9
This book is sold subject to the standard conditions of the Net Book Agreement
Contents
The Contributors v
Acknowledgements vi
Abbreviations Used in the Text vii
Introduction Colin Sweet
PART I: The Fast Breeder in Energy Policy
1. Energy Perspectives for the UK Leslie Grainger 13
2. Some Policy Aspects of the Fast Reactor Question John Surrey 23
3. The Electricity Sector and Energy Policy Peter Odell 31
4. A Low-Energy Growth Alternative Gerald Leach 41
5. Technology and Energy Supply Meredith W. Thring 49
PART II. Risk and Uncertainty
6. Fast Reactors and Problems in Their Development Norman Dombey 61
7. Part 1: The Assessment and Assumptions of Risk with Fast Reactors
PeterJ. Taylor 75
Part 2: An Alternative View-Some Safety Considerations of the Fast
Breeder Reactor F. R. Farmer 88
8. The UK Fast Breeder Programme Walter Marshall 93
9. Radiation Hazards: Areas of Uncertainty Patricia J. Lindop 103
PART III: Economic Appraisals
10. The Economics of Coal and Nuclear Power Plants Michael J. Prior 119
11. Nuclear Power Economics P. MS. Jones 143
12. Critique of the Economic Case for the Fast Reactor Colin Sweet 163
PART IV: Political Problems of Fast Reactors
177
13. Plutonium and Proliferation Problems Bhupendra Jasani 191
14. Nuclear Power and Civil Uberties David Widdicombe
iii
Appendices
Appendix 1 UK Energy Needs and Energy Supply 201
Appendix 2 Alternative Ways of Calculating the Future Use of Energy
in Coal Equivalent Terms. A Note by Professor Peter Odell 211
Appendix 3 The Breeding Principle and Fast Reactors 213
Appendix 4 Energy Policy Matrix
Appendix 5 A Potential Fast Breeder Accident at Kalkar. A Summary 219
of a Recent PERG Study 223
Index 229
iv
The Contributors
Norman Dombey, Reader in Theoretical Physics, University of Sussex
F. R. Farmer, Safety Adviser to the Atomic Energy Authority; Visiting Professor
at Imperial College, London
Leslie Grainger, Formerly Chairman, lEA (Coal Services) Limited
Dr Bhupendra Jasani, Stockhohn International Peace Research Institute
Dr P. M. S. Jones, Head of Economics and Programmes, Atomic Energy
Authority, London
Gerald Leach, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Environment and Development
(with F. Romig, A. Van Buren and G. Foley, co-author of Low Energy
Strategies)
Patricia J. Lindop, Professor of Radiobiology at St Bartholomew's Hospital
Medical School, London (Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental
Pollution)
Walter Marshall, CBE, FRS, Deputy Chairman of the Atomic Energy Authority
(formerly Chief Scientist at the Department of Energy)
Peter Odell, Professor of Economic Geography, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
(author of many studies on oil)
Michael J. Prior, Formerly Economist with the International Energy Agency (Coal
Reseach), London; presently Senior Consultant, Environmental Resources
Ltd
John Surrey, Senior Research Fellow, Science Policy Research Unit, Sussex
University (with Lesley Cook, co-author of Energy Policy: Strategies for
Uncertainty )
Colin Sweet, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Polytechnic of the South Bank,
London
Peter J. Taylor, Research Student, Institute of Social Anthropology, University
of Oxford; Co-director of the Political Ecology Research Group Ltd
Meredith W. Thring, Professor (and Head of Department) of Mechanical
Engineering, Queen Mary College, University of London
David Widdicombe, QC, Chairman of the Administrative Law Committee of
Justice
v
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements are made to the Director and staff of the Polytechnic of the
South Bank, London, SEl, where the conference on which this bookis based was
held on 23-24 November 1978.
vi
Abbreviations
Used in the Text
ADM atomic demolition munitions
AEA Atomic Energy Authority (UK)
AEB Atomic Energy Board (Canada)
AEC Atomic Energy Commission (USA)
AFB atmospheric fluidised bed
AGR advanced gas-cooled reactor
BGC British Gas Corporation
BNFL British Nuclear Fuels Ltd
BWR boiling water reactor
CCG combined cycle gasification
CDFR Commercial Demonstration Fast Reactor
CEGB Central Electricity Generating Board
CERN Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nuc/eaire (European
Organisation for Nuclear Research)
CFR(-I) Commercial Fast Reactor (-1)
CHP combined heat and power
CONAES Committee on Nuclear and Alternative Energy Systems (USA)
EAS Economic Assessment Service (of lEA)
EEC European Economic Community
EPCD Energy Policy Consultative Document
ETSU Energy Technology Support Unit
FBC fluidised bed combustion
FBR fast breeder reactor
FCI fuel-coolant interaction
FGD flue-gas desulphurisation
GDP gross domestic product
GNP gross national product
HSE Health and Safety Executive (UK)
HT(G)R high-temperature (gas-cooled) reactor
HWR heavy-water reactor
vii
IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency
ICRP International Commission on Radiological Protection
lEA International Energy Agency
IIASA International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis
INFCE International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation
JET Joint European Torus
LMFBR liquid-metal fast breeder reactor
LWR light-water reactor
MRC Medical Research Council
NCB National Coal Board
NIl Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (UK)
NNC National Nuclear Corporation
NPT Non-Proliferation Treaty (of nuclear weapons)
NRC Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USA)
NRPB National Radiological Protection Board
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
OPEC Organisation of Petroleum-Exporting Countries
PERG Political Ecology Research Group
PF pulverised fuel
PFB pressurised fluidised bed
PFR Prototype Fast Reactor
PNE peaceful use of nuclear explosives
PWR pressurised water reactor
RCEP Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution
R&D research and development
SALT Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
SNG synthetic natural gas
SSEB South of Scotland Electricity Board
THORP Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant
UKAEA United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
UNSCEAR United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic
Radiation
viii
Introduction
Colin Sweet
The UK has yet to decide if it is going to proceed to the construction of a pro
gramme of commercial fast breeder reactors. The decision may well be taken in
the lifetime of the present Government. Whichever way it goes, it will have a
major impact not only domestically but internationally. Relations with the USA
and with the EEC are deeply involved with nuclear strategy. The nuclear fuel
cycle is a world-wide industry, with fuel supplies located in only a few countries,
while enrichment and reprocessing facilities are even more restricted in their avail
ability. Domestically, a decision to proceed will mean commanding more resources
than for any other technology. The political and social implications may be even
greater. A decision not to proceed will also have its impact because it may mean
the gradual dismantling of the nuclear industry with its many agencies and
suppliers. Constructively, it will call for a radical reassessment of our energy
future and more research on renewable energy sources.
Because such large resources have been committed to the fast breeder over the
last 25 years, there must be a presumption that the decision will be in favour of
proceeding. A great deal depends, however, on how the decision is taken, by what
political processes, and within what framework of reference. This, rather than the
ability of the industry to build and operate fast reactors, or the capacity of our
economy to find the resources (important as these questions are), will be the most
difficult and yet the most crucial element to be resolved. That is to say that the
decision cannot be separated from the nature of the decision-making process.
The Sixth Report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution
(RCEP) provided an opening to the specifics of the fast reactor discussion that
was, for its time, a model. This was not sustained by the Parker Report on
Windscale, over which there was widespread and justifiable dissatisfaction; not
only or even with its conclusions as with the way in which they were reached.
The resultant of these two events has been the proposal by the previous Minister
for the Environment, Peter Shore, that a Public Inquiry Commission should be set
up to review the wider issues of the fast breeder and the quasi-legal form of the
Windscale Inquiry used only for hearing the arguments on the siting of a fast
reactor. In a sense, both the Sixth Report of the RCEP and the Parker Report are
part of the past. In the short space of three years, social awareness has increased