One way to understand nuclear reactors is to think of them as giant kettles. That’s because they share the same basic principle: both rely on heat to turn water into steam. In nuclear power plants, however, that steam is utilized to generate vast amounts of low-carbon electricity.

This is made possible through a process called nuclear fission, in which a neutron hits the nucleus of a heavy atom, such as uranium, causing it to split and release energy and more neutrons. But there’s a catch. The process also leaves behind a lot of radioactive waste that can remain dangerous for thousands of years.

Yet there’s another issue. Conventional nuclear reactors fail to extract most of the energy available in uranium fuel. As a matter of fact, they tap into only about one percent of uranium’s potential energy, leaving roughly 99 percent unused.

The answer to both challenges could lie in fast nuclear reactors. Estimates suggest they could produce the same amount of electricity as conventional reactors using 100 times less uranium. Continuous fuel recycling could also cut nuclear waste by 90 percent. Still, how do fast reactors work? Let’s take a closer look.

Fast reactors have been around for roughly 80 years. The first, called Clementine, began operating at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US, in 1946. France later built Superphénix, the world’s largest fast reactor, with a capacity of 1,242 megawatts (MWe).

Reports state that about 20 fast reactors have been developed around the world since the middle of the 20th century.

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