Considerations for Commercializing the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor

The liquid metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) is regarded as an essentially inexhaustible source of energy. A July 1975 Report by GAO and a subsequent statement by the Administrator of the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) concurred in the opinion that the LMFBR program is still in a research stage, and that in the mid-1980's, a determination could be made about the acceptability of widespread commercial deployment of LMFBRs. The current status of the LMFBR program is reported, along with a discussion of the technical, financial, scheduling, and institutional factors which must be adequately resolved for successful commercialization.