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Paul Genoa, director of policy development at the Nuclear Energy Institute is quoted as saying: "There's a huge investment and infrastructure in this country that goes back 50 years. You don't just walk away from that and try the shiny new toy, even if the shiny new toy might work better." The huge investment Genoa is referring to are today's nuclear power plants classified as Light Water Reactors ( LWR ), and the "shiny new toy" is marvelous variation on that technology created in the late 1960's at Oak Ridge National Laboratory utilizing a revolutionary medium liquid salts. (MSR) The salts that were used at Oak Ridge are not table salt, but a Fluoride Salt, and the reactor they operated in is called a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR pronounced LiFTeR). Most people equate salts with table salt, which in its present state is a solid, in crystal form. Other salts, namely Fluoride Salts posses the same qualities as table salts, and are in fact, frozen liquids. To put that into perspective, these salts freeze at approximately 450*c. At 451*c, these Fluoride salts retain many of the same characteristics as water, and flow freely as such. Genoa's use of the words "might work better" does not do the LFTR justice, and is misleading. In the 1950's, Adm. Hyman Rickover was tasked for building the solid-fuel uranium reactor's that would power the Nautilus, America's first nuclear-powered submarine. In the meantime, Alvin Weinberg and other scientists at Oak Ridge were designing a strategic bomber powered by a tiny, 3-foot-diameter molten-salt reactor. The atomic bomber never flew, but the research was a complete success. Research on molten-salt technology continued until 1969, when it was, basically, put on the shelf, where it remains to today. The reasons for this had little to to do with the brilliance, safety, and simplicity of the reactor design, but were based upon numerous political factors of the day. Knowing that this MSR reactor had performed flawlessly for a combined run time of 22,000 hours, makes this fact all the less palatable. Had MSR technology been chosen in the 1950's as the primary path to providing energy for the future, there is no chance that today there would be a groundswell of people like me and many others advocating a change to solid-fuel reactors. The thorium community recognizes that the continuing disaster at Fukushima, Japan, is the wake-up call for a change in technology going forward, and we believe that it should be MSR-LFTR technology. |
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Since Fukushima, many questions have been asked about the safety of today's Light Water Reactors's or LWR's. As the name implies, these types of reactors incorporate
water of some sort into their overall design, almost exclusively in the form of coolant for the uranium fuel rods, and as an engine to turn a steam generator to
produce electricity. LFTR's use a completely different medium for coolant, and that medium is molten salts, in this case molten Fluoride salts.
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As director of policy development for the NEI, Genoa should welcome, rather than pooh-pooh, a frank discussion of our ideas.
Let me count the ways TMSR is superior to current solid fuel reactors:
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The design of a LFTR is practically a misnomer in the sense that the majority of the plant and production facility can
and should be constructed below grade. This design specification allows the installation of additional passive fail safe
measures, including the ability to passively cool the reactant's should an unforeseen catastrophe occur. Secondly, moving
the plant’s construction below grade allows for a compact and efficient operational design with offices, processing
centers and access all above grade. The reduction in surface area will allow for the planting of additional green
coverage to offset and reduce the ambient local air and ground temperature, and provide additional aesthetic value
to the overall concept. The design below is a general rendering, but we see the above grounds maintaining the same
influenced design and architecture so relevant throughout the surrounding areas, with a cutting edge sprinkling of today’s
modernism influence.
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