3 ms·

One nice thing about a molten salt reactor like China is building is that the dangerous fission products are chemically bound in the salt. If some external even

One nice thing about a molten salt reactor like China is building is that the dangerous fission products are chemically bound in the salt. If some external event breaks the reactor wide open, the salt cools and you just have radioactive rocks there on the site, instead of a radioactive cloud over a large region.

ggm 5y ago
Look, I want to agree and I'm neither a geologist nor a nuclear scientist but I think you're fantasising if you think there will be no particulate, dispersed matter. The salt mix even if the lower temp melting mixtures is 200°C or more above ambient. It will explode on contact with moisture. There will be clouds of burning materials. If you say LESS dispersed radiation? Sure. None... sorry not chemically or mechanically or hydraulically or meteorologically plausible. The elephants foot degrades over time into dust. Radiation causes stress fractures in solids, crystalline structure disturbs. It's going to "decay" in the non radiative sense of the word. Btw I am pro nuke, in Hypothesis. In my economy (oz) it would have been ideal 30 years ago. Now, with zero power nukes (only one medical manufacturer with a dido type swimming pool reactor) the build out is probably economically infeasible after lawsuit attack, compared to solar, wind and battery. But I remain hopeful of this new stuff, and the PBMR
- chasil 5y ago
  Actually, one safety feature of an MSR is a "salt plug" that melts at a higher temperature. When the plug melts, the contents of the reactor flow into a boron containment. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306454919303573 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030645491...
letitbeirie 5y ago
If its design allows it to somehow avoid a BLEVE [0] from whatever fluid it uses to move energy from the reactor to the generator being suddenly liberated. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_liquid_expanding_vapor_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_liquid_expanding_vapor...
acidburnNSA 5y ago
There are plenty of volatile fission products in a molten salt reactor. For example, at MSRE, a large fraction of the iodine went completely missing and no one to this day knows where it went. Capable and redundant containment systems are absolutely necessary in these reactors.

ggm 5y ago

Look, I want to agree and I'm neither a geologist nor a nuclear scientist but I think you're fantasising if you think there will be no particulate, dispersed matter. The salt mix even if the lower temp melting mixtures is 200°C or more above ambient. It will explode on contact with moisture. There will be clouds of burning materials. If you say LESS dispersed radiation? Sure. None... sorry not chemically or mechanically or hydraulically or meteorologically plausible. The elephants foot degrades over time into dust. Radiation causes stress fractures in solids, crystalline structure disturbs. It's going to "decay" in the non radiative sense of the word. Btw I am pro nuke, in Hypothesis. In my economy (oz) it would have been ideal 30 years ago. Now, with zero power nukes (only one medical manufacturer with a dido type swimming pool reactor) the build out is probably economically infeasible after lawsuit attack, compared to solar, wind and battery. But I remain hopeful of this new stuff, and the PBMR

chasil 5y ago
Actually, one safety feature of an MSR is a "salt plug" that melts at a higher temperature. When the plug melts, the contents of the reactor flow into a boron containment. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306454919303573 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030645491...

letitbeirie 5y ago

If its design allows it to somehow avoid a BLEVE [0] from whatever fluid it uses to move energy from the reactor to the generator being suddenly liberated. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_liquid_expanding_vapor_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_liquid_expanding_vapor...

acidburnNSA 5y ago

There are plenty of volatile fission products in a molten salt reactor. For example, at MSRE, a large fraction of the iodine went completely missing and no one to this day knows where it went. Capable and redundant containment systems are absolutely necessary in these reactors.