Compromising Safety: Design Choices and Severe Accident Possibilities in India's Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor

Abstract

This article explores the safety capabilities of the 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor that is under construction in India, and which is to be the first of several similar reactors that are proposed to be built over the next few decades, to withstand severe accidents. Such accidents could potentially breach the reactor containment and disperse radioactivity to the environment. The potential for such accidents results from the reactor core not being in its most reactive configuration; further, when there is a loss of the coolant, the reactivity increases rather then decreasing as in the case of water-cooled reactors. The analysis demonstrates that the official safety assessments are based on assumptions about the course of accidents that are not justifiable empirically and the safety features incorporated in the current design are not adequate to deal with the range of accidents that are possible.

This article has benefited from guidance and comments from many people, in particular, Frank von Hippel, Tom Cochran, Hal Feiveson, and one anonymous reviewer. All errors are the authors' responsibility. Alex Glaser and Ahnde Lin provided much appreciated assistance and useful references. The authors thank the Ploughshares Fund for financial support.

Notes

∗Calculations based in part on data from Alan E. Waltar and Albert B. Reynolds, Fast Breeder Reactors.

∗Calculations based in part on data from IAEA, “Fast Reactor Database: 2006 Update.”