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Advanced Boiling Water Reactor

Nuclear Reactor

The Advanced Boiling Water Reactor, or ABWR, is a Generation III boiling water reactor design offered by GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Toshiba. Like other boiling water reactors, it generates electricity by boiling water directly inside the reactor vessel using heat from nuclear fission, producing steam that drives a turbine and generator directly, without the intermediate steam generator loop that a pressurized water reactor uses. The ABWR was the first Generation III reactor design to be completed and put into commercial operation, with Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Unit 6 in Japan considered the first Generation III reactor built anywhere in the world. A standard ABWR plant is designed for a net electrical output of about 1.35 gigawatts, generated from about 3,926 megawatts of thermal power. Later ABWR construction projects in Taiwan and the United States have run over budget. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Technology Type
Generation III boiling water reactor 2
Invented Year
1996 2
1996 is when the first ABWR unit (Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 6) opened, the earliest in-operation date the source gives; design work predates this.
Classification
Maturity
TRL 9: Actual System Proven in Operational Environment 1
Sources
1. Advanced boiling water reactor - Wikipedia
Technology maturity, Wikipedia introduction extract fetched 2026-09-25
Quote, Technology maturity, Wikipedia introduction extract fetched 2026-09-25
Boiling water reactors (BWRs) are the second most common form of light water reactor with a direct cycle design that uses fewer large steam supply components than the pressurized water reactor (PWR), which employs an indirect cycle.
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2. Wikipedia: Advanced boiling water reactor
Wikipedia, Advanced boiling water reactor, Japan and Taiwan section
Quote, Wikipedia, Advanced boiling water reactor, Japan and Taiwan section
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa units 6 and 7, which opened in 1996 and 1997
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