The Science of Fast Reactors and Why it has Been Studied

The basic advantage, not to say the raison d'etre of fast neutron reactors, is clear cut. This type of nuclear reactor is the only one which makes possible to use in principle the whole and in practice a large part of the fission energy of natural uranium. By this it is meant the energy which would be released if all nuclei present in natural uranium could be fissioned. Slow neutron reactors in current use today release only a small fraction of the total energy.