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Thorium, the New Green Nuke
- mquander 17y ago"Fuel input per gigawatt output: 250 tons raw uranium?" Come on, Wired. 250 tons is a quantity, and gigawatt is a rate. Is it supposed to be a gigawatt times the lifetime of the plant?
- pieter 17y agoit's probably 250 tons / year for a 1 gigawatt plant
- Kadin 17y agoThat might make sense if they're talking about the mass of the entire fuel rod assemblies (which all become high-level waste, since we don't reprocess in the U.S., instead treating reactors as furnaces that simply "burn" Uranium). However, it seems suspiciously large if they're actually talking about the amount of U-235 that's fissioned off.
- jedc 17y agoProbably not... re-fueling is a very time-intensive process. (The reactors I worked on were designed to be re-fueled every 25-30 years.) 250 tons for a 1 gigawatt constant output seems more likely to me.
- sketerpot 17y agoI can clarify this. It's 250 tonnes of raw uranium, from which we get 35 tonnes of 3% enriched uranium, which give one gigawatt-year of electricity in a typical light water reactor.
- lutorm 17y agoYou might need 250 tons to get enough mass to get the power up to a gigawatt. While you are correct that the units are inconsistent, in a reactor you can't independently adjust power and fissile mass. (Or more accurately, you can lower the power output by a given mass, but you can't easily increase it.)
- qw 17y agoI was surprised they didn't compare it to the energy consumption of the Library of Congress
- bg4 17y agoInteresting. Just a few days ago a friend sent me a link to a site he's involved with on this subject. www.thoriumenergyalliance.com
- mrduncan 17y agoThe Wikipedia article for Thorium as a fuel is surprisingly detailed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle
- xal 17y agoThis is fascinating. A left of field approach to the problems of uranium based nuclear power. Let's hope that opportunity meets preparedness here and this can make it to an inflection point.
- MikeCapone 17y agoAnother good source of information about Thorium: http://thoriumenergy.blogspot.com/ http://thoriumenergy.blogspot.com/
- teilo 17y agoFinally this is getting attention! The politics of nuclear energy are so messed up that thorium reactor technology got buried under radioactive piles of propaganda, because, you know, if it's nuclear it must be bad.
- electromagnetic 17y agoIt's due noting that India didn't ignore Thorium, holding 25% of the worlds reserve it saw well in advance that Th232 has a half-life as long as the known universe and gives the country energy independence. With current estimates, India essentially holds as much energy in its thorium reserves as the world has uranium reserves, meaning it itself could sell enough energy to likely run the world for 100 years, or run itself (at present demand) into the next millennium without a concern. The US is presently worrying about where to find its energy independence, while India has already found its independence for the next 1,000 years.
- sundae79 17y agoSure, except the process still hasn't been made abosultely safe when it comes to thorium.
- Kadin 17y agoNothing is "absolutely safe" -- certainly, fossil fuels aren't. Conventional uranium reactors aren't. They're extremely safe, far beyond what I consider a reasonable cause for the fear that they're treated with, but they are not "absolutely" safe. Frankly I'm not really sure what "absolutely safe" would even mean; even a hydroelectric dam could break, given an earthquake or intentional sabotage. That's not a realistic criteria for any energy source; instead, we should be talking about managing and containing risks.
- Locke1689 17y agoI'm not sure where you got the 25% number, but thorium deposits exist all over the world. In the US, the carolinas are an available source. It's about as common as lead, so i'm not really sure we're predicting any shortages anywhere yet.
- ggrot 17y agoThis is also a great video (google talk) about the technology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWUeBSoEnRk&sn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWUeBSoEnRk&sn - shortened to 16 minutes, very well worth watching.
- jbrun 17y agoA little fast paced, but very good stuff, thanks. Do you know of any more in-depth videos on Thorium reactors?
- ams6110 17y agoI wonder how many wind/solar/bio energy proponents are even aware of this.
- gcv 17y agoAnyone interested in doing a startup which could help push thorium energy forward? I know and understand nothing about physics, but maybe there's room for programmers to carve out their niche in something useful here. Energy is the biggest problem humans face today.
- zitterbewegung 17y agoYou would probably require a ridiculous amount of VC funding to even make a plant. Also, you are competing with people with PhD's in the field doing research.
- gcv 17y agocompeting with people with PhDs Yes. This is the tragedy of programming and computer "science": you know everything about making tools and writing code to other people's specs — and nearly nothing about solving actual real-world problems. That's why I mentioned carving out a niche. I didn't intend to build a whole plant, but a company which comes up with software which helps people building plants might have a fighting chance.
- Locke1689 17y agoSounds like a solutions searching for a problem. Let's wait for the US to decide to build q new reactor first. You would also probably require experience writing real-time, fail-safe systems (like vxWorks) and a very high government security clearance.
- InclinedPlane 17y agoThis article is a little bit silly in the way it portrays Thorium reactors as being pushed aside for only a few reasons. Even aside from the nuclear weapons angle (quite important during the cold war) in 1973 Uranium/Plutonium reactor technology was vastly more mature than Thorium reactor technology (that is still true today). When the choice is between funding a well-known nth generation commercial reactor design (using Uranium) and sinking unknown quantities of R&D dollars into a program to develop a commercial reactor design (using Thorium) the choice is obvious. We should probably be investing considerably more money into Thorium reactor designs (though the same applies for Uranium reactor designs as well), but the picture this article portrays of a more worthy underdog being sidelined for petty reasons is very misleading.
- lutorm 17y agoI remember listening to a talk by ex-CERN director Carlo Rubbia pushing accelerator-driven Th reactors sometime in the early 90s. It's not new. Maybe it's the Betamax of nuclear technology... ;-)
- helyxzion 17y agolaser power systems, thorium fueled Maxfelaser are on the cutting edge of safe green energy. this versatile power system can be used in the power grid or as the replacement technology for the internal combustion engine. see www.laserturbinepower.com
- helyxzion 17y agoThorium is the fuel of the future. Thorium is safe to handle. Thorium energy technology is totally emissions free! Thorium has an energy density of 292 time that of Hydrogen. One gram of thorium is equal to 20 million grams of coal or 7350 gallons of gasoline.
- helyxzion 17y agoLaser Power Systems Developing Cutting Edge Energy Technology Scientists have long been aware that the earth is immersed in an extremely dense sea of energy, which permeates every nook and cranny of the universe. It is only recently that it was realized that this huge reservoir could be an available source of usable energy. With some notable exceptions, we have been, like fish, unaware of the ocean.
- helyxzion 17y agoThe LPS "MaxFelaser" laser," generates tunable, coherent, Ultra-high power radiation, while an MaxFelaser beam shares the same optical properties as conventional lasers such as coherent radiation, the operation of an MaxFelaser is quite different. Unlike gas or diode lasers which rely on bound atomic or molecular states. Free electron lasers can be used to generate terahertz radiation. LPS MaxFelasers uses a Proprietary excitation system (other details require NDAs) to produce a laser beam powerful enough to flash water to steam driving a turbine/generator. The power of the MaxFeLaser comes from its Fuel “Thorium”. The amount of free energy contained in thorium fuel is 20 million times the amount of free energy contained in a similar mass of chemical fuel such as coal making thorium an ideal source of energy. The investment opportunity is not in the thorium itself, it's in the technology that unlocks the value of thorium. The MaxFelaser system is that technology.
- helyxzion 17y agoALL ELETRIC CAR IS ON THE WAY! THE CAR COMPANY THAT USES THIS TECHNOLOGY TO BUILD A CAR WILL BE ABLE TO PRODUCE THE WORLDS FIRST ULTRA LONG RANGE, LOW COST, EMISSION FREE CAR.The systems starts with the Laser Power Systems Phoenix T2000 Ultra High out put MaxFelaser a Hybrid Solid state Free Electron laser design that can producing up to 2000 watts more than enough to Flash water to high pressure steam driving a Tesla type turbine and high speed light weight generator Under development for U.S. Air Force, this is a 125 kW / 200 kW, 62,000 RPM generator using low cost induction technology to provide a compact, efficient generator system for stable and safe operation. These generators operate in high temperature environments and provide engine start function as well. High temperature insulation schemes are also being developed This technology is ready to be adapted for use in cars, truck and other vehicles complete systems will weight less than 350 lbs. the 200 Kw unit equals 250 HP and larger units can easily be built. Power to the wheels would be provided by a High Torque Density Traction Motor also Developed under contract from the U.S. Army TACOM, the motor is of a pancake type design with water-cooled stators. Compact electric motors and motor drives based on permanent magnet, brushless motor technologies provide high efficiency and compact size.The controller design is based on field orientation and hystertic switching for fast response to transient load changes. The software based control system is flexible and optimizes the generator performance. Electric start function is available. . Compact power electronic controller design is based on hysteretic switching of input current. Water cooled power IGBTs have control signals transmitted via fiber optic cables to prevent adverse effects of electrical interference. Brassboard assembly and tests with partial loads have already been completed. The laser power systems have an operational time to burn out, of about 5,000 hours hours at full power out put before they need to be replaced. Giving a car the range of 5000hX60MPH thats right 300,000 miles of driving before fuel cell replacement, which will be in the range of $750 to $1,000 dollars.