Rapsodie was an experimental
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
built in
Cadarache
Cadarache is the largest technological research and development centre for energy in Europe. It includes the CEA research activities and ITER.
CEA Cadarache is one of the 10 research centres of the French Commission of Atomic and Alternative En ...
in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
It was France's first fast reactor, and first achieved criticality in 1967. Rapsodie was a sodium-cooled fast neutron
loop-type reactor with a thermal output of 40MW and no electrical generation facilities, and closed in 1983.
Rapsodie was operated in conditions considered representative of a commercial plant in terms of temperatures (inlet , outlet ) and neutron flux (3.2e15n/cm/s), and served to prove many elements used in later, larger,
breeder reactor
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 mate ...
s.
Rapsodie operated for 15 years, and suffered two leaks, a sodium micro leak in 1978 that was so small it was never found, and a nitrogen gas leak in 1982.
[http://www.tesionline.com/__PDF/23539/23539p.pdf ]
Rapsodie is currently in Stage 2 decommissioning.
See also
*
Fast neutron reactor
A fast-neutron reactor (FNR) or fast-spectrum reactor or simply a fast reactor is a category of nuclear reactor in which the fission chain reaction is sustained by fast neutrons (carrying energies above 1 MeV or greater, on average), as opposed t ...
References
Nuclear research reactors
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