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At this point, I have to wonder how inherent those problems are to nuclear and more to the specific designs that were built over the years, in part due to vario

by hakfoo 4y ago

At this point, I have to wonder how inherent those problems are to nuclear and more to the specific designs that were built over the years, in part due to various military priorities. The right time to develop a different nuclear platform was 40 years ago, but the second rightest time is today. Where is the bold, government-level messaging and big research grants saying "here's a completely new architecture, it's simply not capable of the same failure modes as Fukushima or Three Mile Island." I guess that's why people were boosting Thorium a while back, but I haven't heard much news there. Seemed like microreactors was the latest sexy thing.

snapplebobapple 4y ago
It's this. If we got one of the molten salt reactor ideas functional it would be a total game changer for the economics of electrictity and the environment because they are not giant pipe bombs waiting to explode and their safety systems are extremely simple while being difficult to screw up (most spec a fan powered by the reactor blowing on a tube causing a solid plug. Reactor goes into failure mode and fan turns off, plug melts and everything flow into a second chamber designed to absorb all the neutrons and shut the reaction down. You end up with a mildly radioactive slab of rock that you can recycle in another running reactor. Also, since everything is liquid it makes continuous cycling and cleaning reaction products out much easier.
Schroedingersat 4y ago
There have been hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars spent on various efforts at breeder reactors over the years. Most of them catch fire every month or dissolve themselves from the inside after a year. Turns out the idea probably needs materials that don't exist yet (but might soon?). The Russian BN 800 is the closest if you believe their government, and the chinese LFTR project has some promise. Even with the basic possibility issues solved there are a bunch of economic, resource and political issues to work through after that.

by hakfoo 4y ago

snapplebobapple 4y ago

It's this. If we got one of the molten salt reactor ideas functional it would be a total game changer for the economics of electrictity and the environment because they are not giant pipe bombs waiting to explode and their safety systems are extremely simple while being difficult to screw up (most spec a fan powered by the reactor blowing on a tube causing a solid plug. Reactor goes into failure mode and fan turns off, plug melts and everything flow into a second chamber designed to absorb all the neutrons and shut the reaction down. You end up with a mildly radioactive slab of rock that you can recycle in another running reactor. Also, since everything is liquid it makes continuous cycling and cleaning reaction products out much easier.

Schroedingersat 4y ago

There have been hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars spent on various efforts at breeder reactors over the years. Most of them catch fire every month or dissolve themselves from the inside after a year. Turns out the idea probably needs materials that don't exist yet (but might soon?). The Russian BN 800 is the closest if you believe their government, and the chinese LFTR project has some promise. Even with the basic possibility issues solved there are a bunch of economic, resource and political issues to work through after that.