Resurrecting a Meltdown-Proof Reactor Design (molten salt nuclear reactor)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/534366/resurrecting-a-meltdown-proof-reactor-design/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Resurrecting a Meltdown-Proof Reactor Design[/font]

[font size=4]A new molten salt nuclear reactor design could make nuclear power safer and more economical.[/font]

By Kevin Bullis on January 22, 2015

[font size=3]A new take on an old reactor design could make nuclear power cleaner and safer, and therefore more competitive with fossil fuels.

Terrestrial Energy, a startup in Ontario, Canada, is commercializing the reactor design, which is based on work done at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Terrestrial plans to start licensing the design in Canada later this year.

Terrestrial is designing a reactor that uses molten salt rather than water as a coolant.

Researchers at Oak Ridge have demonstrated and tested various molten salt reactors over the past several decades. Terrestrial has modified one of these designs in ways it says will make the technology cheap enough to deploy.

…[/font][/font]

[on point]

1. Until there is a REAL solution for waste, no way!

[bananas]

2. "long-term storage, a process similar to existing industry protocols" - which don't exist!

http://terrestrialenergy.com/imsr-technology/

Molten Salt Reactors (“MSRs”) are nuclear reactors that use a fluid fuel in the form of a molten fluoride or chloride salt.  This is a fundamentally different approach compared to conventional nuclear systems that use solid fuel. A liquid fuel offers unique advantages not enjoyed by reactors that use solid fuel.  As an MSR fuel salt is a liquid, it functions as both the fuel (producing the heat) and the coolant (transporting the heat away and ultimately to the power plant).  This represents a revolutionary paradigm in nuclear reactor safety: a reactor that cannot lose coolant and cannot melt down, a reactor with a completely fresh narrative on civilian nuclear safety. (Please see the Safety page for more details.)

Terrestrial Energy’s IMSR features a self-contained reactor Core-unit, (the “IMSR Core-unit”), within which all key components are permanently sealed for its operating lifetime. At the end of its 7-year design life, the IMSR Core-unit is shut down and left to cool. At the same time, power is switched to a new IMSR Core-unit, installed a short time before in an adjacent silo within the facility. Once sufficiently cool, the spent IMSR Core-unit is removed and prepared for long-term storage, a process similar to existing industry protocols for long-term nuclear waste containment. Owing to the extremely low costs of the IMSR Core-unit, it is commercially feasible to operate the IMSR facility in this manner. The sealed nature of the IMSR Core-unit has other benefits, such as permitting operational safety and simplicity.

<snip>

There are no "existing industry protocols for long-term nuclear waste containment."

And this liquid fuel is highly corrosive - it has to be removed and reprocessed - an expensive and dirty process.

[bananas]

3. It's a resurrection like a zombie resurrection - a dead technology that will eat your brain.

At least they're not talking about a "Nuclear Renaissance" anymore.
Now it's a "Nuclear Resurrection" - at least they're acknowledging it's a dead technology.

Why do I say it will eat your brain?

Because these are smart kids, and they could have done something useful with their brains, like nuclear forensics, or radiation protection for astronauts. Or making zombie movies.

Instead, their brains are being consumed (eaten) with trying to solve the multiple intractable problems with this technology.

Back when liquid thorium reactors were all the rage, I pointed out that they could just as easily work with uranium instead of thorium, the reason these designs weren't used is because the.technology sucks, it has tremendous technical problems, whether thorium or uranium is used (and in fact using thorium just creates more problems).

And trying to solve these problems is consuming (eating) these kids brains: from the OP:

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/534366/resurrecting-a-meltdown-proof-reactor-design/

Terrestrial has produced a preliminary design, and is working with Oak Ridge to produce an even more detailed design, which an engineering firm could use to produce blueprints. Terrestrial hopes to see the first commercial reactor started in the early part of the next decade.

That's as far as they've gotten - layers of wishful thinking.