India To Build A Thorium Reactor

In their first story, slowLearner writes "India will build a working Thorium reactor. [Quoting the Guardian] 'Officials are currently selecting a site for the reactor, which would be the first of its kind, using thorium for the bulk of its fuel instead of uranium – the fuel for conventional reactors. They plan to have the plant up and running by the end of the decade.'" Before anyone gets too excited, this is only a modified Heavy Water Reactor and not one of those fancy Molten Salt Reactors folks like Kirk Sorenson have been evangelizing for a while now.

Comments

Re:Well well

[Required Snark]

Why do I keep having to say this? If you think that there are no problems with nuclear power, move to Chernobyl or Fukushima. Put your physical well being where you mouth is. It easy to make inane geeky comments when you don't have any stake in the real consequences of failure.

Can India, China or Viet Nam build one reactor and keep it safe? Perhaps. Can they build dozens and have them all work without a disaster? Absolutely not. There is not a sufficient culture of regulatory independence to insure safe operation. If the regulators failed in Japan, do you think they will succeed in any of these countries?

It is not even clear the the US or any of the European countries are immune from this kind of failure. The only way we will find out that there is a problem is when the radiation detectors go off.

Want an example? Half the licensed nuclear facilities in the US are not in compliance whit NRC fire regulations.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is routinely waiving fire rule violations at nearly half the nation's 104 commercial reactors, even though fire presents one of the chief hazards at nuclear plants.

The policy, the result of a series of little-noticed decisions in recent years, is meant to encourage nuclear companies to remedy longstanding fire safety problems. But critics say it is leaving decades-old fire hazards in place as the NRC fails to enforce its own rules.

...

At the Browns Ferry plant in Alabama, where a devastating cable fire 36 years ago prompted the NRC to adopt tough new fire rules, the plant still doesn't comply with the requirements to protect cables.

http://www.propublica.org/article/nrc-waives-enforcement-of-fire-rules-at-nuclear-plants/single