The future role of breeder reactors in utility planning

Numerous considerations, chiefly related to cost, contribute to the growth pattern of electric generation. Although water reactors will undoubtedly dominate U.S. nuclear expansion into the 1980s, the high-gain fast breeder holds the greatest economic advantage over the long term. The factors leading to this conclusion are presented and analyzed here, and some predictions are made for the 20-year period beginning in 1986.