Editing Breeder reactor (section)

====Integral fast reactor====

One design of fast neutron reactor, specifically conceived to address the waste disposal and plutonium issues, was the [[integral fast reactor]] (IFR, also known as an integral fast breeder reactor, although the original reactor was designed to not breed a net surplus of fissile material).<ref name="ANL">{{cite web |title=The Integral Fast Reactor |url=http://www.ne.anl.gov/About/reactors/integral-fast-reactor.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130917072504/http://www.ne.anl.gov/About/reactors/integral-fast-reactor.shtml |archive-date=17 September 2013 |access-date=20 May 2013 |work=Reactors Designed by Argonne National Laboratory |publisher=Argonne National Laboratory}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=National Policy Analysis #378: Integral Fast Reactors: Source of Safe, Abundant, Non-Polluting Power – December 2001 |url=http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA378.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160125131513/http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA378.html |archive-date=25 January 2016 |access-date=13 October 2007}}</ref>

To solve the waste disposal problem, the IFR had an on-site [[electrowinning]] fuel-reprocessing unit that recycled the uranium and all the transuranics (not just plutonium) via [[electroplating]], leaving just short-[[half-life]] [[fission product]]s in the waste. Some of these fission products could later be separated for industrial or medical uses and the rest sent to a waste repository. The IFR pyroprocessing system uses molten [[cadmium]] cathodes and electrorefiners to reprocess metallic fuel directly on-site at the reactor.<ref>Hannum, W.H., Marsh, G.E., and Stanford, G.S. (2004). [http://www.gemarsh.com/wp-content/uploads/Purex&Pyro%20P&S%20Jul04.pdf PUREX and PYRO are not the same] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123061354/https://www.gemarsh.com/wp-content/uploads/Purex%26Pyro%20P%26S%20Jul04.pdf|date=23 January 2022}}. Physics and Society, July 2004.</ref> Such systems co-mingle all the minor actinides with both uranium and plutonium. The systems are compact and self-contained, so that no plutonium-containing material needs to be transported away from the site of the breeder reactor. Breeder reactors incorporating such technology would most likely be designed with breeding ratios very close to 1.00, so that after an initial loading of enriched uranium and/or plutonium fuel, the reactor would then be refueled only with small deliveries of [[natural uranium]]. A quantity of natural uranium equivalent to a block about the size of a milk crate delivered once per month would be all the fuel such a 1&nbsp;gigawatt reactor would need.<ref>[[University of Washington]] (2004). [http://www.evworld.com/library/energy_numbers.pdf Energy Numbers: Energy in natural processes and human consumption, some numbers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915012242/http://www.evworld.com/library/energy_numbers.pdf|date=15 September 2012}}. Retrieved 16 October 2007.</ref> Such self-contained breeders are currently envisioned as the final self-contained and self-supporting ultimate goal of nuclear reactor designers.<ref name="Argonne" /><ref name="Hoffman" /> The project was canceled in 1994 by [[United States Secretary of Energy]] [[Hazel R. O'Leary|Hazel O'Leary]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Kirsch |first=Steve |title=The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) project: Congress Q&A |url=http://www.skirsch.com/politics/ifr/QAcongressKirsch.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121216121538/http://skirsch.com/politics/ifr/QAcongressKirsch.htm |archive-date=16 December 2012 |access-date=25 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Stanford |first=George S. |title=Comments on the Misguided Termination of the IFR Project |url=http://www.skirsch.com/politics/ifr/O%27Leary%20Problems.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121215072610/http://skirsch.com/politics/ifr/O%27Leary%20Problems.pdf |archive-date=15 December 2012 |access-date=25 December 2012}}</ref>