CIVILIAN POWER REACTOR PROGRAM. PART III. BOOK 4. STATUS REPORT ON HEAVY WATER MODERATED REACTORS AS OF 1959

Estimates indicate that, within the D/sub 2/O-moderated natural-uranium- fuel reactor category, the lowest cost reactor will be cooled by boiling D/sub 2/ O. The margin over nonboiling is small, especially for reactors in the 100Mw(e) size and smaller. A major area in which research must be advanced before any of the reactor concepts can be successful is fuel-element fabrication and irradiation behavior. Both oxide and metallic elements have their own advantages, and each type should be developed. Other areas in which additional work must be done are the reactivities of various fuel lattices. fuel element burnout (especially for the boiling regime), zirconium pressure tubes and their connections to steel, and methods of reducing and detecting D/sub 2/O leakage. (auth