Uri Gat and the Ultimately Safe Reactor

Uri Gat and the Ultimately Safe Reactor

by Charles Barton

Uri Gat, a now retired ORNL Engineer, wrote one of the most important papers on Reactor Safety. Yet Gats work on Nuclear safety is almost completely unknown. The Reason why Gat's papers and their conclusions are so little known, Gats analysis leads to conclusions about nuclear safety that are are unacceptable to the nuclear industry, the United States Department of Energy and to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as almost every university Department of nuclear studies, and several national Laboratories. Gat was actually the Lead Author in two significant papers on Nuclear safety. The first was Molten-Salt Reactors–Safety Options Galorere. That paper was reproduced in Energy from Thorium and Nuclear Green. The second paper, THE ULTIMATE SAFE (U.S.) REACTOR - A CONCEPT FOR THE THIRD MILLENNIUM Covers some of the concepts introduced by Galore.

THE ULTIMATE SAFE (U.S.) REACTOR - A CONCEPT FOR THE THIRD MILLENIUM Ur1 Gat

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)* OakRidge,TN 37831

ABSTRACT

The Ultimate Safe (U.S.) Reactor is based on a novel safety concept. Fis- sion products in the reactor are allowed to accumulate only to a level at which they would constitute a harmless source term. Removal of fission products also removes the decay heat — the driving force for the source term. The reactor has no excess criticality and is controlled by the reactivity temperature coefficient. Safety 1s inherent and passive. Waste is removed from the site promptly.h