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A New Class of Nuclear Reactors
prunedude tips this quote from a post at Freakonomics about Japan's nuclear crisis:
"The folks over at IV Insights, the blog associated with Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures, point out that it was the complete loss of power that disabled the cooling systems protecting the plant's reactors. Which raises the question: Is there nuclear technology that could withstand such a catastrophe? Possibly. TerraPower, an Intellectual Ventures spin-off that also boasts Bill Gates as an investor, is working on a new reactor design called a traveling wave reactor that uses fast reactor technology, rather than the light water technology used at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The two biggest advantages of the fast reactor design is that it requires no spent fuel pools and uses cooling systems that require no power to function, meaning the loss of power from the tsunami might not have crippled a fast reactor plant so severely."
Does that mean he had previously dismissed it as a bad idea and then after someone else made progress he jumped aboard?
Just saying' . . .
Humor from a Genetically Molested Mind
Supposedly the pebble-bed reactor type is also resistant to the type of damage suffered at the Fukushima plants, and it has the added bonus of not being encumbered by ex-Microsoft patent trolls. I remember reading that the Germans had been experimenting with the design but dropped it for political reasons.
The Toshiba 4S (Super Safe, Small and Simple) reactor solves all these problems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_4S It's a mini-sized fast neutron reactor... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_neutron_reactor It can burn thorium or depleted uranium, and actually help to eliminate the current stockpile of nuclear waste. This was invented several years ago, but has yet to be deployed anywhere. It's mainly the fear of anything with the word "nuclear" that prevents use of this technology. Ironically, the failure to build more nukes means we'll be building more coal-fired power plants, with disastrous effects on climate. Yeah, I know, the anti-nuke people say that "wind and solar is all we need." And they are right - all we've got to do is reduce the world's population by 90% and move everybody to a place that is windy or very sunny. So, if you live in the Aleutian Islands, the never-ceasing howling wind can provide lights for your hut. Or if you live in Death Valley solar will keep your cell phone and laptop recharged. See, we don't need nukes.
I was going to mod this up but decided to respond instead*. The Physicians for Social Responsibility has a tagline of "United States Affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War". Which raises serious questions about their credibility.
*It should probably be modded up anyway just for its alternative perspective.