Superphénix
| Superphénix | |
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A cut-away model of the Superphenix containment. From the National Atomic Museum, United States
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 Location of Superphénix in France
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| Official name | Site nucléaire de Creys-Malville |
| Country | France |
| Location | Creys-Malville |
| Coordinates | 45°45′30″N 5°28′20″E / 45.75833°N 5.47222°ECoordinates: 45°45′30″N 5°28′20″E / 45.75833°N 5.47222°E |
| Status | Closed |
| Construction began | 1976 |
| Commission date | 1986 |
| Decommission date | 1997 |
| Operator(s) |
NERSA, EDF (51%) ENEL (33%) SBK (16%) |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | FBR |
| Reactor supplier | Novatome |
| Fuel type | MOX fuel |
| Cooling source | Rhône River |
| Cooling towers | no |
| Power generation | |
| Make and model | Ansaldo |
| Units decommissioned | 1 × 1,242 MW |
| Thermal capacity | 3,000 MW |
| Nameplate capacity | 1,242 MW |
| Capacity factor | 31.2% |
| 1996 output | 3,392 GW·h |
Superphénix (English: Superphoenix) or SPX was a nuclear power station on the Rhône river at Creys-Malville in France, close to the border with Switzerland. Superphénix was a 1,242 MWe fast breeder reactor with the twin goals of reprocessing nuclear fuel from France's fleet of conventional nuclear reactors, while also being an economical generator of power on its own.
Construction began in 1974 but suffered from a series of cost overruns, delays and enormous public protests. Construction was complete in 1981, but the plant was not connected to the grid until December 1986. In operation, Superphénix demonstrated very poor reliability and had a historical capacity factor less than 7%, making it terribly uneconomic. Many of these problems were solved over time, and by 1996 the plant was reaching its design operational goals.
The plant was powered down in December 1996 for maintenance, and while it was closed it was subject to court challenges that prevented its restart. This became official in June 1997, when Superphénix was closed permanently. Over its ten years of operation, the plant is estimated to have produced just under 2 billion Francs worth of electrical power, while costing approximately 60 billion Francs to build and operate.
France had considered the problem of plutonium production just after the end of World War II. At the time, the conventional solution to this problem was to use a graphite moderated air or water cooled reactor fueled with natural uranium. Such designs have little economic value in terms of power production, but are simple solutions to the problem of "breeding" plutonium fuel, which can then be separated from the original uranium fuel with chemical processing.
However, it had long been known that another solution to the breeder reactor design was to replace the graphite with liquid sodium metal. The graphite is used as a moderator, slowing the neutrons released in the nuclear reactions to a speed that makes other uranium atoms sensitive to them. However, if one replaces the natural uranium fuel with one sensitive to fast neutrons, typically highly enriched uranium or plutonium, the reaction can run without the use of a moderator.
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