Nuclear Power Turns To Salt (Gen IV reactor design moves forward)

[FBaggins]

Today, the United States Department of Energy announced that its Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee is partnering with Canadian nuclear company Terrestrial Energy Inc. (TEI) to assist with TEI’s new Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR). The engineering blueprint stage for this GenIV reactor should be reached in two years. The reactor should come online in less than ten.

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The IMSR’s fundamental advantage lies in its most novel feature – the fuel is a liquid. At first glance, that might seem odd. But molten salt, with the uranium dissolved in it, can operate at low-pressure and absent are chemical or mechanical driving forces which can cause so many problems with traditional solid fuel reactors.

With multiple layers of secure containment, there are definite safety, operational and cost advantages, and with these advantages come licensing advantages. The liquid fuel allows natural circulation to transport decay heat, and being liquid eliminates the need for costly solid fuel fabrication. Transuranic elements, in particular plutonium, can be recycled from the liquid fuel without the problems and costs of reprocessing solid fuels, making the nuclear waste virtually free of troublesome long-lived radionuclides. Uranium fuel requirements per kWh become about one-sixth that of a traditional light-water reactor. The IMSR uses normal low-enriched uranium but can also be use thorium and other actinide elements as fuel.

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The new passive and modular features of the IMSR will make the final construction, licensing and operational costs lower. According to TEI’s chief executive Simon Irish, the reactor will cost about the same to build as a coal power plant, but will cost much less to run than a traditional nuclear plant. Economically the best of both worlds, socially it has a fresh new message – safe, secure, clean, carbon-free energy.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2015/01/07/nuclear-power-turns-to-salt/

[spin]

1. I serious believe the Gen IV reactor designs such as IMSR ...

offer an excellent alternative to fossil fuel.

The problem is that the older, much more dangerous designs have caused people to fear nuclear power.

[FBaggins]

2. Certainly for electricity generation

Fuel alternatives are tougher unless you effectively electrify most transportation options... but that doesn't mean that something like this can't help with traditional fuels as well.

For instance, one of the advantages of this specific design is that it operates at a much higher temperature (which means that it doesn't need to be pressurized and is more efficient at converting heat to electricity (probably 50%+ instead of ~33% for current reactors). This higher temperature (combined with the much smaller size) allows them to be installed closer to the point of use, but also allows them to be installed so that their waste heat can supply process heat to industrial processes. So instead of burning tar sands up in canada to cook out the liquids... you could use one of these.

They could also make seawater desalination a bit easier.

[spin]

3. By the time these reactors become common we should have advanced ...

electric powered vehicles that can compete with and are superior to fossil fuel vehicles.

Of course this change will not occur overnight. It will take several decades to fully implement at the best. By that time solar and wind power will also have advanced significantly. We should have a number of clean ways to produce energy.

I plan to move soon and I hope to put solar panels on the roof of the home I buy.