3 ms·
This is NOT NEW. The basic reaction chain has been well understood for decades. There are multiple issues to be solved with actually setting up a reactor to del
by BenSS 15y ago
This is NOT NEW. The basic reaction chain has been well understood for decades. There are multiple issues to be solved with actually setting up a reactor to deliver power that the article doesn't even consider. Hype.
- forrestthewoods 15y agoIs there a good resource on the topic? I've read countless hype articles but nothing good on the issues that need to be solved for it to actually happen.
- ScotterC 15y agoIt's already been done. Mass production of this type of reactor wasn't pursued for various political reasons mainly concerning the alternate path of a sodium-cooled reactor instead. 1962: September 16. The Indian Point-1 nuclear reactor begins operating at Buchanan, New York. Designed and built by Babcock and Wilcox for Consolidated Edison, it is a pressurized water reactor designed to produce 275 MW of electricity. Unlike other pressurized-water reactors, the Indian Point-1 reactor uses highly-enriched uranium as a fuel and thorium as a fertile material. This combination has a superior conversion ratio in a thermal neutron spectrum than low-enrichment uranium (more thorium is bred to uranium-233 than uranium-238 is bred to plutonium-239). The uranium-233 generated in the Indian Point reactor is later processed into a tetrafluoride and used to fuel the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment.(MSRE) The MSRE program then successfully operated a reactor with a thorium blanket around the U-233 for the equivalent of an 18 month cycle (same as current reactors.