@article{
author = {Thomas B. Cochran, Harold A. Feiveson, Frank von Hippel},
title = {Fast Reactor Development in the United States},
journal = {Science & Global Security},
volume = {17},
number = {2-3},
pages = {109-131},
year = {2009},
URL = {https://scienceandglobalsecurity.org/archive/2009/10/fast_reactor_development_in_th.html},
eprint = {http://scienceandglobalsecurity.org},
abstract = {This article chronicles the rise and fall of fast-reactor research in the United States. Research on fast reactors began at the end of World War II and represented a large fraction of the total U.S. research effort on civilian nuclear energy until the early 1980s. The goal of most of this research was to develop a plutonium breeder reactor capable of producing more plutonium from U-238 than is consumed. But with the termination of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor project in 1983, fast reactor development in the United States essentially ended. Safety issues played a role in this end to the fast breeder reactor program, but more important reasons were nuclear proliferation concerns and a growing conviction that breeder reactors would not be needed or economically competitive with light water reactors for decades, if ever.}
}