Keeping the lights on in the global industrial world — never an easy task — never seems to get any easier. Nuclear energy, which provides nearly 20 percent of our nation’s electricity, is at a crossroads. Can nuclear reactors — the torrid, pulsating, heat-generating hearts of nuclear power plants — ever be safe enough? Particularly following the May 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in northern Japan, there’s no doubt that everyone on this planet needs to know the answer to that question.
HA!
I thought i was the only one that knew about Thorium
Of all those technologies, I (and a fast growing number of people) feel that Thorium Molten Salt Reactors (also known as Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors or LFTR) hold the most promise.
The key is in the fact the fuel is a liquid rather than a solid - solid fuels inherently can't "circulate". As a consequence they achieve less than 1% burnup rate. They also crack and deform due to fission products such as the gas Xenon-135. As such, the fuel rods must be removed and recycled on a regular basis (or in the US, treated as waste due to a draconian non-proliferation ban on reprocessing of spent fuel), during which time the reactor has to be taken offline.
With a Molten Salt Reactor on the other hand, you can achieve a 99% fuel burnup rate, leaving you with a vastly reduced quantity of waste. The fission products can also be removed with the reactor staying on-line, meaning MSRs can have a capacity factor of above 95%.
If you lose containment, the fuel leaks out and solidifies into a lump of salt, easily scooped up and put back in the reactor. There is also an exceptional safety feature - a passively cooled tank is situated below the main reactor vessel, connected by a pipe, with a fan blowing over it. The fan cools and freezes a lump of salt. If the reactor building loses power, the plug melts and the fuel drains into the drain tank, leaving the reactor in a completely safe walk-away state. This is an astonishing level of safety.
Because MSRs can use Thorium, they have the potential to produce energy cheaper than coal - Thorium is as abundant as lead and found everywhere on Earth. It's a byproduct of the mining industry, people will pay you to take it away. There is enough of the stuff to supply our energy needs until past the death of our star. We will literally never run out.
There's an excellent video on Youtube called "Thorium Remix 2011" I'd recommend watching which explains the technology in great detail. There's also a documentary being made in Ireland called "The Good Reactor" that's on Kickstarter at the moment, which is worth looking up.
Lastly, this isn't a future theoretical technology, Oak Ridge National Labs designed and built one in the 60s, and operated it for 5 years. China is building one at its National Academy of Sciences, as is a joint collaboration between Japan and the Czech Republic called the Fuji Molten Salt Reactor.
Molten Salt Reactors have the potential to be a *game changer*. Right now nothing can challenge coal for price per kWh. This can. That will change everything.
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Nuclear Power, Part 1: A Smaller, Safer Future
Posted by: Ned Madden June 7, 2013 10:09 AMKeeping the lights on in the global industrial world — never an easy task — never seems to get any easier. Nuclear energy, which provides nearly 20 percent of our nation’s electricity, is at a crossroads. Can nuclear reactors — the torrid, pulsating, heat-generating hearts of nuclear power plants — ever be safe enough? Particularly following the May 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in northern Japan, there’s no doubt that everyone on this planet needs to know the answer to that question.
I thought i was the only one that knew about Thorium
Also
India is building a Thorium reactor
The key is in the fact the fuel is a liquid rather than a solid - solid fuels inherently can't "circulate". As a consequence they achieve less than 1% burnup rate. They also crack and deform due to fission products such as the gas Xenon-135. As such, the fuel rods must be removed and recycled on a regular basis (or in the US, treated as waste due to a draconian non-proliferation ban on reprocessing of spent fuel), during which time the reactor has to be taken offline.
With a Molten Salt Reactor on the other hand, you can achieve a 99% fuel burnup rate, leaving you with a vastly reduced quantity of waste. The fission products can also be removed with the reactor staying on-line, meaning MSRs can have a capacity factor of above 95%.
If you lose containment, the fuel leaks out and solidifies into a lump of salt, easily scooped up and put back in the reactor. There is also an exceptional safety feature - a passively cooled tank is situated below the main reactor vessel, connected by a pipe, with a fan blowing over it. The fan cools and freezes a lump of salt. If the reactor building loses power, the plug melts and the fuel drains into the drain tank, leaving the reactor in a completely safe walk-away state. This is an astonishing level of safety.
Because MSRs can use Thorium, they have the potential to produce energy cheaper than coal - Thorium is as abundant as lead and found everywhere on Earth. It's a byproduct of the mining industry, people will pay you to take it away. There is enough of the stuff to supply our energy needs until past the death of our star. We will literally never run out.
There's an excellent video on Youtube called "Thorium Remix 2011" I'd recommend watching which explains the technology in great detail. There's also a documentary being made in Ireland called "The Good Reactor" that's on Kickstarter at the moment, which is worth looking up.
Lastly, this isn't a future theoretical technology, Oak Ridge National Labs designed and built one in the 60s, and operated it for 5 years. China is building one at its National Academy of Sciences, as is a joint collaboration between Japan and the Czech Republic called the Fuji Molten Salt Reactor.
Molten Salt Reactors have the potential to be a *game changer*. Right now nothing can challenge coal for price per kWh. This can. That will change everything.