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girts
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Is a "fast" reactor more economical in terms of capital investment than a thermal one? I am asking this because I assume a fast reactor only needs a smaller startup U235 source of on average 20% enrichment but can later run on its own produced fissile material and would normally for the rest of its life use natural uranium U238 or Thorium as it's fuel source, is there significant savings made due to the fact that the natural U and Th are not enriched and so don't go through the enrichment facilities through which normal thermal reactor Uranium fuel goes.?This thought struck my mind after reading up on centrifuge enrichment and also gas diffusion process I saw that on average such a plant needs its own nuclear reactor/s to power the energy it needs for the isotope separation process like the French Tricastin NPP which if I understand correctly powers a nearby enrichment facility which is located on site.