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China Starts Molten Salt Nuclear Reactor Project
greg_barton writes "The Energy From Thorium blog reports, 'The People's Republic of China has initiated a research and development project in thorium molten-salt reactor technology. It was announced in the Chinese Academy of Sciences annual conference on Tuesday, January 25.' The liquid-fluoride thorium reactor is an alternative reactor design that 1) burns existing nuclear waste, 2) uses abundant thorium as a base fuel, 3) produces far less toxic, shorter-lived waste than existing designs, and 4) can be mass produced, run unattended for years, and installed underground for safety."
Well that and the conflation of defense-industry nuclear materials production with energy production -- thorium reactors are almost certainly better for generating power, but they don't help you build nuclear bombs, so they get less funding (or at least they have historically).
Especially since we have an estimate 400k tonnes of the stuff at $80/kg mined. I like the fact that this salt bath solution in that it is passively safe in that heat distorts the geometry slowing reaction rates and also they can drain the bath into subcritical loads quite easily (and I'd imagine you could make the drain plug out of a material that would melt above your normal reaction temp but well below critical level).
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
They aren't prevalent because the commercial nuclear industry grew largely out of the military industry which needed two things, fuel for bombs and small light reactors for ships and submarines.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Blame Reagan.
Note how in 1980 all non-defense govt r&d dropped precipitously. Then during the 90s when oil dropped to $10/barrel and the free market abandoned alternative energy research, govt had the perfect opportunity to fulfill its role of investing in the kind of long-term disruptive research biz is too short-sighted to do - but govt didn't.
I see a lot of comments stating something negative about environmentalists because we don't have molten salt reactor technology in development. This has not been the fault of environmentalists at all. This is almost purely the fault of the money making machine that is the military industrial complex, wanting to sell the technology they spent so much precious time developing, despite the factor a superior technology was readily available.
We could have electric cars too, but the patents on many batteries are owned by petroleum industry corporations.
I never saw an environmentalist with a shirt that said, "Down with molten salt reactors!!!" I'm sure given the choice and scientific evidence, most environmentalists would much more readily opt for that rather than the currently in use nuclear power paradigm.
Only a few reactionary environmentalists are anti technology. The vast majority of modern environmentalists just want less chemical waste and incidents of cancer. And to save the polar bears, though it's their own hides they should really be defending.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
The MSR reactors are neither liquid metal cooled nor water cooled. I don't see the relevance.
a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
I like the fact that this salt bath solution in that it is passively safe in that heat distorts the geometry slowing reaction rates and also they can drain the bath into subcritical loads quite easily (and I'd imagine you could make the drain plug out of a material that would melt above your normal reaction temp but well below critical level).
Indeed. You can even make it from the salt itself. Just by cooling a plug of it in the drain. The original US experimental reactor worked that way. A simple fan cooled the drain plug. When the reactor lost power, the fan would stop, the plug would melt and the reactor would stop. That's no theory either, it was how the reactor was routinely shut down during the weekends. They just pulled the plug and went home!
Stefan Axelsson
I don't about the rest of the people around here, but I get really weary of all the snide remarks, sometimes.
Wherever we live in the world, and whatever you think of the Chinese government, should we not be able to be glad on behalf of the Chinese? And for ourselves too - because the West are not going to let China just run away with the full benefits of developing this technology; and it is going to do us all a lot of good.
So let us all be glad, and not too petty to congratulate others for achieving things.
Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998: "The U.S. Department of Energy asked for public comment Thursday on its plans to produce bomb material in a commercial nuclear reactor. DOE is considering three Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear plants for production of tritium, a form of hydrogen gas that intensifies the explosive force of a nuclear warhead. It would be the first time the United States has used a civilian reactor as its source for tritium. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)"
Except for the above, commercial plants are not producing weapons grade material, it is too much of a security risk.
The worst part is that when a non-root reply is minimized, you can neither see its score (to differentiate the 5s from the -1, Trolls), nor that there are dozens of replies under it. I compliained about this in the original "hey look at our cool new webby thing" thread. The only thing that ever got fixed was putting underlines back on web links, but that was so bad that I was hardly the only one complaining, and it would have been only a CSS change anyhow.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Wikipedia now has a dozen or so informative articles on Molten Salt Reactors, Liquid Thorium Fluoride Reactors, etc. It's a good place to start. There is a website supporting the LFTR: Energy From Thorium. I note that I believe a lot of the PR out there regarding thorium is produced by a company that presently owns a huge percentage of the mining rights to thorium deposits in the US. Which is fine by me. :)
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
-- MarkusQ
Eisenhower - who remains the only US president to reduce military spending. Also coined the phrase "the military/industrial complex".
Backed the Marshall plan - he hated hitler and the nazi's but ended up quite liking the germans.
Had another few notable foreign policy acheivements, such as ending the Korean war and refusing point blank to get involved in Vietnam because he knew that the US couldn't win there and besides sympathised with the vietnamese wanting to cast off French rule.
Was probably the single most popular man in the world due to WWII - he was all but worshipped in Europe, had decent relations with Russian leaders and was largely respected everywhere else.
Pushed HARD for a common european defence force, but the french nixed that (and de Gaulle insulted him and the American soldiers who'd fought to liberate France). Was the commander in chief of the compromise - NATO.
He also tried for a worldwide atomic research agency and nuclear weapons treaties with Russia, but that fell apart when the U2 spy plane was shot down in the last months of his presidency. It was one of his great regrets that he authorised that flight, but anti communist fever was sweeping the US at the time and the CIA insisted that they needed it.
Those that followed undid all his work so quickly it was shameful leading to the 60's which had the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile crisis, the Vietnam war, the nuclear and conventional arms race and numerous other proxy wars. They spent the considerable capital that their soldiers and leaders like Marshall and Eisenhower had built up as if it was water. Shame, really.
Rational thought is the only true freedom