5 ms·
I thought thorium was the frontier in nuclear reactors.
by amalag 15y ago
I thought thorium was the frontier in nuclear reactors.
- starfox 15y ago80% of the cost of nuclear energy is building the reactor. With around $500B worth of existing reactor infrastructure worldwide, which runs on Uranium, don't expect that to go away too soon.
- EREFUNDO 15y agoI do not think they are simply attempting to replace existing reactors. I know in many countries governments have slowed down building reactors because of environmental concerns and costs. With the dwindling oil deposits and increasing energy need, safe and reliable nuclear reactors will be in high demand.
- kemiller 15y agoThorium reactors are often MSR designs too. But if this offers the possibility of reducing our existing waste supplies, it might make it more publicly palatable.
- Symmetry 15y agoIts the frontier of reactors-that-don't-explode. In the short term, our laws were written with light water reactors in mind, so anybody who wants to build a thorium reactor is going to have to build all the same expensive safety features that light water reactors need, plus the special metallurgy that molten salt reactors need. So basically it doesn't make sense until something changes.
- JoshTriplett 15y ago> In the short term, our laws were written with light water reactors in mind, so anybody who wants to build a thorium reactor is going to have to build all the same expensive safety features that light water reactors need, plus the special metallurgy that molten salt reactors need. It always annoys me that laws on safety requirements go into implementation details rather than stating the desired result. If the requirements simply said that "an independent audit must show that the safety exceeds the following thresholds: ...", safer technologies wouldn't incur the additional overhead you describe.
- cmelbye 15y agoNot to mention the fact that the Nuclear (uranium) fuel cycle is much more established than the more immature and unproven thorium fuel cycle is.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoThorium has some potential advantages and some disadvantages. Overall it's a mistake to imagine that it's some sort of nuclear energy free lunch.