GE BWR
General Electric's BWR product line of boiling water reactors represents the designs of a relatively large (~18%) percentage of the commercial fission reactors around the world.
| GE BWR (General Electric Boiling Water Reactor) | |
|---|---|
| Generation | Generation I (BWR-1) Generation II Generation III (ABWR) Generation III+ (ESBWR) |
| Reactor concept | Light water reactor (LWR) |
| Reactor line | Boiling water reactor (BWR) |
| Designed by | General Electric |
| Manufactured by | General Electric |
| Status | 83 reactors built, 67 reactors operational (As of August 2018) |
| Main parameters of the reactor core | |
| Fuel (fissile material) | 235U/235Pu (LEU/MOX) |
| Fuel state | Solid |
| Neutron energy spectrum | Thermal |
| Primary control method | Control rods |
| Primary moderator | Light water |
| Primary coolant | Liquid (water) |
| Reactor usage | |
| Primary use | Generation of electricity |
| Power (thermal) | 530 MWth (BWR-1) 1500 MWth (BWR-2) 2400 MWth (BWR-3) 3000 MWth (BWR-4) 3100 MWth (BWR-5) 3400 MWth (BWR-6) 4000 MWth (ABWR) 4500 MWth (ESBWR) |
| Power (electric) | 160 MWe (BWR-1) 650 MWe (BWR-2) 460 MWe (BWR-3) 784 MWe (BWR-4) 1050 MWe (BWR-5) 1150 MWe (BWR-6) 1400 MWe (ABWR) 1600 MWe (ESBWR) |
The progenitor of the BWR line was the 5 MW Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor (VBWR), brought online in October 1957. Six design iterations, BWR-1 through BWR-6, were introduced between 1955 and 1972.
This was followed by the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) introduced in the 1990s and the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) introduced in the early 2010s.
As of August 2018, 83 reactors of this design family have been built, of which 67 reactors are operational.
The design garnered world attention in the aftermath of the INES level 7 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 11 March 2011. GE had been a major contractor to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, which consisted of six boiling water reactors of GE design. The reactors for Units 1, 2, and 6 were supplied by General Electric, the other three by Toshiba and Hitachi. Unit 1 was a 460 MW boiling water reactor from the BWR-3 design iteration introduced in 1965 and constructed in July 1967.
After the plant became severely damaged in the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, loss of reactor core cooling led to three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions, and the release of radioactive contamination in Units 1, 2 and 3 between 12 and 15 March. Safe operation of this reactor design family depends on continued coolant flow at all times during operation, and for a quite a while after operation ceases.