"The KRUSTY reactor was run at full power on March 20, 2018 during a 28-hour test using a 28 kg uranium-235 reactor core. A temperature of 850°C (1560°F) was achieved, producing about 5.5 kW of fission power. The test evaluated failure scenarios including shutting down the Stirling engines, adjusting the control rod, thermal cycling, and disabling the heat-removal system... The test was considered to be a highly successful demonstration."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilopower
As seen in the table below, a light water reactor that uses reactor-grade Uranium 235 has an energy density of only 2.4 percent that of pure Uranium 235. However, a fast breeder reactor that uses 99.3 percent U-238 has a usable energy density 25-times higher. This is like having a battery with 25-times higher capacity, and is therefore a potential improvement over the KRUSTY reactor.
Specific Energy Densities Table Material (MJ/kg) Arbitrary Antimatter 89,875,517,874 Deuterium-tritium fusion 338,000,000 Pure Uranium-235 fissile isotope 144,000,000 Natural uranium (99.3% U-238, 0.7% U-235) in fast breeder reactor 86,000,000 Reactor-grade uranium (3.5% U-235) in light water reactor 3,456,000 Natural uranium (0.7% U235) in light water reactor 443,000 battery, Lithium-air 6.12 Hydrogen + Oxygen 15.8 Gasoline + Oxygen 13.3 TNT 4.610
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density_Extended_Reference_Table
"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 material, such as uranium-238 or thorium-232 that is loaded into the reactor along with fissile fuel."
"Breeder reactors could, in principle, extract almost all of the energy contained in uranium or thorium, decreasing fuel requirements by a factor of 100 compared to widely used once-through light water reactors, which extract less than 1% of the energy in the uranium mined from the earth. The high fuel-efficiency of breeder reactors could greatly reduce concerns about fuel supply."
"In 2006 all large-scale fast breeder reactor (FBR) power stations were liquid metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBR) cooled by liquid sodium."
This is similar to the passive sodium heat pipes and Sterling converter used by the KRUSTY reactor.
"Many designs surround the core in a blanket of tubes that contain non-fissile uranium-238, which, by capturing fast neutrons from the reaction in the core, converts to fissile plutonium-239 (as is some of the uranium in the core), which is then reprocessed and used as nuclear fuel."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor
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