The rise and fall of the fast breeder reactor technology in the UK: between engineering “dreams” and economic “realities”?

This report explores the evolution of the fast breeder nuclear reactor programmes in the UK, from the period of great promises and expectations in the 1950s and 1960s towards their progressive abandonment in the 1980s and 1990s. The project, of which this report is an element, aims thereby to draw lessons relevant for the current “nuclear renaissance” and medium-term planning on the future of nuclear power. Given that the fast breeder programmes were closely interlinked with the general evolution of nuclear power in the UK, this report includes a fairly detailed historical description of this more general ‘nuclear context’. This primarily chronological description of the evolution of the UK fast breeder programmes provides a basis for a comparison between the evolution of the British and French fast breeder reactor programmes. A central question in such a comparison concerns the lateness of the abandonment of the fast breeder programme in France, as compared to most other countries developing this technology. The cross-country comparison will explore the relative influence of the contextual and historical conditions within which the nuclear technologies have evolved in France and the UK on the one hand, and the ‘universal’ factors common to the evolution of socio-technical systems in general on the other. This exploratory research was based on documentary analysis and eleven interviews of experts involved in, or with knowledge of, the UK fast breeder reactor (FBR) programmes

Thermal, Avionics, and Power Considerations for Designing a Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Flight Demonstrator

As part of the Appropriations Bill passed by the US Congress in February 2019, NASA was instructed to develop a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) flight demonstrator by 2024. [4] In response to this directive, the Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) was tasked with beginning concept studies for the flight demonstration (FD) mission. During the NTP study formulation, two philoso- phies emerged with regards to FD concept design. The first, Flight Demo 1 (FD1), strictly observes the 2024 schedule requirement at the expense of lower engine performance than expected of theoretical NTP engines. The second concept, Flight Demo 2 (FD2), relaxes the schedule requirement to allow for higher engine performance and more traceability to future operational systems. Both the FD1 and FD2 concepts present considerable challenges for subsystem design, specifically in the areas of thermal control, avionics, and power. To guard against undesired graveyard orbits, a requirement to keep the NTP engine and the reaction control system (RCS) separate was put in place. As a result of this requirement, the avionics subsystem must provide separate command and data handling (CDH) and instrumentation for each propulsion system. In-space instrumentation and monitoring of a NTP system has never been done before, necessitating the development of novel strategies and unique hardware. The heating rates produced by the NTP engine are extremely high, leading to difficulties with thermal control. The FD1 concept utilizes high-pressure gaseous hydrogen (GH2), which is largely insensitive to temperature fluctuations. The FD2 concept, however, utilizes cryogenic liquid hydrogen (LH2) which must be kept stable near 20 Kelvin. A high-performance thermal control system (TCS) will be required to ensure all components and subsystems are maintained within their operational temperature ranges. This paper will highlight the thermal, avionics, and power solutions required for the full scope of challenges for a NTP flight demonstrator

Defense R&D and information technology in a long-term perspective la rd militaire et les technologies de l'information en longue période

Defense R&D is usually considered as an economic burden, implying an eviction effect on civilian R&D and perverting the national systems of innovation. If arms production benefits nowadays from advanced civilian R&D, the flow of technology was not always in the same direction–especially in the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, since the beginning of the 1990s, some technologies, classified for a long time as purely defense ones (GaAs, GPS, computer networking, etc.), have found new civilian applications. Why technological opportunities created by defense R&D are not systematically seized by commercial firms? First, technology transfers come true only when a legal framework exists and allows commercial firms to get access to the « military technological fund ». Second, the global economic context appears as the greatest incentive to engage civilian firms in exploiting defense technologies, as an investment opportunity. In a long-term perspective, when specific conditions are set up or exist, defense R&D can become a means of strengthening the international competitiveness of national economies. La RD de défense est souvent considérée comme un fardeau pour l'économie, impliquant un effet d'éviction sur la RD civile et pervertissant le système national d'innovation. Si la production d'armements profite aujourd'hui des avancées de la RD civile, le flot de technologies n'a pas toujours été dans la même direction – tout particulièrement dans les années 1950 et 1960. De plus, depuis le début des années 1990, quelques technologies, longtemps classées comme purement militaires (GaAs, GPS, réseaux informatiques, etc.), ont trouvé de nouvelles applications civiles. Pour quelles raisons les opportunités technologiques créées par la R&D de défense ne sont-elles pas systématiquement saisies par les firmes commerciales ? Premièrement, les transferts de technologies se concrétisent seulement quand un cadre légal existe et autorise les firmes commerciales à avoir accès au « fonds technologique militaire ». Deuxièmement, le contexte économique global constitue une incitation importante pour engager les firmes civiles à exploiter les technologies de défense. Dans une perspective de longue période, quand les conditions idoines sont mises en place ou existent, la RD de défense peut ainsi devenir un moyen de renforcer la compétitivité internationale des économies nationales.Defense R&D, Information Technology, international Competitiveness, Global Positioning System, Networking

Nuclear Power: a Hedge against Uncertain Gas and Carbon Prices?

High fossil fuel prices have rekindled interest in nuclear power. This paper identifies specific nuclear characteristics making it unattractive to merchant generators in liberalised electricity markets, and argues that non-fossil fuel technologies have an overlooked à ¢à  à  option valueà ¢à  à  given fuel and carbon price uncertainty. Stochastic optimisation estimates the company option value of keeping open the choice between nuclear and gas technologies. This option value decreases sharply as the correlation between electricity, gas, and carbon prices rises, casting doubt on whether private investorsà ¢à  à  fuel-mix diversification incentives in electricity markets are aligned with the social value of a diverse fuel-mix

Military Procurement and Technology Development

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that military and defense related research and procurement have been a major source of commercial technology development across a broad spectrum of industries that account for an important share of United States industrial production. I discuss the development of five general purpose technologies: (1) military and commercial aircraft, (2) nuclear energy and electric power, (3) computers and semiconductors, (4) the Internet, and (5) the space industries. The defense industrial base has become a smaller share of the industrial sector which is itself a declining sector in the U.S. economy. It is doubtful that military and defense related procurement will again become an important source of new general purpose technologies. When the history of U.S. technology development for the next half century is eventually written it will almost certainly be written within the context of slower productivity growth than the relatively high rates that prevailed in the U.S through the 1960's and during the information technology bubble that began in the early 1990's.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Contrasting catching-up histories of the Korean and the Japanese heavy electrical industries in the 1970s-2000s

The thesis is motivated by contrasting catching-up performances of the Korean heavy electrical industry (HEI) across nuclear power and gas turbine, which have serious ramifications for energy policy as well as catching-up studies. When the opposite performance of Japanese counterparts across the two technologies is compared to the Korean case, the existing catching-up literature based on firm capabilities and sectoral approaches does not offer direct answers. Also, while most of government energy policies are focused on research and development (R&D) efforts, they pay little attention to a wide set of institutions, which might constrain and incentivise a specific technology catching-up. The idiosyncratic catching-up experiences and potential mismatch between catching-up policies and the institutional factors of the Korean HEI urge comparative and institutional perspectives for a generalisable claim. Therefore, the thesis adopts a partial comparative case study between the Korean HEI and the ‘earlier’ latecomer, namely Japanese HEI, as a reference case with mostly secondary evidences based on a broad version of national system of innovation system (NSI) approach (Freeman 1987; Lundvall 1988; Lundvall et al., 2002). The adopted NSI framework assumes a potential dichotomy of cross-technology and cross-nation performance attributes to contrasting institutional set-ups. It focusses on two salient institutions of the electricity supply industry (ESI), including business and environmental regulations, and their impact on the catching-up performances across the two technologies. It finds historically evolved ESI-HEI relationships based on the specific institutional set of ESI substantially influenced the dichotomy of cross-nation and cross-technology catching-up performances, regardless of R&D expenditures and relative technological capabilities of HEI firms. The result supplements the NSI literature by linking the variation of a set of institutions with catching-up performance variations. It also offers strategic implications to catching-up countries, such as the potential necessity for institutional reforms of the ESI in pursuing energy technology catching-up policies

Nuclear Energy in the UK: Safety Culture and Industrial Organisation

In this paper we seek to explore the relationship between professionalism and nuclear safety in the UK. We consider the history of civil nuclear energy in Britain and the near complete shift in emphasis from state owned enterprises to the private sector. We show how in recent years government has acknowledged that a truly liberalised electricity industry is unable to deliver the construction of new nuclear power stations as part of a future low carbon electricity system. Throughout, however, the intention has been for policy merely to incentivise the private sector rather than to steer industry strategy directly. Having said that, the line between strong incentives and weak control can be hard to see. We present illustrative examples, real and fictional, that give insight into the UK nuclear safety culture and we discuss the wider nature of UK society with respect to corruption. We conclude that the unique basis of safety regulation in the UK, essentially permissive rather than prescriptive, has a key role to play in promoting and maintaining nuclear professionalism

An assessment of national risk: General concepts and overall approach

The analysis of risk presented by carbon fiber utilization in commercial aviation is reported. The discussion is presented in three parts: (1) general concepts; (2) overall approach; and (3) risk evaluation and perspective