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Science 17 June 1977:
Vol. 196. no. 4296, pp. 1326 - 1329
DOI: 10.1126/science.196.4296.1326
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Articles

Comparative Breeding Characteristics of Fusion and Fast Reactors

PETER FORTESCUE 1

1 Advanced Energy Systems, General Atomic Company, P.O. Box 81608, San Diego, California 92138

Expressions are developed to allow ready comparison of a hybrid fission-fusion plant and a fast breeder with respect to the number of thermal reactors that their fissile production could support, both for their feed requirements and for the new inventory needs of an expanding industry. These relations are expressed in terms of the neutron multiplication factor obtained in the fusion blanket, and the analogous quantities represented by the conversion ratios of the fast and thermal fission associated with the comparison. Results are presented graphically both for the steady state and for industries of arbitrary growth rate, and include the influence of tritium production requirements. Even a modest blanket neutron multiplication factor could enable the hybrid fusion system greatly to outperform the fast breeder on this simple basis of material balances.

Submitted on August 27, 1976
Revised on December 22, 1976


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Nuclear Power: A Balanced Approach.
C. L. Rickard and R. C. Dahlberg (1978)
Science 202, 581-584
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)