Paying Reactor?

Nuclear power reactors are like bright college graduates: they have promise, but have not yet made any money. The first to do a real, paying job may be a small (10,000-kilowatt) plant that was approved this week by the Atomic Energy Commission. Designed by Nuclear Development Corp. of America, it. will be built for the Chugach Electric Association of Anchorage, Alaska, where electric power is scarce and expensive.

The reactor will be of novel design, using heavy water as the moderator to slow down its neutrons, and liquid sodium as the coolant to extract the heat of the reaction. This combination is extremely efficient, but engineers have always shied away from it because water and liquid sodium react explosively when they come in contact. Only recently were methods devised to keep them safely apart.

One advantage of the design is that the sodium can become very hot without vaporizing. This eliminates high-pressure vessels and piping. Another advantage is that the fuel need be only slightly enriched in costly U-235. The designers of the reactor believe that it can produce electricity at 7 mills per kilowatt-hour, which is much cheaper than the current cost (16.8 mills) of steam power in the Anchorage area.

Larger models of the heavy water-sodium reactor (50,000 kilowatts and up) can be fueled with natural uranium. This is an important advantage for sales outside the U.S. So far, the most efficient reactors have demanded enriched uranium, made only in the U.S., Britain and Russia. Many countries want nuclear power, hate becoming dependent on the great powers for fuel. If they use natural uranium they can get fuel from many independent sources.

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