page_title: Breeder reactor
section_title: Other fast reactors
hierarchical_section_title: Breeder reactor / Breeder reactor concepts / Fast breeder reactor / Other fast reactors
caption_attribution_description: Molten Salt Reactor Graphite Core
context_page_description: A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile material, such as uranium-238 or thorium-232 that is loaded into the reactor along with fissile fuel. Breeders were at first found attractive because they made more complete use of uranium fuel than light water reactors, but interest declined after the 1960s as more uranium reserves were found, and new methods of uranium enrichment reduced fuel costs.
context_section_description: Another proposed fast reactor is a fast molten salt reactor, in which the molten salt's moderating properties are insignificant. This is typically achieved by replacing the light metal fluorides (e.g. LiF, BeF₂) in the salt carrier with heavier metal chlorides (e.g., KCl, RbCl, ZrCl₄).
  Several prototype FBRs have been built, ranging in electrical output from a few light bulbs' equivalent (EBR-I, 1951) to over 1,000 MWe. As of 2006, the technology is not economically competitive to thermal reactor technology, but India, Japan, China, South Korea and Russia are all committing substantial research funds to further development of fast breeder reactors, anticipating that rising uranium prices will change this in the long term. Germany, in contrast, abandoned the technology due to safety concerns. The SNR-300 fast breeder reactor was finished after 19 years despite cost overruns summing up to a total of €3.6 billion, only to then be abandoned.
  India is also developing FBR technology using both uranium and thorium feedstocks.
caption: The graphite core of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment
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